Recruiting in the Land of Ice

8 months of freezing cold each year is a great reason to lock in.

So Theory ventured up north to Waterloo, Ontario, to meet the next generation of incredible founders and technologists. 

We were treated to the snowiest year since 1950. Classes were canceled and streets were buried, the kind of weather that gives you an excuse to stay home.

Instead, over 100 students from all years and programs joined us for two panels aimed at early-career engineering and AI jobs.

Waterloo has a way of filtering for people who show up even when it’s uncomfortable.

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How Startups Actually Hire

The coat racks were overflowing while Prashanth (LanceDB), Nick (Neolific), and Anton (Clover Labs) started the night chatting with our Head of AI, Bryan Bischof (Theory Ventures) on how startups hire.

The conversation was candid, practical, and refreshingly casual, much like how early-stage hiring really works.

We discussed:

• What actually raises red flags for interns (and what really doesn’t)
• How technical interviews differ at startups vs. large companies
• Which tools and skills compound fastest early in your career
• Why curiosity and ownership consistently beat perfect resumes

For students, it offered a clearer picture of how things actually work. For founders and operators in the room, it was a reminder that the best hires are often the ones who show initiative before they’re “ready.”

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Breaking Into the Startup World

The second panel shifted from hiring mechanics to career risk.

I led a conversation with Jakob (Voltra), Sam (Upside Robotics), and Jerry (Akatos House) on what it actually means to break into the startup space.

Our conversation was centred around a few deceptively simple questions:

• What’s a risk you’re genuinely glad you took?
• What are the real tradeoffs between big tech and startups?
• What makes an intern indispensable rather than replaceable?

A recurring theme was that early careers are more about exposure than optimization. Spending your time in an environment that forces you to grow matters more than optimizing for title, brand, or timing.

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The star of The North

Theory’s welcomed more than 8 Waterloo interns to our engineering team to work on AI and Data applications. Our internship program focuses on real-products that we actually use: like Pipelines to process, extract, and store call recordings, Multi-modal AI Tools for financial reporting, and Evaluating LLMs.

Additionally, our portfolio of investments is constantly expanding, and many of these companies are also turning to Waterloo to search for interns and full-time hires.

Our visit to campus was focused on recruiting directly for our own team, high-trust introductions to our portfolio companies, and building relationships with founders at the very beginning of their journey.

The benefits of being on campus outweighed the inconvenience of the snow.

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In True Canadian Fashion

Huge thanks to everyone who made this event possible: Waterloo Venture Group for their collaboration on the event, Communitech for the event space, and everyone who helped make the night what it was, including teams from LanceDB, Neolific, Akatos, Voltra, Clover Labs, and Upside Robotics.

Most of all, thank you to the students who showed up despite the weather.

We’ll be back.