Guiding Canada to prosperity by innovation

NorthstarDAO Foundation operating as “Northstar Foundation” https://northstardao.com   About us: The Northstar Foundation is a federally-registered non-profit mobilizing grassroots technology leaders, pioneers, builders, investors, and creators united by a mission to promote the mainstream adoption of emerging technologies in Canada. Our Vision | To be the leading voice in evangelizing and embedding emerging technologies to bring prosperity to Canada’s economy and society Our Mission | To mobilize the grassroots technology entrepreneurs, investors, and community to build the bridge between emerging technologies and all Canadians through research, education, advocacy, and investment The Future | We believe the future will be shaped by emerging technologies and their values, such as decentralization, democratization, self-ownership, and transparency, powered by technologies such as AI, quantum computing, blockchain, metaverse, and those yet to emerge. The Northstar Foundation was born out of a series of co-creation workshops with a community of tech founders in Toronto. The organisation is headquartered in Toronto (Ontario), where the majority of its board members reside. The team is actively expanding across major tech hubs in Canada, most recently including Québec. The Northstar team is committed to diversity and inclusion, following its mission to fight for equity on behalf of our audience across Canada. Our Cause: The Northstar Foundation supports grassroots technology leaders, pioneers, builders, investors, and creators operating in the tech sector, specifically emerging technologies. Through multiple consultations, our audience has been painting a grim picture of Canada’s innovation ecosystem and its policy landscape. While Canada ranks among the top countries in R&D for university research, leading to amazing inventions such as machine learning (AI) and multipurpose blockchain (Ethereum is celebrating its 10th anniversary), most of the value is realized outside of Canada. For example, 70% of the intellectual property generated at the Vector Institute belongs to US companies, and Ethereum went into exile to Switzerland with its $600 billion in market capitalization (as of this writing). To make matters worse, Canada suffers a productivity crisis, ranking 18th among OECD peers, and declining further by 9% over the last 20 years. Founders and their companies end up leaving Canada. Investors don’t invest in Canada. Canadian companies don’t adopt technology fast enough. The Northstar Foundation aims to contribute to solving these important and urgent challenges in order to bring prosperity to Canada’s economy and society. Our Goals: The Northstar Foundation has 3 main goals: Research - including an upcoming consultation of our audience, an environmental scan of policies across countries and how they compare to Canada’s, and the publication of a report with specific recommendations for policy-makers. Education - including a new series of podcasts featuring remarkable tech founders, their journey building a company in Canada, and their recommendations for government officials and the public in general, as well as the regular publication of our newsletter and educational presentations for founders at the MaRS Discovery District and other incubators. Advocacy - including the presentation of the upcoming policy report at conferences and in the media, while continuing to educate elected representatives at the provincial and federal levels by all means available. Our Experience with Volunteers: Our team is entirely made of volunteers, from the board of directors to the many volunteers helping on an ad hoc basis. It’s part of our DNA. The Northstar Foundation was co-created by tech founders who volunteered their time to give a purpose to this organisation to carry the voice of underrepresented tech founders and their ventures, particularly the ones that are smaller than Shopify and Wealthsimple… Join us!