Cyber first aid for the people technology forgot.
We're building the global Centre of Excellence for personal cyber response — headquartered in Nova Scotia, Canada. B2B cybersecurity subscriptions fund a subsidized first responder for the individual victim.
Founder-led from Halifax, Nova Scotia · Aligned with BDC and Invest Nova Scotia mandates
There is no 911 for cyber.
reported fraud losses in Canada in 2025 (CAFC estimates this is 5–10% of actual).
increase in reported fraud losses in Canada, 2020→2024 (CAFC).
average loss per victim aged 60+, who account for ~40% of reported losses (CAFC, 2024).
These are real people, they are alone, and the gap is widening every year.
Where does a person go?
There is no first responder for the individual cyber victim. Not in Canada. Not anywhere. This is the gap we're closing.
Enterprises have CrowdStrike. Governments have CSE. The wealthy hire boutiques at $400/hour. Everyone else gets a pamphlet and a phone tree.
Mission at the centre, funding model around it.
Individuals & Families
hackfirstaid.com
- 24/7 hotline staffed by trained cyber responders
- Identity-recovery & account-takeover triage
- Sextortion / romance-fraud crisis support
- Plain-language recovery playbooks
- Priced for households, not corporations
Seven B2B verticals fund the mission.
B2B subscriptions → fund individual response → scale the mission.
Four converging forces.
AI now industrializes attacks on individuals.
Voice-cloning scams, deepfake CEOs, romance-fraud chatbots, LLM-written sextortion. The cost to attack one person has collapsed; the cost to defend has not.
Personal-fraud losses are exploding.
Reported Canadian losses hit $704M+ in 2025, up 290% in four years. CAFC says reported losses are 5–10% of actual — real exposure likely $7–14B annually.
Regulation now expects a response capability.
Bill C-26 / CCSPA (Canada), SEC disclosure rules (US), EU NIS2. The infrastructure for personal response doesn't exist yet.
The funding mandate is open.
BDC's 2026 $4B Defence & Security Platform explicitly covers cybersecurity; Invest NS's Payroll Rebate is built for knowledge-economy firms creating ≥20 NS jobs.
B2B subscriptions fund a subsidized individual-response capability.
Self-serve training, quarterly briefings, IR templates.
Cohort coaching, live IR coverage, board reporting.
Named vCISO, custom tabletops, regulator-grade documentation.
Anchors apply to Boards, Leadership, and IT Teams. SMB and Medical use volume-priced annual seats; Municipalities and K-12 use sealed multi-year contracts.
Market sizing is directional; full model in the data room.
Global personal cyber + SMB cyber (2027, blended).
Canada + US underserved core.
5-year reachable, NS-based national capability + select US footprint.
A personal-cyber market this large does not yet have a category leader.
| Capability | Enterprise tools (CrowdStrike) | Consumer AV / ID (Norton, LifeLock) | Consultants (Big 4 / IR boutiques) | HackFirstAid The category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human responder for the victim | — | — | Partial | ✓ |
| Built for individuals | — | Partial | — | ✓ |
| Crisis response (not just prevention) | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Funding model serves the mission | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Canadian / NS presence | — | — | Partial | ✓ |
The only category-defining response capability built for the individual victim.
Make Nova Scotia the global Centre of Excellence for combating personal cyber compromise.
Public-safety DNA
JRCC Halifax, RCMP H-Division — Atlantic Canada has run national response for decades.
Right-sized to execute
Dalhousie, NSCC, Saint Mary's talent pipeline — deep, accessible, and loyal.
Provincial appetite
Cyber is a stated NS priority; Invest NS aligned with knowledge-economy growth.
Bridge to US + Europe
Atlantic time zone, bilingual, Five-Eyes jurisdiction.
Five-year outcome: Nova Scotia = where personal cyber gets solved.
40 net-new NS jobs in 12 months.
Where the 40 go
- Personal-response specialists12
- B2B sales & success9
- Delivery / vCISO pod8
- Content & vertical leads7
- Engineering & product4
Use of funds (12 mo)
- Talent / NS payroll65%
- Go-to-market15%
- Product & content12%
- Working capital & reserves8%
12 of the 40 are personal-response specialists — the front line of the mission. Direct fit with the Invest NS Payroll Rebate.
Two tracks, one mission.
Strategic & government capital
BDC + Invest Nova Scotia
- • Term debt to fund the 12-month NS build-out
- • Alignment with the 2026 $4B Defence & Security Platform
- • Invest NS Payroll Rebate on 40 Year-1 FTEs
- • Innovation Rebate on qualifying R&D
- • Provincial flagship co-marketing
Private investors
Angels / VC / strategic
- • Category-creation opportunity in personal cyber response
- • ARR-first B2B engine with 80%+ gross margin
- • NS cost structure 30–40% below Toronto / Waterloo
- • Series A optionality at Year 2 on operating-basis profitability
Request the investor data room.
What you'll receive
- • Live ARR and customer traction
- • Full financial model and pipeline
- • Capital ask, cap table, and use-of-funds detail
- • Founder background and early-team plan
- • LOIs and signed engagements
Travis reviews every request personally.
Founded in Nova Scotia by a cyber operator embedded in the community.
Travis Barlow
25+ years in incident response, 580+ engagements, founder of AtlSecCon — the Atlantic Security Conference, one of Canada's longest-running independent cyber conferences. Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Full founder background and the early-team plan are in the data room.