In the latest episode of What the Tech from Boast, we sat down with Marc Gingras, co-founder and CEO of Bloks, a company on a mission to eliminate the tedious busy work that plagues traditional CRMs and investment workflows.

We first connected with Marc at SaaS North in Ottawa (November 2025) as part of our activation with TechTO, where he took the stage to explain the game-changing innovation behind Bloks: A platform helping venture capital, private equity partners, wealth advisors, and professional services firms rethink how they manage relationships.

Marc has been a leading entrepreneur in Ottawa for more than a decade, and his journey through the tech ecosystem offers valuable lessons about finding product-market fit, building for efficiency, and knowing when the world is ready for a fundamental rethink of legacy tools.

The Ultimate Hack: A Career Built on Productivity

Marc’s journey as an entrepreneur began with a simple philosophy from his high school days: “I was always looking for shortcuts to avoid studying what I didn’t like. I’d find ways to get good grades without putting in all the hours.”

That mindset—finding ways to get results without wasting time—became the thread running through his entire career. His first startup, Tungle, created scheduling software (think Calendly before Calendly existed). In fact, Marc’s name is on the patent for the scheduling link concept. He grew Tungle to half a million users before selling it to BlackBerry in 2011.

His second company focused on retail operations, helping brands like Nike, Whole Foods, CVS, and LVMH communicate with and assign tasks to their distributed store teams. After a bidding war in 2021, the company was acquired by Workforce Software (part of ADP).

“What led me to entrepreneurship was really about finding shortcuts and ways to get places faster,” Marc explains. After two decades building productivity apps used by over 100 million people (including leading all productivity apps at BlackBerry), he came to a surprising realization.

The Insight: Productivity Isn’t About Speed

“It’s not about building an app that lets you get through your email faster. Real results come from helping people build stronger, better, and more relationships. In other words, scaling what can’t be scaled: the number of real relationships you have.”

That insight led to Bloks. But when Marc looked at the tool that’s supposed to help manage relationships—the CRM—he saw big problems:

Nobody loves their CRM. Why? Because keeping it up to date is a pain. You spend hours entering data, mostly so management can run reports. Does it actually help you day to day? Not really.

The data is there, but not when you need it. Information might be in the system, but you have to dig through multiple platforms to find it before a meeting. The tool meant to help you manage relationships ends up being just more admin work.

CRMs are built for transactions, not relationships. The “C” is for “Customer,” but your network is more than just customers. You have investors, partners, colleagues, former coworkers—valuable professional relationships that CRMs don’t handle well.

Bloks: Professional Relationship Management

With these issues in mind and new AI capabilities emerging, Marc saw a chance to build something truly different.

Bloks was created for people who want to build long-term relationships—not just close quick sales. The first focus was venture capital and private equity (a space Marc knew well and could test quickly), but it’s now expanded to:

  • Wealth advisors looking to keep clients for life
  • Insurance brokers building relationships that last decades
  • Professional services (consultants, lawyers, accountants)
  • Marketing and media agencies nurturing long-term clients

Here’s what makes Bloks different:

No data entry. Everything is captured, summarized, and organized automatically. Why waste time updating systems by hand when technology can do it for you?

Proactive intelligence. Information pops up when you need it—not just when you remember to look. You’re always prepared for every interaction, with no extra prep.

All professional relationships matter. Track customers, investors, partners, colleagues, and past contacts in one place. It’s not just customer relationship management—it’s professional relationship management.

The AI Advantage (Without the Hype)

Bloks uses AI extensively, but Marc’s team keeps things refreshingly practical. With just four developers, they use tools like Cursor’s AI Codex to do work that used to take 20+ people. Senior engineers direct the AI to handle tasks in parallel, freeing them up to focus on the big picture.

But when it comes to customer relationships? “We’re still very old school… We want to connect one-on-one. At this stage, it’s crucial to get direct feedback, and we don’t want a robot doing that for us.”

This approach is similar to what we see at Boast—use AI to boost efficiency and empower your team, but keep people involved where judgment, empathy, and expertise matter most.

The Results Speak for Themselves

Bloks users say it best:

  • Immediate impact: “Within an hour, I’m seeing results in my work.”
  • Major time savings: Users report saving 6-7 hours every week—basically gaining back a full workday.

As Marc puts it: “That’s a whole day saved every week. That’s real value. That’s a huge win.”

What’s Next: The CRM Overhaul

While Bloks is solving specific CRM headaches today, Marc’s vision is much bigger: “The CRM needs a total overhaul, and that’s where we’re headed.”

Given his track record for spotting productivity bottlenecks and building solutions millions adopt, it’s worth watching where Bloks goes next.

Key Takeaways

Productivity isn’t just about speed: Sometimes the real breakthrough is helping people build better, more scalable relationships—not just getting tasks done faster.

CRMs don’t work for relationship-driven work: Traditional CRMs are built for transactions and reporting, not for building long-term professional relationships.

AI should empower, not replace: Use AI to cut out busywork and give skilled people superpowers, but keep human judgment where it counts.

Build for yourself first: Marc follows Steve Jobs’ philosophy: “I build products for myself. If I can use it, hopefully it’s useful for others too.”

Listen to the Full Episode

Want to hear more about Marc’s journey from scheduling software to retail operations to reinventing the CRM—and get tips on building lean teams with AI?

Listen to the full episode of What the Tech by Boast.

About What the Tech by Boast

What the Tech features conversations with the brilliant minds behind new and exciting tech initiatives, exploring what it takes to tackle technological uncertainty and change the world. Hosted by Paul Davenport, Boast’s resident tech journalist and Head of Content.

Learn More About R&D Tax Credits

If you’re building productivity tools or AI-powered platforms like Bloks and want to maximize your R&D funding, Boast can help. Our platform and expert team make it easy to claim Canadian SR&ED tax credits (including Quebec’s CDAE-IA program) and US R&D tax credits.

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