Changing Canada's "Supplier Mindset"

Wattpad cofounder Allen Lau, now a venture investor (and one of the most modest brilliant people you could ever meet), just posted a great article on LinkedIn. It's about Canada's fundamental need for better, stronger entrepreneurs - and our chronic "supplier's mindset."

Here are some snippets:

"Canada invented modern AI. And yet, the most important AI companies are almost all based in the US.

We lost Game 1. But losing Game 1 does not mean the series is over....

The root problem is not talent, capital, or policy. It is a mindset.

We have collectively learned to think like suppliers, not owners. The largest and most valuable companies are technology companies, almost all based in the US, many co-founded or led by Canadians.

We do not have an auto industry. We have an auto supplier industry — collectively worth a fraction of the companies that own the customer relationship and set the rules. We signed EV deals to become suppliers again, taxpayer-subsidized, while the ownership and margin stayed elsewhere. The supplier takes the risk. The owner captures the upside.

The most important insight: the supplier mindset is not learned on the job. It is learned in school. Engineering schools are the single most underleveraged force in Canada's innovation economy.

The real call to action is not to encourage more entrepreneurship. It is to start and scale world-class companies here in Canada."

You can read Allen's full post here.