In this exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Gorkem Cetin, founder of BlueWave Labs, shares how his company is breaking down barriers for Canadian immigrants and local developers by providing real-world open-source project experience. With a focus on practical solutions for SMBs, BlueWave Labs not only connects skilled talent with businesses but also drives innovation in cybersecurity, AI governance, and HR automation. Gorkem discusses how his platform fosters collaboration, upskills IT professionals, and helps small businesses adopt cost-effective, compliant technology that scales — all while building a vibrant Canadian open-source ecosystem.
Gorkem is a seasoned product and SaaS expert with over 25 years of experience across a wide range of industries and technologies. He holds a PhD in computer science and has been living in Canada since 2018 with his wife and two beautiful kids. He is the founder of BlueWave Labs, a company dedicated to building B2B open-source software, helping Canadian immigrants and developers grow through meaningful projects and collaboration.
BlueWave Labs addresses the “Canadian experience” barrier by having IT professionals collaborate on real open-source projects like Checkmate and VerifyWise. How does this model specifically empower Canadian SMBs to access skilled talent while fostering innovation in sectors like cybersecurity and AI governance?
At BlueWave Labs, we’re solving the “Canadian experience” barrier by getting IT professionals involved in real open-source projects. Instead of struggling to prove their skills on a resume,, they gain real, hands-on experience that businesses can actually see.
For Canadian SMBs, this makes hiring much easier. Small businesses don’t always have the time or budget to take a chance on someone without local experience. But when a developer has contributed to our open-source projects, their work speaks for itself. We give them a platform to showcase their skills, so employers can see their problem-solving abilities, teamwork, and technical expertise in action.
With this model, we don’t only fill job gaps. BlueWave also builds a stronger open-source ecosystem in Canada. When businesses engage with open-source they also leverage them and turn them into viable, money-making business models. We’re creating an environment where SMBs can contribute to the very tools they rely on, instead of waiting for outside solutions.
At the end of the day, we’re both helping IT professionals get experience and connecting Canadian businesses with skilled talent and driving innovation in open-source technologies.
Your platform charges participants $249/month for mentorship and project access. How do you balance monetization with your mission to democratize opportunities for immigrants and local developers? Can you share a success story of an SMB that leveraged BlueWave-trained talent to scale its operations?
At BlueWave Labs, we are committed to provide opportunities for IT people, particularly for immigrants and local developers. The business model is designed to ensure that we can sustain high-quality mentorship and provide valuable resources while also making learning services accessible. The $249/month fee helps us maintain a good level of expertise and we offer flexible options, including financial assistance and co-op opportunities to ensure that talented individuals from diverse backgrounds can benefit from our programs. We currently have 2 co-op students, out of 31 developers.
Our mission is to help growth within underserved communities and this is reflected in the success stories of many SMBs who’ve leveraged BlueWave-trained talent to scale. For example, an SMB in the crypto tech space hired 5 BlueWave Labs developers to provide network uptime services offerings to its client, and they have built a great platform on top of Checkmate, one of our open source products.
BlueWave emphasizes Agile practices and hybrid team collaboration. What methodologies do you employ to help SMBs integrate your open-source tools (e.g., Server monitoring systems, AI governance platforms) into their existing workflows without disrupting productivity?
Agile practices and team collaboration is at the heart of the good development practices at the BlueWave Labs. Developers often lack those skills when they graduate, and even those with a few years of development experience need to skill up their knowledge.
During our calls and development phase, we use a combination of Agile onboarding, modular development adoption, and developer-first documentation. This is crucial to build robust and safe applications. In turn, it helps SMBs incorporate our open-source tools like Checkmate(server monitoring) and VerifyWise (AI governance) tools.
During our agile development process, we co-create short sprints with our team members to test and deploy features incrementally. Usually there are 2-5 months between our releases. This way, teams can validate benefits fast without pausing their operations.
Additionally, we talk to our users from the open source world about our best practices. Since everything is built and developed in the open, we need to be very transparent about our processes and document everything for typical SMB use cases.
Additionally there are publicly available Discord channels for some of the projects. Since they are open to everyone using our tools, developers learn how to interact with potential users of our applications, and this also gives them an understanding of how to respond to support tickets. Every BlueWave Labs team member does this, as it increases the velocity of development by getting timely feedback.
Especially for VerifyWise, we prioritize compliance workflows that mirror ISO 42001, EU AI Act, and NIST standards so businesses can adopt governance without needing to start from scratch.
Overall, the goal is always the same – we help SMBs modernize and secure their systems with open-source, without hitting pause on what they do best.
With projects like VerifyWise addressing AI ethics and Headcount automating HR tasks, how do you prioritize which open-source solutions to develop? What role do Canadian SMBs play in shaping this roadmap?
We prioritize open-source projects based on three key factors: urgency of the problem and AI first-nature.
For example, VerifyWise emerged because there was a clear gap in tools that help organizations meet AI governance standards like the EU AI Act and ISO 42001. Headcount, on the other hand, was born out of day-to-day operational friction we saw in HR teams, especially in growing startups that couldn’t afford enterprise automation tools.
Another project we’ll soon start building helps companies build safe and fair AI systems internally with open source solutions. This will be a team work consisting of 8 developers, and what they learn here will help them upskill their knowledge about AI systems and how LLMs work.
Canadian SMBs play a big role in shaping the roadmap of BlueWave Labs. They’re often early adopters of open-source because of cost sensitivity, but they also bring a sharp focus on trust, compliance, and local regulations. We stay close to these companies through our community forums (particularly Discord and GitHub for discussions and pilot programs). Their feedback helps us decide whether to double down, pivot, or sometimes even sunset a tool.
As a certified B Corp, what advice would you give Canadian small businesses looking to adopt open-source technologies for cost-effective digital transformation while maintaining compliance and security standards?
As the CEO of BlueWave Labs, I strongly encourage Canadian small businesses to explore open-source technologies as part of their digital transformation journey. Some people think open source as just a budget-friendly alternative. However, its values are driven by transparency, community and long-term sustainability.
I can give several advice for Canadian SMBs as they incorporate open source into their workflows. First, open source should be adopted with a purpose. It’s not meant to be a cost cutting tool, but should be taken seriously with a champion inside the company. Technologies must be chosen so that they align with the business needs. I can give an example here. If a CRM tool is not actively maintained and doesn’t have a driven community, then adopting it will create more problems than solutions.
For Canadian companies, especially those handling sensitive customer or employee data, compliance isn’t something optional as well. SMBs need to align with PIPEDA, ISO 27001, and prepare for frameworks like the EU AI Act. Open source tools can help in such cases, but only if SMBs apply them responsibly. Hence, use tools that support audits, encryption, and access control. If you’re building with AI, be mindful of upcoming federal frameworks and provincial legislation on data ethics.
One common myth is that open source = insecure. In fact, allowing community to be a part of open source solutions often makes it more secure than black-box enterprise tools. But the key is to choose projects with strong contributor bases, regularly apply security patches and updates and try to detect vulnerabilites before others.
I also would suggest SMBS to leverage Canadian support systems for organizations. Canada has an incredible ecosystem to help small businesses innovate securely. SR&ED and IRAP can offset the cost of R&D, including open-source work.
My final tip would be to start small and see if open source works for you, then scale mindfully.
You don’t need to migrate everything at once. Pick one part of your stack—maybe monitoring, internal tools, or data visualization, and replace it with an open-source option.
And when you’re ready to contribute back, do it. That’s how the ecosystem stays strong and Canadian innovation moves forward.
