In The Blink Of AI with Georgie Healy The Truth About AI Agents: Real Wins, Real Failures
With Beth Lovell, Sally Yu
About Sam Garven
Sam Garven is co-founder and chief executive of Hello Canopy, a platform where employees can report misconduct and psychosocial or wellbeing concerns, and where employers manage those cases and see trends across their organisation. Reports can be anonymous or identified, and an AI assistant helps employees understand their options before they report.
She has worked in people and culture roles in Australian tech and startups for more than a decade, including at Zip and Kinde, and is a co-founder of Grapevine, which raises awareness of workplace harassment and discrimination through storytelling.
She spoke to Georgie Healy on In The Blink Of AI in January 2025 about building Canopy, and returned in August 2025 for a panel on what AI agents deliver in practice.
- Talks about
- AI, Product, Founder Journey, Startup Lessons
In conversation.
2 episodes
Start hereSam Garven on Building Safer Workplaces with AI: Say Hello CanopyHer own interview: how Canopy lets employees ask an AI assistant questions before making an anonymous or identified report.
In The Blink Of AI with Georgie Healy 
In The Blink Of AI with Georgie Healy Sam Garven on Building Safer Workplaces with AI: Say Hello Canopy
Go straight to the good bits.
Key moments from The Truth About AI Agents: Real Wins, Real Failures.
- 1:05Beth’s journey from Woolies X to FoBoH: COVID supply chains, failed portals & why AI is different
- 4:07Sam’s origin story: unsafe workplaces, no safe way to speak up, and building Hello Canopy
- 6:15Sally’s investor lens: hundreds of agents tested, why she backs Relevance AI
- 7:32Favourite hacks you can steal: Replit, sticky notes → tables, system preferences for style
- 12:26First useful agents: outreach automation, policy-scraping, VC inbound triage
- 17:28What we wish we knew before building: expect errors, keep it simple, chain tasks, onboard like a teammate
- 20:07Designing for reality: data hygiene, human-in-the-loop, guardrails
- 22:27Dream agents: life OS, product-copy deployer, Excel-beating modeller
- 25:10Why women adopt AI less — and why that must change
- 30:32Strengths non-engineers should lean into: empathy, domain expertise, communication
In their own words.
“It's not just building in public. It's building as loudly as possible.”
The path so far.
- Now
Co-Founder & CEO · Hello Canopy
- Earlier · Scale-up
People & Culture · Zip Co
- Earlier · Startup
Head of People & Culture · Kinde
- Earlier · Startup
Founding member · Grapevine
Sources: startuppeoplesummit.com
Hello Canopy on Day One
Hello Canopy, known as Canopy until early 2025, is an AI-assisted platform for reporting workplace misconduct and psychosocial safety concerns.
1 person · 2 episodes
Across the network.
Spot something wrong? Suggest a correctionUpdated 29 October 2026
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