On the TechTO stage ×1
First seen on the TechTO stage in 2025. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Saif ↗
In their words
VC is not all bad or all good, just like bootstrapping is not all bad or all good. There's some great times to take VC funding: if you're going to be a phenomenal trajectory and you need that funding to grow 10x, 100x, a thousand x, take it. If it's a winner take all market, take it.
Those singles and doubles change lives, and seedstrapping allows for that.
It just gives you a ton of options when you're running at a profit.
More from TechTO ×2
Around the web ×1
Quick answers
Who is Saif Ajani?
The co-founder of Keyhole, a Toronto social-media listening product he started in 2009 and sold to the New York PR software company Muck Rack in August 2024. He is now co-founder and CEO of Schedule1.
How was Keyhole funded?
One seed round. On the TechTO stage in 2025 he said the company raised about $365,000 in 2009 through the Toronto incubator Extreme Venture Partners, reached profitability, then bought its investors out around 2013 and was customer-funded from that point until the sale.
When should a founder take venture capital, according to Saif Ajani?
When the business is genuinely a venture business — a winner-take-all market, or a trajectory that needs the money to grow 10x or more. His argument is that VC math turns a 2x or 3x outcome into a failure for the investor even when it is life-changing for the founder, so a company that will not return a fund keeps more options by staying profitable.