Joanna Griffiths, the founder of Knix, and Adam Belsher, the CEO of Magnet Forensics, tied for Canada’s top tech leader of 2022 in The Logic’s December subscriber survey, as the sector looks back on a year marked by layoffs and cost-cutting.
The Logic asked subscribers to choose from a list of tech leaders who were in the news this year based on overall success, influence or impact. Both Griffiths and Belsher received 13 per cent of the vote from survey respondents.
1Password’s CEO Jeff Shiner and Wealthsimple’s CEO Michael Katchen were also popular choices
Joanna Griffiths, the founder of Knix, and Adam Belsher, the CEO of Magnet Forensics, tied for Canada’s top tech leader of 2022 in The Logic’s December subscriber survey, as the sector looks back on a year marked by layoffs and cost-cutting.
The Logic asked subscribers to choose from a list of tech leaders who were in the news this year based on overall success, influence or impact. Both Griffiths and Belsher received 13 per cent of the vote from survey respondents.
In July, Griffiths sold an 80 per cent majority stake of Knix, her direct-to-consumer leak-proof menstrual-underwear brand, to the Swedish hygiene-product giant Essity. The deal was worth US$320 million, valuing Knix at US$400 million, and reflected the rapid growth of the company since Griffiths founded it in 2013. She is continuing as president of Knix, which now has more than two million customers, according to the company.
“She exited, very successfully,” one reader wrote. Another said, “This product was a hard sell, but she sold and sold and sold.”
Belsher’s Magnet Forensics, a maker of digital-investigation software, has been a standout among Canadian companies that went public in 2021. While most have traded well below their IPO price throughout 2022, Magnet’s shares have more than doubled in value from their initial offering price in April 2021, as of Dec. 22.
It’s also expanded, including buying the UAE cybersecurity firm Comae in May to add that company’s memory-analysis tools to its own offerings and opening a bureau in Australia, whose government has introduced new laws on reporting cyber attacks. “That’s been a tailwind for us,” Belsher told The Logic in August. “We are starting to see companies and even government agencies that are saying, ‘We’re going to have to report if we have some kind of data breach. How do we do that? How do we have the capabilities?’ And that’s where digital forensics comes in.”
One reader said Magnet Forensics is the “best performing TSX tech IPO by a long shot,” while another said Belsher was “the only person on the list who delivered what he said he would.”
Close behind Griffiths and Belsher with 11 per cent of votes was 1Password CEO Jeff Shiner, whose company raised a massive US$620-million Series C in January, and Wealthsimple’s CEO Michael Katchen, with just over nine per cent of votes. Wealthsimple faced challenges this year, including laying off 13 per cent of employees and a valuation writedown, but also won Bank of Canada approval for direct settlements, a first for the fintech industry.
GeoComply’s CEO Anna Sainsbury received almost eight per cent of the vote. Her geolocation-security company helped 66 of its employees flee Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion and settle in Poland and Canada.
Subscribers also gave predictions for 2023. After a year of crypto winter, many said they were skeptical about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, but several were optimistic about generative AI like ChatGPT. “We will continue to see GPT-style natural language processing AI tools integrate into existing business tools. Not just chatbots, but things like auto-generating letters,” a reader wrote.
“Finding strong fundamentals” will be a major theme, one respondent suggested. “I think layoffs in Big Tech and fraud in fintech (FTX) will cause all tech businesses to re-evaluate their business fundamentals, including governance and growth forecasts.”
Several readers said they’d be watching Wealthsimple and Shopify closely, with one calling the latter company “a bellwether for the health” of the Canadian tech sector. Subscribers said they were curious whether Shopify could maintain its growth and how Wealthsimple will manage cryptocurrencies.
Payments Canada, the non-profit that oversees financial instructure, was one reader’s choice for the Canadian organization they’d be watching most closely. They said they’d be monitoring projects like the long-delayed Real-Time Rail system, which promises to modernize Canada’s financial plumbing: “Real-Time Rail, ePayroll and cross-border clearing are large issues that will dramatically impact the financial lives of Canadians.”
The Logic asked subscribers about their own organizations’ top priorities for 2023. Many said they were focused on revenue growth and expansion, but there was also an emphasis on keeping that growth sustainable and disciplined. Finding and retaining talent was another common answer.
Many were optimistic about one trend: they said Canada will become an increasingly popular tech location. “Despite the tech downturn, Canada will continue to grow as a top destination for U.S. tech company expansion given the [Canadian] dollar, continued growth in our talent base through immigration and reduced competition for top talent,” one reader wrote.
Another predicted: “Canada will emerge in 2023 with more tech workers than California and The Six (aka Waterloo Toronto corridor) will have more tech workers than the Bay Area.”
Methodology: The Logic emailed subscribers a private link to an online survey on Dec. 14, and the survey closed Dec. 18. Respondents’ identities were kept anonymous and duplicates were removed as needed. Subscribers were asked “Who do you vote for as the Canadian tech leader of 2022?” with the following options:
They were also asked “What’s your top tech or business prediction for 2023?” and “What Canadian tech company will you be watching most closely in 2023, and why?” The final question was: “What is your company’s biggest priority in 2023?”
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Photo: Magnet Forensics/Handout; Getty Images for Knix/Stefanie Keenan
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