Panelists: Guillaume Ramadier, Rodrigo Itzamná Becerra-Deana and Lucien Weiss

Finding the right co-founder is often harder than finding the idea. In this session, we explore how to build a founding team that actually works, beyond just complementary skills. With insights from startup Peregrine Photon, we’ll unpack what makes or breaks co-founder relationships, and share methods from Propolys and Axelys to help founders find their match.

Ideal audience: Researchers, early-stage founders, or anyone considering taking on (or becoming) a co-founder.

Speakers: Scott Pelton, Alex Prefontaine, and Michel Dubois

You will, of course, know what an MVP is. Wait, no, not LeBron, Mahomes or whoever! We’re talking business jargon here: minimum viable product. It’s a hugely important concept. Fewer talk about the MVC: the minimum viable company. But if you’re building a company from the ground up and need someone else to fund it, it should probably be at least as big a priority for you as the MVP.

Panel Speakers: Artmiz Golkaramnay, Nicholas Nadeau, Amanda Soilkin

Founders and researchers of hardware-intensive deep tech startups reveal the unfiltered realities behind bringing physical innovations to market — from multi-year R&D cycles to funding hurdles and team endurance. This discussion goes beyond the cliché that “hardware is hard” to explore practical strategies for sustaining progress, leveraging university partnerships, and navigating investor skepticism. Expect an honest conversation about what it truly takes to move from lab to market in the hardtech world

Ideal audience: Early-stage founders, graduate researchers, and ecosystem builders exploring the transition from lab discoveries to scalable hardware startups. Perfect for those new to commercialization but ready to move beyond theory into execution.

Breakout Room Speaker: Luke DeCoste

AAI is reshaping how founders learn and test ideas—and how educators need to respond. This session distills applied lessons from teaching during the ChatGPT era, field experiments in accelerators and capstones, and the recently launched AI2Market program that upskills new founders in building AI-driven ventures. Built on a systematic review of 850+ studies, it translates research into practice—showing how AI is already used in teaching, learning, administration, research, and curriculum. Participants will leave with strategies and tools to apply immediately in their program

Ideal audience: This session is ideal for accelerator managers, program leaders, and funders who are committed to staying ahead of the curve in AI-driven entrepreneurship education. It’s best suited for those with an intermediate understanding of AI—familiar with key principles and looking to apply them within entrepreneurial support programs.

Deep Dive Speaker: Louis-Pierre Gravelle

Take a tour of the various forms of intellectual property (IP) and explore how each type can be leveraged to maximise value. Build on this understanding to understand the basic components of an IP strategy, and how such a strategy, tied to your business strategy, can help propel your innovation.

Workshop Facilitator: Sahar Ansary

Join us for a hands-on workshop where we’ll map out your non-dilutive funding journey together. Explore key types of government funding, including tax credits and grants while identifying programs most relevant to your sector. Through guided exercises and discussion, you’ll learn best practices to maximize funding and avoid common pitfalls. An interactive demo of an AI-powered funding search engine will help you create your own funding profile and explore tailored opportunities in real time. The session blends expert insights with applied exercises to help you understand and secure growth capital.

Ideal audience: Entrepreneurs, executives, and innovation leaders seeking non-dilutive funding for growth.

Speakers: Nadia Martel and Antoine Bellemare

Not every great startup is VC-backable, and that’s okay. But if you want to attract venture capital, you need to structure your company, team, and strategy in a way that speaks the VC language.This session unpacks what it actually means to be “VC-backable” through the eyes of investors and founders who’ve been through it.

Ideal audience: New or prospective founders with no or limited knowledge about venture capital.

Deep Dive Speakers: Antonin Landa and Kate Lindsay

Raising money is exciting, but it also comes with trade-offs. This workshop unpacks cap tables from pre‑seed to Series C, explaining dilution and the math behind startup ownership. Through recent case studies, attendees will learn best practices and common pitfalls surrounding equity dilution, followed by a hands‑on interactive segment to apply these lessons to their own cap tables.

Ideal audience: ideal for early-stage founders seeking practical insight into how cap tables impact their startup’s trajectory. It’s especially suited for those with little to no prior knowledge— whether completely new to the topic or familiar with only the basic concepts.

