You bring the domain expertise.
We bring the build.
CMN Ventures partners with operators and domain experts as a technical co-founder, investing the full technical build in exchange for an equity stake. No upfront cost. No junior developers. No offshore handoff.
We build iOS and Android apps, SaaS platforms, and AI-powered software. We've shipped six live products in under a year, including apps on the App Store and Google Play. That track record is what you're partnering with.
Everyone is building software.
Almost none of it is new.
AI has made it possible for anyone to generate an app in an afternoon, and they are doing exactly that, by the thousands. The market is flooded with software that looks different, costs less to build, and solves nothing that was not already solved a hundred times before. A new interface layered over an old idea. A chatbot bolted onto a product that did not need one. A platform marketing itself as AI-powered because it routes text to a third-party API.
That is not what we build, and it is not what we co-found.
We look for the friction that genuinely remains: the real inefficiency buried inside a workflow, an industry, or a daily process where no adequate solution has actually landed. The gap between what people need and what the market has bothered to build properly is where software creates lasting value. That is where we focus.
If you have found that gap from lived experience inside your industry, this model was built for you.
What the market is full of
Repackaged ideas
Software that already exists, rebuilt with a different colour palette and a new name.
AI in name only
A chatbot added to a product that did not need one, with an "AI-powered" label on top of a standard API call.
Solutions without problems
Apps built because building is cheap now, not because anyone identified a real, specific, unsolved problem.
What we look for instead.
Real friction: the kind that costs people time, money, or accuracy every single day, and that no one has solved properly because it takes genuine domain knowledge to even understand the problem. That is the only kind of software worth building from scratch.
Finding a technical co-founder in Canada is hard. Most paths don't work.
You know your market. You see the gap. You know there's a software product that could own that gap. But building it requires technical depth that takes years to acquire, and the people who have it aren't sitting around looking for equity-only deals.
CTOs with real product experience command $240,000–$370,000 in Canada. Good developers with equity appetite are rare and usually already working on their own things. Accelerators give you mentorship. Agencies give you a quote. Neither actually builds your product with you, as a partner, with skin in the game.
Hiring a CTO
$240K–$370K/year before they've written a line of code for you. And a salaried CTO is an employee, not a co-founder, the alignment isn't the same.
Finding a freelance developer
Freelancers build to spec and move on. No one's accountable for the product working in the real world, passing App Store or Google Play review, scaling under load, or growing after launch.
Building it yourself with AI
Vibe coding gets you a UI. It doesn't get you multi-tenant architecture, real auth, Stripe billing, StoreKit 2 and Google Play compliance, backend infrastructure, or a product that survives real user load.
Everything the technical side of the business needs. Invested.
We don't consult. We don't subcontract. We build the product ourselves, own the technical quality, and stay aligned with you through launch and beyond.
Full technical execution
Architecture, backend, frontend, data models, APIs, auth, billing, deployment, the entire build. You don't need to understand code to work with us. You need to understand your market.
App Store, Google Play & web launch
We've shipped iOS apps through Apple review and Android apps through Google Play. We know StoreKit 2, CloudKit, Play Console review, background sync, push notifications, and what actually gets apps rejected. For web products, we handle hosting, CI/CD, and go-live.
AI implementation
We build real AI, custom-trained models, not API wrappers. If your product creates a competitive moat through intelligence, we know how to build that layer properly.
Product strategy & judgment
We don't just execute specs. We push back on bad ideas, sharpen product thinking, and bring 10+ years of experience in marketing and algorithm-driven growth.
Equity structure, defined upfront
Ownership percentages, revenue share, and exit terms are agreed in writing before a single line of code is written. No ambiguity, no renegotiation after the fact.
Long-term alignment
We stay invested in the product's success because we are investors in the product. Our incentives don't end at delivery, they align with yours through growth and beyond.
We partner selectively. Here's what a strong co-founder fit looks like.
We evaluate every pitch on four things. Not credentials, not fundraising history, the things that actually predict whether a product will succeed in the real world.
Deep domain expertise
You've worked in this industry. You understand the problem from the inside, not as an observer, but as someone who has lived the inefficiency or gap firsthand.
A real, specific problem
Not "I want to build an app." A clear articulation of who has the problem, why existing solutions don't solve it, and why people would pay for something better.
A credible path to customers
You have relationships in the industry, a community, a network, or a platform that gives the product a realistic way to reach its first paying users.
