CanCon Podcast Ep. 111: Would you use Bunz more if it actually launched a cryptocurrency?

What happens when a tech company uses words that mean one thing to garner attention for something completely different? That’s what happened when Bunz announced a new cryptocurrency called BTZ that is in no way an actual cryptocurrency.

BTZ does seems like a pretty cool points-rewards program, but Bunz users are up in arms against anything that goes against ‘the spirit of the community.’ Would Bunz have been better off actually launching a cryptocurrency instead? ISO: hot takes. Willing to trade podcast (#BNIB).”

For the pragmatists (cynics?) out there, note that $400 million in upcoming VCCI funding is (vaguely) tied to addressing gender balance in Canadian VC.

Huda Idrees, founder of Toronto startup Dot Health, was the latest willing to publicly push for an answer (or perhaps an earnest response to the problem) on top of iNovia’s recent news of two new male GPs (the firm has no women partner equivalent).

iNovia’s hiring practices aren’t the story here, but they sure were helpful in kicking off a firestorm of other useful topics of debate, such as: why VC is so different from the rest of tech; why VC might not actually be that different; the value of public button-pushing vs. Canadian disdain of public criticism; the difference between adding context and agenda pushing in news reporting; how to have a safe conversation about important things in 2018. Huda joins us this week to hash it all out.

In more frivolous matters, what happens when a company uses words that mean one thing to garner attention for something completely different? That’s what happened when Bunz announced a new cryptocurrency that is in no way a cryptocurrency. But hey, BTZ seems like a pretty cool points-rewards program, and as Erin says, all press is good press, right? ISO truth. Willing to trade podcast (#BNIB).

Join us as the CanCon crew – Erin Bury, managing director of Eighty-Eight; Rob Kenedi, general manager of TWG New York; and Douglas Soltys, BetaKit editor-in-chief – launches its own cryptocurrency (and by cryptocurrency, we mean podcast episode).