#28

It has been over a year since I last wrote a personal newsletter and a lot has happened since then.

Professionally, I fully transitioned out of my operational role at August and formed a new real estate development company with my brother, Matt, and a second partner, Kris. It’s called Toronto Standard, and with it, we’re primarily focused on midrise rental development for long-term ownership. We’ve got three new projects in progress, ranging from four storeys and 10 units at the low end to eight storeys and 59 units at the high end. Two of these three will begin construction in 2025.

311AI has been rebranded to Muni and has launched in its first municipality, the great Town of Paradise, Newfoundland.

Personally, I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma in early January 2024 and underwent six months of chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatment through August 2024. It seems to have gone well and my health and energy have improved steadily since then. There is currently no cure for follicular lymphoma but I should expect seven or more good years before I relapse, which is the median time for a first recurrence, and even then among a sample group with a much older median age. That should, in turn, be more than enough time for meaningful progress on new and improved treatments, including CAR-T cell therapy, which looks especially promising.

Matt and I have launched a podcast called Hogtown where we discuss Toronto’s housing policy and real estate development landscape, among other things, and I’m looking forward to hosting the third annual Missing Middle Summit in late May.

If 2024 was a year of startup pain and health challenges, 2025 is shaping up to be a year of growth on all fronts. With Donald Trump’s election south of the border, Pierre Poilievre’s now-inevitable election here, and some remarkable recent progress in AI, I think this will be true in a very broad sense.

It’s going to be a great year.