Startupfest 2024 | Embrase | 9 July 2024 | Grand Quay of the Port of Montreal, 200 De la Commune St W, Montreal, Quebec H2Y 4B2, Canada

We’re not just talking; we’re doing. It’s a chance for all of us to present, connect, take advantage of new opportunities and tackle the stuff that matters, across all vertical right here, right now.

Why attend?
• An event built for founders.
• A hotbed of startups, and top tier VCs and Angels.
• Support from our partners makes this event possible.

2024 Speakers

HOST:

Alistair Croll
Chair, Startupfest, Elevator World Tour, FWD50

SPEAKERS:

Sam Colby
EVP & Chief of Staff, SRTX

Andrew Cleland
Chief Investment Officer, Techstars

Emily Ross
Director of Brand Strategy, X/Twitter - Europe, Middle East & Africa

Neil Grunberg
Managing Partner, Storytime Capital

Haley Bryant
Principal, Hustle Fund

Timm Chiusano
Principal, Chiusano & Daughter

Ravi Belani
Managing Director, Alchemist Accelerator

Alison Anderson
CEO & Founder, SuccessionMatching

Harley Finkelstein
President, Shopify

Christy Canida
Senior Director, Product, Alchemist Accelerator

David Segal
Co-Founder, DAVIDsTEA, Firebelly Tea, and Mad Radish

Heather Reisman
Chief Executive Officer, Indigo Books & Music, Inc.

Dr. Kevin Kliman
CEO, Humi

Pablos Holman
Managing Partner, Deep Future

Lise Birikundavyi
Co-founder and Managing Partner, BKR Capital

Phil Cutler
Founder & CEO, Paper

Akshi Federici
COO, Vision Realize

Mohannad El-Barachi
CEO, Wrk.com

Elizabeth Wasserman
Founder/CEO (exited), Felix Capital Corp

Heather Anne Ritchie-Dwyer
Strategist and Marketer, Formerly StealthTest by nameless (acquired Dec 2023)

Satish Kanwar
Co-Founder, Good Future

Neha Khera
Early-stage investor

Josh Brewer
General Partner, Enjoy the Work

Kristen Hamilton
General Partner, Enjoy the Work

Jonathan Lowenhar
Founder, Enjoy the Work

Drew Moffitt
Head of Marketing, Kumospace

Lesley Ross
General Partner, Enjoy the Work

Ron J. Williams
Impactful Venture Builder, Co-Created

Sean Power
CEO & Co-Founder, SOMMS.AI

Farrah Bostic
Founder, Head of Strategy & Research, The Difference Engine

Vinay Kumar Mysore
Design Research, VKM Consulting

Jen van der Meer
Founder, Reason Street

Lida Tohidi
Advisor & Coach, Pidari

Graham Hill
Founder & CEO, The Carbonauts & Wearehappytoserveyou.com

Katy Yam
Partner, Real Ventures

Mitch Joel
President, ThinkersOne

Chris Shipley
Board Member, rocket50

Randy Smerik
President & CEO, Tarari, Inc.

Meryeme Lahmami
Principal, Pender Ventures

Harper Reed
Computer operator, Harper Rules LLC

Charlotte Murray
Chief Coaching Officer, Propel

Marvin Liao
Partner, Diaspora Ventures

Marcus Daniels
Founding Partner & CEO, Highline Beta

Maggie Sprenger
General Partner, Audere Capital

Jacob Lanyadoo
President, TechBonjour

Jade Beguelin
Co-Founder & COO, 4AM SKIN

Dennis Todisco
Creator of Outfitgrid, Former Meta/ Instagram, Nike, Twitter

Mychelle Mollot
CMO, Knak

Olivia Norton
Chief Technology & Product Officer, Sanctuary AI

Sara Anvari
Chief Information Security Officer, Business Development Bank of Canada

Michelle Scarborough
Managing Partner, Women in Technology Venture Fund and Thrive Venture Fund, Business Development Bank of Canada

Leah Nguyen
Chief Investment Officer, InBC Investment Corp.

Candice Faktor
Co-CEO, Disco / Lobby Capital

Peter Walker
Head of Insights, Carta

Béatrice Couture
Principal, Teralys Capital

Alex Norman
Partner, N49P

David Nault
General Partner, Luge Capital

Isaac Souweine
Partner, Pender Ventures

Rachel Zimmer
Co-Founder & CEO, Simple Ventures

Jordan Steiner
Co-Founder and CEO, Developer Capital

Parinaz Sobhani
Head of AI, Georgian

Kenndal McArdle
Principal, Pender Ventures

Emmanuelle Coppinger
Managing Partner, Front Row Ventures

James Povitz
Principal, NAventures, National Bank of Canada

Brady Forrest
Partner, GenLab Venture Studio

Senia Rapisarda
Managing Director, HarbourVest Partners (Canada) Limited

Taku Murahwi
Investor, OMERS Ventures

Whitney Rockley
Managing Partner, McRock Capital

David Dufresne
Partner, CMD Capital

Helge Seetzen
Managing Partner & CEO, TandemLaunch

Danielle Filistin
Director Strategic Fund Investments, Desjardins

Marianne Dubois
Manager, Discovery Program / Montreal, Inovia

Julia Hanmer
Vice President, QIS Client Strategist, HarbourVest

John Rikhtegar
Director, Capital, RBCx

Jamie Joyce
Founder, The Society Library

Peter Kirwan
CEO & Co-founder, Mebot AI Corp

Shingai Manjengwa
Head of AI Education, ChainML

Nicholas Brigham Adams
Founder/Inventor, Everileaf, Goodly Labs, Public Editor

Haris Amiri
Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Ground News

Sandra Rodriguez
Creative Director/Producer XR+AI, Freelance artist, former lecturer at MIT HackingXR