Speakers: Jean-Nicolas Delage and Jean-Philippe Deslile

In this interactive and educational session, participants will witness a simulated intellectual property (IP) licence negotiation between two key actors in the innovation ecosystem: Axelys, representing the university’s interests in technology transfer, and Osler, an IP firm advocating for a startup.

Through this live exchange, the panel will unpack the main terms that typically structure a licence agreement such as scope, royalties, milestones, equity participation, and assignment rights. Each side will reveal its priorities, constraints, and negotiation logic, showing not only where interests diverge but also where collaboration can unlock shared success.

Join us to see what really happens behind closed doors — when innovation meets negotiation.

Panel Speakers: Naoufel Testaouni, Andy Saldaña, Omar Zahr

In a moment when diversity and inclusion efforts are facing increased political backlash, this session reframes the conversation: beyond politics, diversity remains a critical component of any successful startup and investment strategy. It’s not about ideology—it’s about performance, innovation, and long-term value creation.

An engaging Investor and Community Lead Panel will unpack how diversity is shaping today’s investment landscape. From the investor side, the discussion explores how diversity factors into assessing team risk and opportunity—demonstrating how inclusive leadership strengthens market insight, customer access, and long-term performance. From the community perspective, panellists share how founders who intentionally build diverse teams unlock new markets, foster innovation, and build credibility with funders. Together, they offer real-world examples of how inclusive practices drive better business outcomes—and why overlooking them can become a costly mistake for startups seeking investment.

Ideal audience: For founders preparing to raise capital in the next 12–18 months, this session delivers a clear takeaway: regardless of shifting narratives or political climates, diversity remains a cornerstone of strong teams, smarter decisions, and more investable startups.

Workshop Facilitator: Luke DeCoste

This session shows founders how to move beyond experimenting with AI tools to building companies with AI at their core. Drawing from work scaling founders in the AI2Market program, global field experiments with thousands of entrepreneurs, and the work of top YCombinator founders, you’ll learn practical strategies to validate ideas, design prototypes, and create defensible business models. Expect hands-on lessons in applying generative and agentic AI, crafting testable hypotheses, and accelerating learning loops—equipping you with approaches you can use immediately in your venture.

Ideal audience: This workshop is designed for founders who want to rapidly test and build startups with AI embedded at the core of their business model. It’s best suited for those with an intermediate understanding of AI—familiar with key principles and ready to apply them in practical startup contexts.

Keynote Speaker: Scott Stirrett

For the keynote, Scott will be sharing insights from his new book The Uncertainty Advantage, which explores how entrepreneurs and professionals can thrive in unpredictable environments by building resilience, adaptability, and an entrepreneurial mindset. He will be highlighting research-backed strategies and real-world stories that show how uncertainty, when embraced, can become a competitive advantage.

Breakout Room Speaker: Brice Scheschuk

Not every startup fits the venture capital model — particularly in deep tech or research-intensive sectors. Brice Scheschuk, CPA, will lead a presentation on practical ways to fund and scale your startup without giving up equity. Brice is a co-founder of MindFrame Connect, a not-for-profit focused on elevating the craft of mentorship, improving entrepreneurial resiliency, and alternative capital paths to venture capital making he is bringing his knowledge and experience to explain and help founders make strategic choices with the resources available to them.

Breakout Room Speaker: Kyle Briggs

Canada has long been a research powerhouse but has consistently failed to translate the results into economic benefit. This session will explore the history of tech transfer in the US, Canada, and elsewhere, focusing on adapting successfully policies such as the Bayh-Dole Act to the Canadian context in the interest of hamonizing post-secondary IP policy. It will conclude with a review of the Simple Agreement for Innovation Licensing (SAIL), a proposed express license template designed for Canadian tech transfer.

Ideal audience: This presentation will be of particular interest to policy makers, university-based founders, and tech transfer professionals with any level of experience.

Deep Dive Speaeker: Shaaf Farooq

How can innovation hubs use AI to amplify their impact? Drawing from applied use-cases inside a university-based innovation hub, this session explores how AI can responsibly augment, automate, and accelerate early-stage founder support. We’ll discuss how incubators can act as safe testing grounds where entrepreneurs safely experiment with tools. Participants will leave with a layered de-risking model and practical tactics to scale responsible, AI-enabled support across research-driven and science-based innovation ecosystems.

