Month: June 2025

Quantum Isn’t Next. It’s Now.

In the early 2000s, it was a common joke in the tech world that “next year is the year of the smartphones.” People kept saying it over and over for almost a decade. It became a punchline. The industry nearly lost its credibility.

Until the iPhone launched. “Next year is the year of the smartphones” finally became true.

The same joke has followed quantum for the past ten years: next year is the year of quantum.

Except it hasn’t been. Not yet.

And yet, quietly, the foundations have been built. We’re not there, but we’re far from where we started.

We’re getting closer. Much closer. I can smell it. I can hear it. I can sense it.

Right now, without getting into too much technical detail, we’re still at a small scale: fewer than 100 usable qubits. Commercial viability likely requires thousands, if not millions. The systems are still too error-prone, and hosting your own quantum machine is wildly impractical. They’re expensive, fragile, and noisy.

At this stage, quantum is mostly limited to niche or small-scale applications. But step by step, quantum is inching closer to broader utility.

And while these things don’t progress in straight lines, the momentum is real and accelerating.

Large-scale, commercially deployable, fault-tolerant quantum computers accessed through the cloud are no longer science fiction. They’re within reach.

I spent a few of my academic years in signal processing and error correction. I’ve also spent a bit of time studying quantum mechanics. I understand the challenges of cloud-based access to quantum systems, and I’ve been following the field for quite a while, mostly as a curious science nerd.

All of that gives me reason to trust my sixth sense. Quantum is increasingly becoming a reality.

Nobody knows exactly when the iPhone moment or the ChatGPT moment of quantum will happen.
But I’m absolutely sure we won’t still be saying “next year is the year of quantum” a decade from now.

It will happen, and it will happen much sooner than you might think.

At Two Small Fish, our thesis is centred around the next frontier of computing and its applications.

This is an exciting time and the ideal time to take a closer look at quantum, because the best opportunities tend to emerge right before the technology takes off.

How can we not get excited about new quantum investment opportunities?

P.S. I’m excited to attend the QUANTUM NOW conference this week in Montreal. Also thrilled to see Mark Carney name quantum as one of Canada’s official G7 priorities. That short statement may end up being a big milestone.

P.P.S. If you enjoyed this blog post, please take a minute to like, comment, subscribe and share. Thank you for reading!

This blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You are free to copy, redistribute, remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given.

Announcing TSF’s Investment in ENVGO

Humans have conquered land, sea, and space.

Yet the ocean remains surprisingly underdeveloped — in fact, it’s the least developed.

Land transportation has been electrified. In space, payload costs have dropped drastically. Now, it’s time for marine to catch up.

Unlike cars, you can’t simply add an electric motor and battery to a boat and make it work. Why? One reason is that water’s viscosity is much higher than air, meaning drag or resistance is an order of magnitude greater. As a result, replacing a gas motor with an electric one would require a gigantic battery, making it impractical and, frankly, unusable. That’s why marine electrification has lagged.

Until now.

The “iPhone moment” of marine transportation has arrived. ENVGO’s hydrofoiling NV1 tackles these multidisciplinary complications head-on. Led by successful serial entrepreneur Mike Peasgood, the team brings together expertise in AI, robotics, control systems, computer vision, autonomous systems, and more. Leveraging their prior success as drone pioneers at Aeryon, they are now building a flying robot — on water.

It’s day one of a large-scale transformation of marine transportation. Two Small Fish is privileged and super excited to lead this round of funding, alongside our good friends at Garage, who are also participating. We can’t wait to see how ENVGO reimagines the uncharted waters — pun fully intended.

Read our official blog post by our partner Albert here.

P.S. If you enjoyed this blog post, please take a minute to like, comment, subscribe and share. Thank you for reading!

Wattpad Was My Regular Season. TSF Is My Playoff Hockey

When entrepreneurs exit their companies, it is supposed to be a victory lap. But in reality, many find themselves in an unexpected emotional vacuum. More often than you might think, I hear variations of the same quiet confession:

“It should have been the best time of my life. But I felt lost after the exit. I lost my purpose.”

After running Wattpad for 15 years, I understand this all too well. It is like training for and running a marathon for over a decade, only to stop cold the day after the finish line. No more rhythm. No more momentum. No next mile.

Do I Miss Operating

Unsurprisingly, people often ask me:

“Do you like being a VC?”

“Do you miss operating?”

