Matt Austin spent two tours in Kandahar as a combat engineer. searching for roadside bombs and clearing ground. He is the founder of Brigade Group, where he places Canadian technology directly with frontline units in Ukraine.

Canadian defence procurement runs in years whereas Matt's route runs in about three weeks: find a product that already works, get it in front of a Ukrainian unit that needs it, and let the operators tell you how they need it improved by morning.

Their feedback arrives at 6 AM and your fix ships by sundown so the unit can deploy it immediately.

So we'll talk about

• What a founder needs to understand before repositioning a product for defence.

• How a Canadian company gets their technology to a frontline unit, what comes back from that deployment, and when there's success, how that shortens the conversation with investors and NATO procurement.

• Why the low-cost race keeps winning, and what that means for anyone building on a normal product timeline.

Join us for a fireside chat with Matt, hosted by our Co-Director Cameron Waite, followed by an open audience AMA. He's bringing real problems from the front line and wants us all to 'touch grass' with what he's experienced so that we build solution most likely to succeed.

Problem-havers on stage. Problem-solvers in the room. Solve the grind.

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