Co-founders from Sentry, Cohere back Toronto startup\u2019s AI product management platform. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Before AI, software developers already had to contend with a flood of information. As large-language models (LLMs) have sped up the pace of development, keeping all the context in one place and arranging it in order of importance remains a persistent challenge.<\/p>\n
Ben Vinegar, founder of Toronto-based Modem<\/a>, knows this firsthand. As a former VP of engineering at Silicon Valley unicorn Sentry, he has a unique insight into the bottlenecks faced by developer teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n His new startup, which launched last May, has attracted the attention of former colleagues and other veteran tech angels. Modem closed a $4.4-million USD ($6 million CAD) equity pre-seed round led by Silicon Valley firm Accel, with participation from Montr\u00e9al\u2019s Inovia Capital and several angel investors, including Cohere co-founder Ivan Zhang and Sentry co-founders David Cramer and Chris Jennings. Sentry has also become a client, using Modem in its workflows.\u00a0<\/p>\n Getting user feedback to developers is like a \u201cgame of telephone,\u201d Vinegar said in an interview with BetaKit. \u201cBy the time it reaches you, you\u2019re already getting a mutated version of what\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n Vinegar explained that Modem integrates into software teams\u2019 existing platforms to manage its product workflow by proactively flagging bugs, curating support tickets, and even following up with customers after software updates. Like other agentic AI products, Modem can take action on a user\u2019s behalf and respond to natural-language questions like: \u201cWhat are the biggest issues my customers are facing?\u201d<\/p>\n Investors are looking to companies like Modem as startups building with AI eat up a larger share<\/a> of the software space in Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen firsthand how AI-powered coding tools have transformed developer productivity,\u201d Taha Mubashir, Inovia Capital partner, told BetaKit in an email. \u201cBen had a similar insight\u2014an AI that does for product teams what coding agents do for engineers.\u201d<\/p>\n RELATED: Amid AI proof-of-concept fatigue, Cohere co-founder urges potential customers to keep the faith and focus on ROI<\/a><\/p>\n Vinegar said that, in addition to Sentry, Modem has seen success selling to small developer teams building software with AI. It sells through a subscription model inspired by some of the leading AI products, which can fluctuate depending on data usage.\u00a0<\/p>\n While developers are shipping software faster with the help of AI, the productivity gains have been uneven. A January study<\/a> by the Complexity Science Hub, which looked at the work of more than 160,000 users on GitHub, found that generative AI tools increased programmers\u2019 productivity by four percent on average\u2014but that increase was concentrated among senior developers. A July 2025 study<\/a> by research nonprofit METR found that experienced developers took 19 percent longer to complete tasks when they used AI tools, despite thinking they were working more quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite living in California during his time at Sentry and for a few years after, Vinegar returned to Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic and decided to build Modem from home. Though San Francisco is undoubtedly the \u201ccentre of the universe\u201d for building in tech, Vinegar said that doesn\u2019t mean Toronto, and Canada at large, doesn\u2019t have its own benefits. Talent is one of them, Vinegar said, as he remembers Sentry participating in the \u201cbrain drain\u201d by hiring Canadian talent down south.\u00a0<\/p>\n Location has been a point of conversation<\/a> in Canadian tech this month, after famed accelerator Y Combinator briefly took Canada off its list<\/a> of investable sites (only to reinstate it<\/a> a week later).\u00a0<\/p>\n To Vinegar, the key takeaway for Canada was how it could better emulate the sense of community created by the accelerator\u2019s cohort companies.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though some are competing, they are kind of on the same team,\u201d Vinegar said. If Canadian companies get better about buying each other\u2019s products, \u201cthat can exist right now in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n Feature image Image courtesy Ben Vinegar via LinkedIn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Co-founders from Sentry, Cohere back Toronto startup\u2019s AI product management platform.
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