Philippe Beaudoin
Founder and CEO, Waverly

Emily Charry Tissier
CEO, Whale Seeker

Martin Beaulieu
CEO, La Zone Bleue, Novarium

Amélie Desrochers
EVP, Novarium

Lauren McGuire
VP Banking, RBCx, Royal Bank of Canada

Paula Mendonça
Executive Director, Ocean Startup Project

Pierre Erwes
Partner, Deal flow and strategic partnerships, Blue Forward Fund

Nancy Andrews
Chief Engagement and Communications Officer, Canada's Ocean Supercluster

Ted Janulis
Founder & Principal, Investable Oceans

Jennifer LaPlante
Chief Growth & Investment Officer, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster

Ann Carpenter
CEO, Braid Theory

Kendra MacDonald
Chief Executive Officer, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster

Barry Stevens
President, Stevens Solutions & Design Inc., 3D Wave Design

Stuart Kozlick
Founder & CEO, Fractional Executive, Partner, Kozlick Medical, CYLAD

Marc Guilbert
CEO, BXVentures

Hayden Smith
Chief Executive Officer, FeX Energy

Nicholas Nadeau
CTO, SmartOne

Mike Lee
Funding Expert, Fundica

Tim Tokarsky
Founding Partner, i4 Capital

Laurence Audette-Lagueux
General Manager, Garage & co

Bertrand Nepveu
Rastaman, Triptyq Capital

Samantha Rudolph
Senior Product Lead, dcbel

Chris Neumann
General Partner, Panache Ventures

Diana Horqque Ratto
Executive Director, V1 Studio

Guillaume Bédard
VP Growth, Tangent Design Engineering Ltd, Partner, Tangible Venture Partners

Sabrina Sasaki
Principal & Country Manager, Monozukuri Ventures

Sophie Forest
Partner, Brightspark Ventures

Soula Chronopoulos
President, AquaAction

Artmiz Golkaramnay
Founder, LATYS Intelligence

Suzie Dufour
Technical Director, BioMedTech, INO

Susan Schofer
Partner, SOSV, Partner & Chief Science Officer, HAX

Richard Chénier
General Manager, Startup Montréal

Nathalie Morin
President and CEO, Polystyvert

Dominic Gagnon
CEO, Connect&GO

Anne Martel
Managing Director at Keira Capital, Serial Entrepreneur, Co-founder at Element AI

Simon De Baene
CEO, Workleap

Vicky Boudreau
CEO, Heylist

Andrew Lockhead
CEO, Stay22

Pascale Audette
Founding Partner, Agetech Capital

Etienne Crevier
Animator, Les Dérangeants

Amira Boutouchent
Co-founder & CEO, BRIDGR

Kalthoum Bouacida
Partner, AQC Capital

Vincent Routhier
CEO, Lü

Danielle Graham
Co-Founder, The Firehood

Patrick Pichette
Partner, Inovia Capital

Mark Legare
Principal, Innospark Ventures

Claire Glossop Irani
Head of Investor Relations, Inovia Capital

Phil G. Joseph
Investment Associate, Real Ventures, Rep Matters

Francois Lafortune
CEO & Co-Founder, Diagram Ventures

Maria Julia Guimaraes
CEO, Totum Tech

Alexandre Beaudoin
Research Director, Éco-pivot

Jean-Simon Boucher
CEO, Cortech Sports

Sophie Silkes
Director of Strategic Engagement, COAST

Richard LaBerge
President, IMPACK CPR inc.

Sévrine Labelle
Managing Director, Thrive Lab, BDC

Melissa Allen
Founding Partner, Capital M Ventures; Executive Director, League of Innovators

Hilary Kilgour
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Audaxa Ventures

Rodrigo Prudencio
Managing Partner, Propeller VC

Erin O'Keefe Graham
Incubator Director, Angel Investor, Emera ideaHUB, Women's Equity Lab

Raymond Chik
Chairman, HardTech Investor Network

Teija Bean
Head of Design, Forum Ventures, AI Studio

Amy Buckland
University Librarian, Concordia University

Magaly Charbonneau
Partner, Inovia Capital

Louis Delorme
Associate, Amplify Capital

Susan Hunt
Chief Innovation Officer, Oneka Technologies

Katherine Johnsen
Co-Founder/CEO, Common Ace

Philippe Telio
Founder & President, Startupfest, Elevator World Tour, FWD50

Iran Karimian
Head of Accelerator & Startup Ecosystem, Google Canada

A.M. Abbassi
Founder & CEO, Shaddari Inc.

Annie Cyr
Founder & CEO, Tengiva

Frédéric Bastien
Managing Partner, Amiral Ventures

Julie Lacasse
Venture Partner, Amiral Ventures

Dr. Chris Whidden
DeepSense/COVE Digital Ocean Research Chair, Dalhousie University

Ken Paul
Principal / Owner, Pokiok Associates

Derrick Whalen
Director, Information and Technology Services, Halifax Port Authority

Simon Savard
Project Manager, Port de Montréal

2024 Partners

PARTNERS:
• BDO Global
• Banque Nationale
• Fasken
• RBC
• Osler
• KRB
• Toronto Dominion Bank
• Dell Technologies

COMMUNITY PARTNERS:
• Pagato
• Solotech
• Yogatribes
• Stager Depot
• PAQ
• Fulhaus