Toronto-based consulting firm Nexus Strategic Consultants found its niche in providing tech start-ups with government relations expertise, said founding partner Brett Thalmann.

“We have a number of [clients which are] startups at various stages of financing that are scaling up,” said Thalmann in a Feb. 9 phone interview with The Lobby Monitor. “As they’re working on products and growing, they're realizing they have needs around government relations, whether that's procurement, dealing with complex regulations, or just wanting to get their public profile increased so they're better positioned for that growth and for future [government] funding rounds.”

The decision to base the firm out of Toronto was in part due to the city’s growing innovation sector, he said; however, Thalmann noted that they are working with a few clients from western provinces like British Columbia and Alberta, as well.

“At the moment, we're focused … on the growing startup and innovation sectors,” he said, noting that the firm’s clients include start-ups “from clean tech, biotech and medical innovation sectors that are fast growing, and are operating in a complex and changing regulatory environment.”

The federal Liberals have introduced and implemented a number of measures to promote innovation in Canadian sectors through programs including ISED’s Strategic Innovation Fund.

The fund provides funding for initiatives such as the Net-Zero Accelerator, and the Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences. These initiatives provide funding for projects that will help transition Canada’s economy to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, advance domestic biomanufacturing such as the development of vaccines and therapeutics, and life sciences, according to the Government of Canada’s website.

Thalmann said that he and his founding partner Arthur Lam are able to help their clients navigate these issues thanks to their experience as political staffers in the federal Liberal government. 

Thalmann spent nearly two decades working in a number of roles for both the Ontario and federal Liberal parties. Prior to starting Nexus, he was the executive director of planning, administration, and people for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a role he held between November 2019 and May 2022. 

“I oversaw a number of key teams, including research and advertising, strategic planning, appointments, and human resources,” said Thalmann.

Lam’s government experience includes work as a senior policy adviser to former innovation minister Navdeep Bains starting in the fall of 2017. In September 2018, Lam joined International Trade Minister Mary Ng’s office as a senior policy adviser until leaving the role sometime in 2021. 

Lam brings his “corporate experience to those files,” said Thalmann. Before he worked in the government, Lam’s career had more of a corporate focus. From 2006 to 2012, Lam was the senior manager of corporate development at Brookfield Asset Management, followed by five years at Equifax where he held the role of senior director of corporate development and strategic partnerships between 2012 to 2015, and general manager of consumer and verification from 2015 until 2017.

Although Thalmann and Lam are on a five-year cooling-off period from lobbying at the federal level due to their previous roles, it has not restricted their ability “to provide information and perspective that our clients are finding very valuable,” said Thalmann.

“At the moment, the clients don't need us in the meetings, they don't need us to make phone calls for them,” he said. “It's really about understanding and giving them that perspective on how governments think, what and how governments operate, the difference between departments, the political side versus the public service.”

Thalmann provided an example of how his and Lam’s knowledge and experience can assist their clients reach their goals. 

“Understanding that it is a different conversation when you're talking to department officials versus a minister's office, and being able to align what [the client’s] goals are with the government’s agenda so that they're actually more successful in their requests,” he said. “That's key, [because] I have a number of clients that think they want to be with a certain department, but as we dig into what they're trying to achieve, it's actually a different department [or] someone else has responsibility for that file.”

Despite the federal cool-off period, Thalmann and Lam can conduct lobbying on the provincial and municipal levels, and they’re currently considering hiring a lobbyist to work on federal files.

As for why tech start-ups are seeking conversations with the federal government, Thalmann listed a number of reasons.   

“We're finding that start-ups are looking to either have the government procure or test out their product, they need regulatory approval before they can start selling their product, or they're applying for government grants,” he said. “There's a number of programs that support various sectors and so [we are] helping clients with those applications.”

More recently a number of clients have sought out help with requests for the upcoming budget, according to Thalmann. Nexus began serving clients in September 2023, but officially launched on social media in January.