I came across Anvil at CANSEC earlier this year, and although I didn’t get the chance to meet Sam due to timing, I was honestly blown away by what I discovered. It’s rare to come across a company this early in its trajectory that clearly has the DNA to become something massive. Anvil immediately stood out to me, not just because of the technology, but because of the mission behind it.

At its core, Anvil is building a secure, AI-powered data platform that gives defence and national security teams the ability to ingest, enrich, and understand information in real time. It’s designed to unify everything from sensor data to intelligence reports into a single, intuitive interface, allowing decision-makers to act faster, smarter, and with complete confidence. Think of it as Canada’s version of Palantir, but built with a sovereign-first mindset and deep empathy for the people on the ground who actually use it.

As someone who’s long admired companies like Palantir for how they blend advanced technology with real-world impact, seeing a Canadian team tackling this problem space with the same intensity and vision is inspiring. Anvil is proof that innovation in defence tech doesn’t just happen in Silicon Valley and it’s happening right here at home.

Below is our interview with Samuel Witherspoon.

From Law and Engineering to Defence Innovation: The Birth of Anvil

Q1: You have an unconventional background as both an engineer and a lawyer. What motivated you to launch a tech startup in the defense sector, and how have those diverse experiences shaped your vision and leadership style at Anvil?

Sam: It’s not a conventional defence-tech background but it all makes sense as part of Anvil’s story. Over a decade ago, while working as a lawyer at Canada’s National Security Court, I saw how manual handling of national security data was creating inefficiency, risks, and costs for Canada. My legal background meant I understood the legal, governance, and security challenges the court was facing. But my engineering background told me that this was a data problem that technology could help solve.  

Over the past decade, this has always been at the foundation of Anvil - that if we deeply understand national security and defence data flows, we can use technology to radically improve them, and give those who serve our country a critical advantage.

As a leader, I stress that we must be fluent in both the operational mission and the technical solution. In practice, for example, it means our engineers embed with our defence partners. This approach, built on empathy for the end-user and grounded in technical discipline, gives us the drive to build a platform that is not only powerful but also trustworthy, secure, and intuitive enough to work under extreme pressure.

Turning Data into Decision Advantage: How Anvil’s Platform Works

Q2: Anvil’s platform has been described as ingesting virtually any data type, enriching it with AI, and delivering a “single source of truth” for decision-makers – reportedly boosting analytical capacity fourfold for its users. How does the system work in practice?

Sam: We give our defence forces back that most valuable battlefield asset: time. Right now, intelligence teams spend a lot of time just trying to collate data across different disconnected systems. 

Anvil ingests all of that disparate data in real-time - whether it's sensor data, satellite imagery, or a written intelligence report. It automatically structures that information, enriches it using AI to identify key entities, applies rigorous data security and governance, and makes it available through APIs and mission applications.

The result is that all of that information is presented to the user in a single, intuitive interface - either through the Anvil platform or through our ecosystem partners. Instead of spending their time collecting data, our defence forces can focus on analysis.  They also don’t have to spend much time training, which can be a huge time-suck for software adoption in defence.  We’ve made Anvil very intuitive - a user can contribute to a mission on Anvil with only 30 minutes training. 

That’s where the fourfold increase in capacity comes from: we turn that time spent collecting into time spent analysing the enemy and making decisions.

A user at a recent exercise said, "I had never touched [Anvil] before, and I figured it out in about 15 minutes." In that same exercise, one team was able to predict an inbound helicopter assault before the aircraft had even taken off. That's the practical impact - it's not just a "single source of truth," it's the clarity and speed needed to achieve decision advantage over the enemy.

Mission First: Building a Company That Serves Those Who Serve

Q3: Anvil identifies as a “Mission First” organization. How do you instill this mission-driven philosophy in your team and operations, and why do you believe that focusing on impact is crucial for a tech company working in national security?

Sam: "Mission First" is our central value. We succeed only when Canada and its allies succeed. That is our sole metric for success.

We instill this philosophy from day one. When we hire, we look for people who are driven by purpose, not just profit - people who want to tackle the hardest problems. This creates a culture where our team feels a deep sense of ownership and accountability for the operator's success. As one of our partners in the military said about Anvil, "You’re not just buying a tool, you’re buying a team."

In national security and defence, the stakes are simply too high for a traditional, transactional vendor relationship. The problems are too complex, and the environment is too dynamic. You can't just sell software and walk away. Focusing on impact builds the deep, enduring trust required to be a true partner. 

Breaking the Procurement Maze: The Future of Canadian Defence Innovation

Q4: You’ve spoken about challenges like navigating Canada’s government procurement “maze” and the importance of developing sovereign, homegrown defense technology. Based on Anvil’s experience, what do you see as the biggest hurdles for Canadian tech companies working with defense, and how could Canada’s innovation ecosystem better support startups in these high-impact sectors?

Sam: Based on our experience, the single biggest hurdle is the pervasive challenge of information silos. These silos exist not just between government departments, but more critically, between government and industry. The traditional procurement model treats industry as a transactional vendor, kept at arm's length, which fundamentally slows down innovation and prevents the kind of deep collaboration needed to solve complex national security and defence challenges.

This creates a system where the warfighter or analyst with the problem is separated from the innovator with the technical solution. Government and industry end up working in parallel, rather than as a unified team, co-innovating solutions together.

So to truly support innovation in these sectors, we should focus on breaking down these silos and creating new models for partnership that bring government and industry together.  For example, frameworks where industry partners are embedded with operational users to co-develop solutions, secondment models between government and industry, and interoperable data exchange programs. 

A New Era for Canadian Innovation: Lessons from Anvil’s Journey

Q5: What do you think Anvil’s journey says about the potential for tech innovation in Canada, and what advice would you give to other Canadian entrepreneurs who aspire to tackle big challenges in fields like AI, defense, or public safety?

Sam: I think Anvil’s journey shows that Canada can and should be a leader in building technology for these critical, high-impact sectors. Over more than ten years, we’ve shown that a Canadian company, by focusing relentlessly on the user's mission, can build trust and deliver capability that makes a meaningful impact on the national security and defence of our country.

My advice to other Canadian entrepreneurs is threefold:

1. Sell mission success, not software. Your customer is not buying features, they are buying the mitigation of risk and a tangible, successful outcome.  Study what the requirements are for the modern warfighter and how your technology can give them a decisive advantage. 

2. Build trust. In sectors like defence and public safety, your customers aren't just buying a product, they are trusting you with their mission, and in some cases, their lives. That trust is your most valuable asset. You earn it through always showing up - through reliability, capability, and a genuine commitment to their mission.

3. Be relentlessly driven. These are hard industries to break into. The sales cycles are long, the bureaucracy is complex, and the challenges are immense. But the work is incredibly important. You have to be an optimist who can see a vision of a better future and then run through walls to get there. The impact you can have is worth the fight.

   
   

Fello's Thoughts.

At Fello, we believe that companies like Anvil are exactly what Canada needs to support and rally behind. If you want Canada to win — to truly lead in high-impact, high-integrity technology, these are the innovators to bet on. With the right push, ecosystem support, and visibility, Anvil has the potential to become a monster success story in both Canadian and global defence technology.

This is also our chance to show off the incredible depth of research and technical talent Canada is known for and to prove that world-class innovation can be built right here, serving the missions that matter most.