3 months ago, I wrote a newsletter that I didn’t send to this email list.

I thought it was too personal for a 3,000 person email list that mostly came from random students I approached on university campuses.

If you want to read that, you can find it at the end of this piece.

If you don’t, the TLDR is that I started a new company called North Group and a podcast called Building the North. 

3 months later, these two are what I’m spending all my time on.

I wanted to reflect on why it was time for a new chapter and ask you to follow along.

When I started Studenthaus in 2023, the goal was to get students represented in new housing projects and policy.

In 3 years of research, we surveyed more than 8,000 students across Canada.

This data was used to inform the largest student housing projects in Canada and the next era of housing policy at the federal level.

Your responses went into a new bill, Bill C-227: National Strategy on Housing for Young Canadians Act.

I also got to share this data to PS Jenn McKelvie, MP Scott Aitchison, Minister Gregor Robertson, and policy advisors at the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure.

Along the way, we gave away more than $13,000 in grants to students that filled out the survey. 

When I looked back at this work in early 2026, it was clear that Studenthaus had achieved the goals that I set out to accomplish. 

I felt differently about what was coming with AI. 

People are scared of the uncertainty it brings. Quite frankly, I don’t blame them. 

We have not taken the time to tell young Canadians why building AI is so important.

I started a podcast called Building the North to discuss AI with CEOs, founders, and politicians. The first conversation launched on July 1, and you can subscribe to updates here.

I want to understand why Canadians outside of the tech space should be excited by AI.  

After filming 3 episodes with some of the most impressive leaders in Canada, my main takeaway is that it all comes down to control. 

Soon, AI will become as crucial as electricity or the internet. Another country can’t control that infrastructure.

That’s why we have to build the best versions of AI that we can.

There ARE valid concerns about the way that AI is being deployed.

Environmental impact, grid reliability, and cognitive atrophy are all very important things to consider. 

The existence of these issues doesn’t mean that the solution is to stick our heads in the sand and avoid AI entirely.

This would not be productive or realistic. It goes against the best interests of national security and Canadian competitiveness in global markets. 

Instead, we should focus on innovating to deliver the best versions of AI infrastructure we can. 

We should build better data centres, ones that use closed loop cooling and repurpose the heat they give off to heat communities. 

We must develop energy resilience and expand our grid capacity quickly. 

We should continue to research how AI usage impacts our brains and our labour market.

As for my new company, I started North Group because businesses didn’t know what to think about AI.

Some people think it’s a reason to fire employees. I completely disagree.

Businesses should use AI to give their employees superpowers and set more ambitious growth targets.

Every one of the dozens of companies we’ve worked with so far has agreed.  

In the broader picture, I think anyone who is negatively impacted by AI (and there will be some) will be supported by the prosperity it creates.

At the same time, AI will make entrepreneurship in Canada more accessible than it’s ever been. 

I’m excited for the future and I want to play a part in shaping it.

Julian

Read my reflection from 3 months ago here