Ideal audience: A broad mix of founders, researchers, and innovation leaders, whether new to AI or actively applying it in practice.

Debate Speakers: Jean-Nicolas Delage, Jean-Philippe Deslile, Bertrand Nepveu, Catherine Gagnon

You have $20K. Do you protect it or perfect it?

Two seasoned founders and ecosystem players go head-to-head:

- Team Patent – Argues that without IP protection, your innovation is a sitting duck, and you’ll lose your competitive edge before you even launch.

- Team Prototype – Argues that speed to market and technical milestones are what get you funding and customers — IP can come later.

Deep Dive Speaker: Sahar Ansary

This deep dive roundtable is designed for innovators working within universities and organizations who have not yet incorporated but are eager to understand early funding opportunities. Through collaborative discussion, real-world examples, and expert guidance, you will learn about the various types of non-dilutive funding, how to identify relevant opportunities, and build initial strategies. The session emphasizes practical insights and peer learning in an open, interactive environment. Deep Dives sessions are for you to ask questions, so come ready to engage and get as much actionable advice as possible.

Breakout Room Speakers: Dr. Claudia Ania Penafuerte Diaz, Stephanie Lipp, Patrick Vermette

The journey from a promising result in an academic lab to a commercially viable, high-volume product requires a massive leap in scale, capital, and regulatory rigor. Academic founders often face a steep learning curve, moving from institutional bench space to securing and optimizing a dedicated facility for the commercial scale. This session brings together founders who successfully made this transition and industry experts in biomanufacturing to break down the critical phase of scaling your product for the market:

Understanding the transition from proof-of-concept, to pilot-scale to commercial-scale production, and the different requirements (equipment, documentation, personnel) for each.

Evaluating and securing the right facilities.

Developing SOPs and designing a scale-up process that is cost-effective, sustainable, and compliant with current and future regulatory requirements.

Speakers: Bouraoui Ilahi and Sarah Jenna

Item descriptionThis session explores the rise of quantum technologies. Starting with the fundamentals of quantum theory to real-world applications across computing, healthcare, energy, defense, and more. Learn about the current state of quantum software, and the industries being transformed. The session concludes with practical insights for entrepreneurs looking to build a startup in the quantum space.

Deep Dive Speaker: Sahar Ansary

This deep dive roundtable is tailored for incorporated entrepreneurs seeking to optimize their funding strategy. Together, we’ll explore how to leverage programs like SR&ED and CDAE AI, access industry-specific grants, and layer incentives for maximum impact. Participants will engage in guided discussions, share real-world experiences, and uncover practical strategies to strengthen claims and avoid common pitfalls. With expert insights and peer exchanges, attendees will leave with a clearer roadmap to scale their business and accelerate sustainable growth. Deep Dives sessions are for you to ask questions, so come ready to engage and get as much actionable advice as possible.

Panel Speakers: Maria Goyo, Haitham Shoman, and Iliass Lamrini

Not all startup prizes are created equal. Some come as unrestricted cash, others as earmarked funds, services, or credits. Each format brings its own opportunities and challenges, and how you use them can make or break your startup’s progress. This session brings together program leaders and founders who’ve been through the hoops of early stage funding and award competitions to unpack:

The different formats of prizes and support (cash vs. restricted funding vs. services).

The real challenges startups face in leveraging them (e.g. cash flow restrictions, limited applicability, reporting requirements).

How past winners maximized value — or what they would do differently.

Ideal audience: Early-stage founders and researchers entering competitions, accelerators, or incubators, and anyone deciding how to leverage their first external support.

Fireside Chat Speakers: Mahmood Shirazy, Frédéric Simard, John Dick, and Stephanie Mouchbahani

In this candid fireside chat, two scientific founders share how they chose between leading the company as CEO or focusing on the tech as CSO/CTO. One took on the challenge of driving business strategy and fundraising; the other stayed rooted in the science, guiding innovation from a technical leadership role.

They’ll explore how they made their decisions, the realities of each path, and the trade-offs they’ve faced — from balancing investor expectations to staying true to their research passions. Expect honest reflections on what they’ve learned and what they wish they’d known earlier.

Ideal audience: Researchers and early-stage founders who are unsure which role to pursue in their own startup journey.