Charles Bern

Pumped to be in Toronto today for Shopify editions.dev with Barrel CTO Wes. If you're here - come say hi 👋🏼 If you haven’t had a chance to check out the 150+ product updates in Shopify’s bi-annual release, Summer Edition '24, check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gETbX_2P It’s hard to believe we’ve been helping brands launch on Shopify since 2009. A lot has changed in the last 15 years. It's no longer enough for brands to invest in their website alone—they need to meet their customers where they are to succeed. As an agency, Barrel has evolved from focusing solely on a client’s website to examining the entire customer journey, seeking opportunities to enhance how customers shop and experience the brand across touchpoints. Many of our clients are CPG brands, making this approach even more relevant. These days we're working on building Shopify B2B E-Commerce storefronts, designing Amazon content, creating personalized email/SMS flows, and implementing Shopify POS. Shopify has continually evolved with merchants' changing needs and customers' buying patterns. They’re not afraid to embrace partnerships like Amazon Buy with Prime while investing the same energy in POS and B2B that got their core e-commerce offering to where it is today. The Summer ’24 Edition is aptly titled ‘Unified’ and, as usual, it’s a lot to digest. The addition of a “Top 10” summary this year is a great starting point. Among my favorite updates are unified & tailored Markets experiences across B2B and retail, store credit availability, split shipping in checkout, and seamless store pickup between POS and DTC. I'm eager to dive into the Summer Edition '24 with our team over the next few days and uncover new opportunities to enhance our clients' commerce experiences. + Subscribe to my newsletter for a weekly look at what I'm building and learning in agency leadership, life, and e-commerce: https://lnkd.in/eJU8Zpt

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🚀 Exciting News from the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV), and B3 (Brazil Stock Exchange)! 🌍🇨🇦🇧🇷 Today, TSX/TSXV and B3 announced the signing of a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), aiming to create more public market opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs in Brazil. This partnership focuses on leveraging Canadian expertise in sectors like mining, energy, and renewable energy to foster a robust Brazil-based solution. By connecting markets, they aim to attract more investment and liquidity, supporting the energy transition and sustainable growth. https://lnkd.in/ePaq7HSx #CapitalMarkets #EnergyTransition #SustainableInvesting #TSX #B3 #Brazil #Canada #DualListing #MiningIndustry #RenewableEnergy #MoU #GlobalMarkets #InvestmentOpportunity

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Miovision CEO Kurtis McBride really gets it! Kurtis explains the essential shift from a production-based economy to an economy focused on intangible assets—like data, intellectual property, and digital assets—that now define the value and strength of modern economies. Innovative CEOs need to understand this stuff in order to thrive in the 21st century economy, and policymakers need to understand these dynamics too! With the appropriate policies in place, Canada can leverage the intangible economy to drive growth, create high-value jobs, and lead in tech innovation. However, as Kurtis shares, this requires bold steps and a commitment to policy reform. https://lnkd.in/emFxDgNj

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🚀 Exciting news in the tech world! Canadian-founded, New York-based AI startup Clay has secured $63 million CAD in Series B funding to help automate sales and marketing for businesses. Led by Meritech Capital, this round brings Clay's total funding to $85 million CAD and values the company at $500 million USD. Clay aims to revolutionize how companies conduct customer research and personalized outreach. What are your thoughts on AI transforming sales and marketing? Share your opinions in the comments below! 👇 #TechNews #AI #Startup #Innovation #SalesAutomation #MarketingTech

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It's the end of the year but far from slowing down, the AI-related news keep on coming. The AI Alliance was set up by a number of partners (IBM Canada IBM Canada Limitee among them) to ensure that the cowboy attitude of some AI startups could be reigned in with a scientific, ethics-based approach to developing and deploying AI models. It's great to see University of Toronto's Acceleration Consortium join the Alliance.

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Digital asset are a hot topic at our fireside chat at CAASA - Canadian Association of Alternative Strategies & Assets Conference. Ana De Sousa, Sean Stapley and I bantered about trends in the industry and predictions for 2025. 2025 predictions on #AI's implications include totally self governing DOAs, smart contract written by AIs, and AI enhanced regulation.

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Such a great blog post which I suggest every founder read. So many golden nuggets in here. But one that stands out: What are some qualities that you see in the most successful founders? Well, I love smart people, with high IQs, and high EQs, that’s great. But, of the founders that I see, the highest correlation with success is with their grit quotient. They’re not necessarily the smartest people in the world, but their grit and determination are unbelievable. They never give up and always find a way to blast through any obstacle they face. It’s the mentality of “succeed or die” – it’s that kind of determination that wins. #gritcotient #grit #founder #highperformancemindset

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ENHANCING CANADIAN MANUFACTURING PRODUCTIVITY | Leveraging Machine Monitoring Technology - In a recent announcement, the Bank of Canada underscored the critical importance of productivity growth for Canada's economic prosperity. Concurrently, advancements in technology, particularly in machine monitoring software, offer significant opportunities for boosting productivity, particularly in the manufacturing sector. This Blog explores the synergy between the Bank of Canada's productivity goals and the transformative potential of machine monitoring technology in Canadian manufacturing. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gdxnxBtA #iiotplatform #smartmanufacturing #industry40 #productionmonitoringsoftware #machinemonitoringsystem #digitaltransformation #digitaltransformationstrategy #toyota #toyotaproductionsystem #tps #iiot #leanmanufacturing #kanban #continuousimprovement #continuousimprovementculture  #manufacturingautomation #downtimetracking #oee #messaas #messoftware #manufacturingexecutionsystem #MESsystem #unplanneddowntime #productivity #shopfloor #shopfloormanagement

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Great discussion. I’ve been blessed to live a couple transformative movements as well. At Acorn we’re focusing on how can we apply AI to specific use cases. Not marketing slogans and lingo. So no, we won’t change our URL to .ai and we won’t confuse our customers. AI is a tool that will solve problems for our users and when they ask how we’ll share the tools we use to build the solutions they like. Our view is that if we do this the trends won’t matter.