My honest answer is yes and yes

(but I get my fix without being a CEO — see below).

Being a founder and CEO was deeply challenging and also immensely rewarding. It is a role that demands a decade-long commitment to building one and only one thing. And while I loved my time as CEO, I did not feel the need to do it again. Once in a lifetime was enough. I have started three companies. A fourth would have felt repetitive.

What I missed most was not the title or the responsibility. It was the people. The team. The day-to-day collaboration with nearly 300 passionate employees when I stepped down. That sense of shared mission — of solving hard problems together — was what truly filled my cup.

Back in the Trenches in a Different Role

Now at Two Small Fish Ventures as an operating partner, I work with founders across our portfolio. I am no longer the operator inside the company, but I get to be their sounding board — helping them tackle some of the biggest challenges they face.

Let’s be honest: they call me especially when they believe I am the only one who can help them. Their words, not mine. And there have been plenty of those occasions.

That gives me the same hit of adrenaline I used to get from operating. At my core, I love solving hard problems. That part of me did not go away after my exit. I just found a new arena for it — and it is a perfect replacement.

A Playground for a Science Nerd

What people may not realize is that the deep tech VC job is drastically different from a “normal” VC job. As a deep tech VC, I am constantly stretched and go deep — technically, intellectually, and creatively. It forces me to stay sharp, push my boundaries, and reconnect with my roots as a curious, wide-eyed science nerd.

There is something magical about working with founders at the bleeding edge of innovation. I get to dive into breakthrough technologies, understand how they work, and figure out how to turn them into usable and scalable products. It feels like being a kid in a candy store — except the candy is semiconductors, control systems, power electronics, quantum, and other domains in the next frontier of computing.

How could I not love that?

Ironically, I had less time to indulge this curiosity when I was a CEO. Now I can geek out and help shape the future at the same time. It is a net positive to me.

You Do Not Have to Love It All

Of course, every job — including CEO and VC — has its less glamorous parts. Whether you are a founder or a VC, there will always be administrative tasks and responsibilities you would rather skip.

But I have learned not to resent them. As I often say:

“You do not need to love every task. You just need to be curious enough to find the interesting angles in anything.”

Those tasks are the cost of admission to being a deep tech VC. A small price to pay to do the work I love — supporting incredible entrepreneurs as they bring transformative ideas to life, and finding joy in doing so. And knowing what I know now, I do not think I would enjoy being a “normal” VC. I cannot speak for others, but for me, this is the only kind of venture work that truly energizes and fulfills me.

A New Season. A New Purpose.

So yes, being a VC brings me as much joy — and arguably even more fulfillment (and I am surprised that I am saying this) — than being a CEO. I feel incredibly lucky. And I am all in.

It feels like all my past experience has prepared me for what I do today. I often describe this phase of my life this way:

Wattpad was my regular season. TSF is my playoff hockey.

It is faster. It is grittier. The stakes feel higher. Not because I am building one company, but because I am helping many shape the future.

P.S. Go Oilers!!

A Decade of Fish – Celebrating 10 Years of Two Small Fish Ventures

This year marks a big milestone: Two Small Fish Ventures turns ten!

That’s 10 years, 120 months, and 3,653 days (yes, we counted the leap years). What started as a bold experiment in early-stage investing has become a decade-long journey of backing audacious founders building at the edge of what’s possible.

Over the weekend, we wired funds for our 60th first investment. That’s not including the many follow-on cheques we’ve written along the way—if we counted those, the number would be much higher. We’re not naming the company just yet, but like the 59 before it, this one reflects deep conviction. We think it’ll make a splash!

For years, we’ve said we write 5 to 7 new cheques per year. Not because we aim for a quota, but because this is what a power-law portfolio construction strategy naturally produces. In venture, just a few outlier companies drive the vast majority of returns. The trick is to consistently back companies with 100x potential. That’s the focus—not pacing. And yet, the numbers tell their own story: we’ve averaged exactly six new investments a year. Apparently, clarity of focus brings consistency as a byproduct.

We’re now six months into our tenth year, and we’re right on pace.

To the founders we’ve backed: thank you for trusting us at the earliest, riskiest stage.

To those we haven’t met yet: if you’re building deep tech in the next frontier of computing, we’d love to hear from you. We invest globally. If you’ve got a breakthrough, we can help turn it into a product. If you’ve got a product, we can help turn it into a company.

Sound like you? Reach out.

Here’s to the next 10!