Saskatoon startup incubator Co.Labs says all roughly 30 of its resident startups now use AI in some capacity, according to Global News, as realtor-focused app Rivra went from idea to a production-grade beta in nine months using tools like ChatGPT. Co-founder Caroline Gilmore told Global News she “vibe-coded” Rivra’s first version herself before pitching it to the incubator, which is now beta-testing the app toward a Q3 2026 launch. Co.Labs program director Graeme Jobe said supported founders range from using OpenAI and Anthropic chat products to coding agents for deeply technical work, and that AI is cutting costs, citing a comparable app interface that would have cost over $100,000 to build a few years ago. The pattern illustrates how far AI-assisted development has compressed typical startup timelines for small, resource-constrained teams.
Rivra’s nine-month idea-to-production timeline is a concrete data point for how far AI coding assistance has compressed early-stage build cycles: a two-person team without a dedicated engineer shipped a beta-ready app using consumer tools like ChatGPT and “vibe coding.” The more striking claim, from incubator Co.Labs, is that literally all of its roughly 30 resident startups now use AI somewhere in their pipeline, from chat tools to coding agents, suggesting AI-assisted development is now the default rather than the exception among early-stage founders in this cohort.
What happened
According to Global News, Saskatoon real estate professionals Gregg Bamford and Caroline Gilmore built an app called Rivra, aimed at streamlining realtor client communications, almost entirely with AI assistance. Gilmore said she “vibe-coded” the first version and used large language models such as ChatGPT to help write the code, taking the product from concept to a production-grade app awaiting its first test users in about nine months. The pair then took Rivra through Co.Labs, a Saskatoon tech incubator that says it has supported more than 250 startups over nine years and currently backs around 30 resident companies with federal and provincial funding. Co.Labs program director Graeme Jobe told Global News every supported startup now uses AI in some capacity, “all the way from using tools like OpenAI or Anthropic chat products, all the way to coding agents and tools that assist in very deeply technical parts of building a product.” The incubator also pointed to TeamLinkt, a sports-management app that started at Co.Labs seven years ago and has since grown to a 30-person team serving about 600,000 users, as an example of a graduate now navigating an AI-accelerated market.
For practitioners
Founders described a shift in where their time goes: TeamLinkt’s Jay Maharaj said AI has made the product itself faster and cheaper to build, so more founder attention now goes toward go-to-market strategy than toward writing code. Bamford estimated Rivra’s interface would have cost over $100,000 to build two or three years ago, illustrating the scale of cost compression AI coding tools bring to small teams, though he also noted the same accessibility lowers the barrier for competitors to replicate an idea faster.
What to watch
Rivra is still in beta with a targeted third-quarter 2026 launch, so this is an early, single-market data point rather than a validated outcome. Global News’ reporting does not include user metrics, technical details on how the app was built, or specifics on Co.Labs’ AI tooling stack. Worth tracking as the beta progresses: how the LLM-assisted codebase holds up under real user load, and whether Co.Labs’ “AI in every startup” claim shows up in the incubator’s longer-term outcomes data
Key Points
- 1Every one of Co.Labs’ roughly thirty Saskatoon startups reports using AI somewhere in its workflow, spanning chatbots through coding agents.
- 2A two-person Saskatoon team used ChatGPT-assisted vibe coding to take real estate app Rivra from concept to beta in nine months.
- 3Founders say AI is cutting development costs and shifting their time toward go-to-market strategy, while also lowering barriers for competitors.
Scoring Rationale
Solid minor practitioner signal: a named incubator reports AI use across all ~30 resident startups, with a concrete nine-month idea-to-beta example and a $100K+ cost-avoidance estimate. Scope stays local and single-outlet with no independent verification of the incubator’s blanket adoption claim, keeping it in the minor band
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01globalnews.caSaskatchewan startups turning to AI to start businesses, accelerate growth
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