Commitment to build it properly
We're not a shortcut to a demo. We're a path to a real business. The right co-founder partner is ready to operate the product, acquire customers, and grow it.
Not the right fit if:
- Trend-chasing with no specific problem or user in mind
- An idea with no realistic customer acquisition path
- Someone who wants us to build, then step back entirely
- A prototype you'd like us to finish that someone else started
- An app idea you want built for free with no real business behind it
We're honest about fit.
If your idea isn't the right fit for the co-founder model, we'll tell you directly, and if it's better suited to our full-ownership build model, we'll say that too. No runaround.
We don't pitch what we plan to build. These are live.
Every product below was built from scratch by CMN Ventures, same team, same process you'd be partnering with.
Boreal Weather Intelligence
Built from 18 years in snow removal operations
Custom AI model, real-time risk scoring, territory-wide dispatch automation. Live with paying customers.
VisitPlatoonAware
Built from 5 years in the fire service
Workforce, scheduling, collective agreement logic, equipment compliance, and union communications. Built for North American fire and EMS agencies. The member app is live on Google Play.
VisitCove
Consumer family productivity
Shared calendar, tasks, grocery lists, and reminders. Apple-backed private sync. App Store live.
VisitBackStep
Built for Canadian first responders
Exposure logging across a full career. Apple-backed private sync. Building Canada's first national responder exposure dataset.
VisitReceipt Vault
Built for Canadian tradespeople
Custom AI trained on CRA documentation. Automatic deduction surfacing. Bank sync. Now available on the App Store.
VisitHow the co-founder partnership works, start to finish.
No vague commitments, no equity taken before the structure is agreed. Here's exactly what happens.
You pitch the idea
Tell us the problem, the market, the user, and why you're the right person to build this. Use the contact form or book a call. We respond to every serious inquiry.
We evaluate fit
We look at market size, problem specificity, your domain credibility, and whether the technical build is something we can execute and want to be invested in. We're honest if it's not the right fit.
We define the structure
If there's a fit, we define ownership, equity split, revenue model, milestones, and exit terms before any work starts. Everything in writing, reviewed by both sides.
We build and ship
We take the product from architecture to the App Store, Google Play, or a live web platform. You drive the domain expertise, customer relationships, and go-to-market. We drive the build.
We grow it together
Post-launch, we stay involved. We're co-founders, not contractors. We have skin in the product's performance and we bring that perspective to every major decision.
Everything you want to know before pitching.
How much equity does CMN Ventures take as a technical co-founder?
Equity structure is negotiated based on the specific product, its stage, and the relative contributions of each party. We define this in writing before work begins, there are no surprises after the fact. Generally, we take a meaningful co-founder stake that reflects the full technical investment we're making.
Do I need to have money to work with CMN Ventures as a co-founder?
No upfront capital is required in the co-founder model. We invest the technical build, architecture, development, launch, in exchange for equity. That said, you'll need to invest your time, your domain expertise, and your ability to drive customers and growth. We fund the build; you fund the hustle.
What kinds of apps and software does CMN Ventures co-found?
We've built in B2B SaaS (snow removal operations, fire and EMS workforce management), iOS consumer apps (family calendar, receipt scanning, first responder exposure tracking), an Android staffing app live on Google Play, and AI-powered platforms. We're open to most software categories where the problem is real, the market is identifiable, and the builder has genuine domain expertise.
How is CMN Ventures different from an accelerator or incubator?
Accelerators give you mentorship, a cohort, and sometimes a small cheque. They don't build your product. CMN Ventures actually builds the software, we're your technical co-founder, not your advisor. We have six live products in market, built from scratch, as proof of what that execution looks like.
What if I've already tried to build this with AI tools or a freelancer?
We see this often. What you have is usually a front-end that renders something that looks like a product, but with no working backend, no multi-tenant data isolation, no real auth, no billing, no deployment pipeline, and no path through App Store or Google Play review. That's not a failure, it's just the point where you need a team that's done it before. We can assess what you have and tell you honestly what it's worth preserving.
Is CMN Ventures based in Canada?
Yes. We're based in New Brunswick, Canada. We partner with founders across Canada and the United States. We understand Canadian regulatory requirements including CRA, provincial compliance, and industry-specific standards that matter in categories like emergency services, financial tools, and B2B operations software.
If the idea is real, the window is open now.
Markets move fast. The gap you can see today may not be unclaimed in 18 months. Tell us what you're building. We'll be direct about whether it's the right fit.
We respond to every serious inquiry within one business day.