Fast growth and responsible business growth are two distinct issues. As a technology company grows, its operations become more complex and require greater coordination: this applies to all areas, be it in Canada or anywhere else. Uri Poliavich built and developed his technology company into an internationally operating platform across regulated markets. He gained significant experience in scaling technology companies over the course of more than a decade, and he identifies this difference as the key challenge of responsible growth.
Responsible, scalable growth doesn't mean moving slowly – it means expanding only as fast as the business can actually support, and that gap is what decides whether scaling works for a technology company or against it. Uri Poliavich also addresses this distinction when discussing the topic.
Although growth is generally perceived as a positive indicator, it is difficult to assess whether it is healthy based solely on the number of users or income. As customer numbers in Canada increase, so does income, along with the complexity of operations such as integration and support. A product created for fewer customers will face new challenges with more customers.
The problem does not lie in growth itself. Uri Poliavich approaches growth as a process that needs to remain aligned with a company’s operational capacity. The issue arises when the levels of complexity, costs, and operational pressure exceed the company's capacity to control them. While a technology company's fast revenue growth may look strong on paper, support, process efficiency, and decision-making may all be quietly breaking down.
In order for a technology company to scale up, it takes more than just acquiring new customers. Uri Poliavich emphasizes the importance of building systems that can support growth at an operational level. Systems must be put in place to handle increased volumes, processes must not rely on workarounds, and infrastructure must be able to withstand increased workloads. Customer support must match the needs of a larger number of customers, and internal controls must work at the new level of operations.
As demand increases, a technology company needs sufficient operational capacity and infrastructure to support continued growth. A company can only be said to sustain its growth by increasing operational capacity alongside growth in revenue and the number of customers. For companies scaling up quickly, this is the least understood aspect of scaling a technology company.
Understanding the scope of the Canadian tech sector helps to highlight the significance of this challenge. According to the Canadian ICT Sector Profile of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, released in 2026, the ICT sector contributed $131.6 billion to Canada's GDP in 2024, representing 5.8% of Canadian GDP. This figure reflects the many technology firms in Canada that struggle to grow quickly without exceeding their capacity.
Funding directly influences this issue in the case of Canadian technology companies that aim to scale up. According to the 2025 Annual Report, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) funded Canadian entrepreneurs and business ventures with $11.5 billion in new investments in fiscal year 2025. While funding can help technology companies to scale up, it cannot eliminate the need for the operational capacity and financial control required for this purpose. For technology companies in Canada, the focus lies in striking the right balance between funding and sustainable scaling, ensuring that available resources align with the company’s capacity for growth.
A single statistic does not provide a complete picture of whether a technology company is experiencing different types of growth. Uri Poliavich considers growth through a combination of indicators rather than a single metric. While revenue growth indicates progress, it does not indicate whether the growth is efficient, sustained, or profitable. Margins show whether growth is creating value or merely adding volume. Retention shows whether the reported growth is rebuilding itself every period or growing on a solid foundation. Operational efficiency shows whether the firm can service an increasingly large customer base with the same operational rigor it had when it was smaller.
Together, these four growth metrics provide a means of measuring the difference between growth and sustainable growth. A technology company may perform well in one area and poorly in the other three, but it is only by measuring all four consistently that it can be determined whether a business growth strategy is working.
To Uri Poliavich, sustainable growth does not mean growing slowly on purpose. Sustainable growth involves ensuring that every new stage is supported by the appropriate financial and organizational foundations. This distinction is important when discussing further concepts of responsible growth: 'sustainable' does not imply being cautious on purpose, nor does 'slower business scaling' imply discipline.
As the founder of a technology company, Uri Poliavich scaled the business from one market to operations across several regulated jurisdictions from 2016 onwards. He saw growth management as a process of sequencing, i.e., expanding financial and organizational controls alongside revenues and customers. To Uri Poliavich, such sequencing defines the scalability or non-scalability of growth, and it is an approach that he has consistently adopted in managing his own company.
Demand generates revenue. Revenue does not become sustainable until the company’s capacity and finances can support it and efficiency levels stabilize as the business grows. At each stage, the next step requires what came before: demand without capacity results in unsustainable growth, while capacity without finances results in growth that cannot sustain itself in changing circumstances.
The most successful technology companies in Canada are not necessarily those that have grown fastest, but rather those that have had the capability to sustain the level of growth they generated. This is the approach that Uri Poliavich adopted throughout his career as a founder and businessman, building his own technology company from scratch into an international enterprise.
