Six months ago, Derek Jouppi was at a poker table with fellow founders when someone posed the question: why is San Francisco the ‘best in tech’? 

His answer came instinctively.

“Because the money never leaves the city. San Francisco companies buy from other San Francisco companies,” said Jouppi, a serial entrepreneur.

That question got him thinking. What if Waterloo Region could do the same?

“A local connection or a small amount of money can go a long way,” he said. “And when it never actually, truly leaves the city, it keeps giving. So I wanted to start something like that in the Toronto-Waterloo corridor.” 

As the founder and CEO of Advite.ai and the host of Founder Poker Toronto, a networking event series where entrepreneurs connect over cards, Jouppi was already making connections on a small scale. 

“People were trying to buy something and I would say, ‘Hey, there’s a founder three tables over building a company that does that, you should meet them.’  And they had no idea. I wanted to build something to help people know what their neighbours were building.” 

When U.S. President Donald Trump announced tariffs on Canadian goods and services, Jouppi knew it was time to act. 

“Now we have to build this,” he said. “Not just for our community, for every community, for every incubator, accelerator, tech company and community, coast to coast.”

By February, ByCanada.Tech was live. The platform serves as a national directory of Canadian startups and tech companies. The platform, which operates like a phone book for tech businesses, makes it easier for businesses and consumers to find and support local alternatives to American and foreign digital products and services.

“The platform is all searchable by competitors and the American products that they replace,” said Jouppi. “So you know, when you type in QuickBooks, you’ll see that you should use Fresh Books. When you type in Uber, you’ll get Canadian HOVR, instead.” 

To build the platform, Jouppi turned to his community and crowdsourced company information via LinkedIn. Within a month following Trump’s tariffs announcement, 10,000 Canadian startups were listed, with thousands more being added.

“All we need is just a URL to create a listing. No personal information, no data transfer,” he said. “It’s public information. Your startup exists right? We’re sharing it.” 

Trump’s trade measures, followed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement promising retaliatory measures, have Canadians rethinking their purchasing habits. 

A recent study shows eight in 10 Canadians say supporting domestic business is more important this year than last. Over 80 per cent of Canadians said they would choose Canadian-made products, even if they cost more.

Despite this growing trend, the “Buy Canadian Movement” and the change to consumer’s purchasing habits, have been largely focused on physical goods. Jouppi wants to change that.

“When you’re shopping at the grocery store, your options are limited. It’s not like you are going to import a mango from India. It's too expensive, too far.” 

Jouppi says technology doesn’t have the same constraints.

“With software, it travels anywhere around the world. People make the software choices they make, not because of where they’re located, but because they offer the right features,” said Jouppi. “Hopefully the search replacement feature on ByCanada.Tech will help people make better choices when it comes to finding and supporting the Canadian startups that are building equivalents to American and other foreign software products and services.”

Jouppi says his long-term goal for ByCanada.Tech is to integrate with the broader movement to buy Canadian and support local businesses across the country. 

“Our database is just a tool to help you find a place to spend your money,” he said. “The best thing you can do right now is spend your money here. At the end of the day, all these small things add up to a stronger economy here in Canada.” 

Jouppi says the importance of spending our dollars at home extends beyond a trade war.

“The main thing that I hope ByCanada.Tech does is help Canadian startups get more Canadian customers. Our money staying in Canada is the most important step to creating a strong tech community. That’s how we can be the best.”