About First Dig

First Dig is a Toronto construction and business-intelligence tool built to make public filings useful before a project becomes an obvious lead.

Instead of selling form-fill leads, First Dig reads primary public records from the City of Toronto and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, joins related filings, classifies them and makes them searchable by timing, neighbourhood, project type and stage.

What First Dig covers

• Toronto construction projects: teardowns, new houses, multiplexes, garden suites, major additions and other building-permit signals.
• Businesses opening soon: restaurants, bars, clinics, shops and other businesses detected through public licence, permit and liquor-application signals.

Built in Toronto

First Dig was founded by Jackson Lang, a Rotman Commerce student at the University of Toronto. The product is being developed with direct feedback from Toronto contractors and local businesses.

Data philosophy

First Dig uses public-source data and explains its methodology. It does not manufacture “exclusive leads,” scrape private profiles, or pretend that every filing becomes a sale. The goal is to make real public signals easier to find, understand and act on.

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