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Now this is interesting.... expanding the pool of angel investors

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Canada, are we digital dinosaurs? Despite our tech potential, Canada's lagging far behind in AI adoption. Only 9% of our businesses are embracing generative AI, while the rest of the world surges ahead. The numbers don't lie. We could unlock $180 billion in productivity gains by 2030, but our risk aversion are crippling us. Why? AI is ours to lead in! Even more startling, public trust in AI is 23% lower here than the global average. We're missing out on massive opportunities—wage growth, job creation, global competitiveness—all because we're too cautious. Our SMEs stand to gain $100 billion with Gen AI. Yet, we're stuck in the past, reluctant to evolve. Are we content being left behind? It's time for a wake-up call. We need to push for rapid, responsible AI adoption—showcasing success stories, forming clear policies, and fostering collaboration across sectors. Will we step up, or let our economy stagnate? Read the eye-opening op-ed by Chris Barry, President of Microsoft Canada, and David Morgenstern, President of Accenture Canada: https://lnkd.in/gQmQ7PMg #AI #Canada #Innovation #Productivity #Leadership

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🪁💸🫖Join me next week at Intrinsic Innovations talking about Cash Flow Strategy, part of Platform Calgary’s #innovationweek! All those emojis will start to make sense as we evaluate what makes cash really flow for a startup and making sure the finances do measure what matters. Register below! ⬇️👇 #RBCxPowersBOLD #yyctech #innovation #prairiestech #SaaSmetrics #measuringwhatmatters #businessgrowth

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GenAI Grants Available 👇 This is a prime opportunity to advance your AI initiatives and contribute to Canadian innovation! 🇨🇦 SCALE AI | Canada's AI Global Innovation Cluster has launched a new Call for Proposals for projects focused on commercializing and adopting generative AI solutions. Here’s what you need to know: 🔹 Commercialization Projects: Ideal for companies aiming to enhance their existing products or services with generative AI capabilities. 🔹 Adoption Projects: Perfect for companies looking to improve operational efficiency by integrating generative AI solutions. 💡 Deadline to Apply: November 8, 2024 👉 Find out more and apply here: https://lnkd.in/dcFzXTTW I encourage Accelerate Okanagan members and AI innovators to apply. #AI #GenerativeAI #ScaleAI #Innovation #AccelerateOkanagan #CanadianTech #Okanagan

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Women’s Enterprise Centre of British Columbia (WeBC). Offers $150k loan to women entrepreneurs for startups to scale and grow, to acquire a business, and for business expansion projects. https://lnkd.in/eqCs-iWu

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I recently read this article by Sam Sebastian, the head of Google Cloud Canada, and it got me thinking about the future of #AI in #Canada. He makes a strong case that AI will be a major force in Canadian business by 2025. He believes that AI will be used to optimize back-end processes, enhance customer-facing platforms, and even create entirely new products and services. I think he's is right! AI is already having a major impact on businesses around the world, and Canada is no exception. In fact, I believe that Canada is well-positioned to become a leader in AI innovation. We have a strong talent pool, a supportive government, and a thriving tech sector. I am confident that Canadian businesses will be able to use AI to achieve great things in the years to come. I encourage you to read the article and learn more about how AI will reshape Canadian business in 2025. #AI #Canada #business #innovation #technology #future https://lnkd.in/gXqr5yCf

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Ottawa is an Entrepreneurship Capital Sincere thanks to the #Techopia Team at the Ottawa Business Journal for sharing the stories of these three prolific serial entrepreneurs who continue to build thriving tech companies in our region. The impact they have achieved on our economy and ecosystem is immense. Learn why these founders choose to start and scale companies in Canada's Capital over other tech ecosystems. We are privileged to collaborate with each of them in different ways. A few of my favourite quotes... "There is a great culture here of very loyal people that enjoy working for startups. They hang in there. I think people here have a greater sense of commitment and loyalty to the projects they’re working on than in other tech ecosystems, which is a unique feature of our market.” -Mike Weider, Startup Founder, CEO, Advisor and Director of the Invest Ottawa Board "The local entrepreneurial spirit thrives. Some of that originated from the large tech companies of the past, such as Mitel and Nortel, as well as from those of the present, like Shopify, with former employees of those companies contributing to the growth of Ottawa’s tech ecosystem by spinning out several great companies." -Marc Gingras, Co-Founder and CEO, Bloks “Everything that you need to build a company exists in Ottawa. I also think it’s the best place to live. That combination is, I think, the magic that you need to thrive." -Aydin Mirzaee, Co-founder and CEO of Fellow.app Looking to learn more? Read the inspiring article below, or reach out to me to explore how our IO Venture Development team can help you achieve your startup goals and engage our amazing entrepreneurship ecosystem. #FoundersHelpingFounders

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