On Oct. 20, 2016, Karen and I spent an evening explaining Taproot Edmonton to curious people at Startup Edmonton’s Launch Party 7. Ten years later, we look back on that night as a key milestone in our journey.
We had introduced Taproot a few months earlier, and our first story was published that September. Members were asking questions in our Story Garden and helping to cultivate one another’s ideas. Our elevator pitch that night captures just how early we were in the process:
Karen Unland:
"I’m Karen Unland, this is Mack Male, and we’re making Taproot Edmonton.
"Taproot is a source of curiosity-driven stories about our city, cultivated by the community.
“We are building a new way to do local journalism, and a new way to fund it. We don’t sell eyeballs, and we don’t put up paywalls. We enlist our members to tell us what they’re curious about, we commission writers to answer their questions, and we pay those writers from the membership fees we collect. Then we publish the story for all to see.”
Mack Male:
"Why are we doing this? The business model that used to support local journalism is broken. We want to replace what is being lost with something that is sustainable and responsive to the community we serve.
"Edmonton is full of smart, observant people, and that makes this a good place to develop this idea. But every mid-sized city has this problem. If we can make something that works here, we can transplant the process to other cities, and strengthen local journalism everywhere.
“We currently have more than 50 paying members, and we have published two stories based on their ideas, with more to come. We want you to join us, so come see us at our table, or visit taprootedmonton.ca.”
The pitch was short but the work that went into it was anything but. We spent weeks preparing, refining what we wanted to say, and updating our website to have something tangible to show attendees.
“That was a great opportunity for us to refine our message and to tell our story to a whole new group of people,” I wrote in January 2017. “We spent the entire evening talking to curious people about Taproot and what we’re up to. It was great to hear encouragement, feedback, and constructive criticism.”
Ten years is a long time for a startup, and the fact that we’re still here to mark the anniversary is something to celebrate. I’m grateful that we have been able to build on that night, though as you might expect Taproot looks quite different today! Looking back at our fellow participants also reveals how much can grow from one evening’s introductions.
Our Launch Party 7 cohort
Unfortunately, little remains online about Launch Party 7. I might have blogged about it, but I think I was just too busy getting ready for the event! Edmonton Unlimited’s alumni page preserves the cohort’s companies and founders, and an archived Launch Party 7 page has the original company descriptions. Here’s the cohort, including the founders listed at the time:
- dealcloser — Amir Reshef and Ashvin Singh
- FilmReel powered by FAVA — Andrew Scholotiuk and Dave Cunningham
- RUNWITHIT Synthetics — Dean Bittner and Myrna Bittner
- Taproot Edmonton — Mack Male and Karen Unland
- ThirtyThree — Jordan Bloemen, Logan Gilmour, and Matthew Satchwill
- TradePros — Drew Currah, Kyle Jeske, and Jon Smelquist
- vrCAVE — Nathaniel Rossol, Alex Rossol, and Tom Viinikka
There were tools for lawyers, filmmakers, software developers, and homeowners, alongside games, virtual reality, and our attempt to build a future for local journalism. The subsequent stories have taken some interesting turns.
A decade of new directions
RUNWITHIT Synthetics’s original pitch focused on simulating activity to test the performance of apps, devices, and servers. The company went on to apply its technology to entire communities. In 2023, we reported on its synthetic model of the Edmonton region, which let decision-makers explore hydrogen adoption and regional growth through to 2050. A year later, the Bittners told us how a $3.5-million investment from Raven Indigenous Capital Partners would help put their tools into more people’s hands.
vrCAVE began with Hospital of Horror, a shared virtual-reality haunted house. Watching people navigate those experiences together led the Rossol brothers to another application: understanding how people communicate and solve problems. We covered that journey into hiring and team development through AlignVR in 2022. By February 2026, vrCAVE had launched 10 escape-room games and was preparing its first game for people to play together from home.
dealcloser set out to spare lawyers the manual work of organizing documents and signatures to close transactions. We reported on its $1.75-million seed round in 2021. Ten years on from Launch Party, the company is still growing. It formalized its European expansion in September 2025, adding support and workflows tailored to firms there. In March 2026, it launched Cloe, an artificial intelligence assistant built into its platform and designed to help legal teams manage signatures, automate tasks, and track deal progress.
Our reporting also followed Reshef into another industry. As CEO of Fairly Staffing, he brought his product experience and investor relationships to Aisha Abdul’s platform connecting dental clinics with temporary workers. When we spoke to them in May 2026, Fairly served 600 clinics and 3,000 dental temps. Fairly was itself a Launch Party participant in 2024.
FilmReel powered by FAVA grew from the Film and Video Arts Society of Alberta’s need to manage memberships, equipment, facilities, and creative work. Its software journey continued as AMS Network, whose website reports use by more than 100 institutions nationwide and still lists Cunningham and Scholotiuk on its team. Scholotiuk’s filmmaking has also appeared in our Arts Roundup: Northern Gateway Films earned seven 2026 Rosie nominations for My Final Victim and another for The Speech.
ThirtyThree came to Launch Party with RunGunJumpGun, a game combining its founders’ design, development, and musical skills. Its portfolio now also lists COPE from 2019, APES.io from 2022, and Rebounder as its current project. The studio’s work offers another example of a creative endeavour extending well beyond its first launch.
TradePros connected homeowners with home improvement professionals. Co-founders Kyle Jeske and Jon Smelquist are now both at Smart Access. We covered Smart Access’s $12 million series A raise earlier this year.
And there is a particularly fitting connection back to Launch Party: vrCAVE co-founder Viinikka became CEO of Edmonton Unlimited in 2024, joining the organization carrying on the event that had helped introduce his own venture.
Building something that lasts
Our own journey has involved plenty of changes, too. In that January 2017 update, I was celebrating our incorporation as Taproot Publishing Inc., approaching 100 members, and having published four stories. We were also thinking about how to follow issues over time, beyond answering a single question.
That ongoing attention became central to our work. We launched the Tech Roundup and Speaking Municipally in 2018, then The Pulse in 2021. Later, the Taproot Edmonton Calendar and our election tools gave people more ways to understand and participate in their community. Our history page tells that longer story.
Our coverage of the Launch Party 7 cohort is a great example of the reliable intelligence we provide. We have been able to follow companies as they raised money, changed direction, developed products, and found new problems to solve. Those stories, interviews, and roundup items now form a record that makes this retrospective possible.
The ongoing attention we pay to companies and people in our community is part of what makes Taproot valuable and unique. A funding announcement matters, but so does understanding what came before it and following what happens next. We help people see connections, find opportunities, and understand how Edmonton is changing.
I’m glad Taproot is still here to do that work, and I’m grateful to our team, members, advertisers, sponsors, partners, and everyone who has shared their curiosity with us and supported our work. Congratulations to our fellow Launch Party founders on the work they have done over the past decade.
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