Not every acquisition begins with a company deciding it's time to sell. Some begin with a conversation neither side realizes will matter years later. At TechExit.io Vancouver, Brianna Blaney, CEO & Co-Founder of Pocketed, and Aria Hahn, Co-Founder & CTO, joined Brent Holliday of Garibaldi Capital Advisors to reflect on Pocketed's acquisition by Deloitte Canada. The discussion wasn't really about how the deal happened. It was about everything that happened before it. Looking back, the acquisition almost feels like the final chapter. Most of the story had already unfolded.

Most founders spend years trying to create options.The difficult part isn't creating them; it's knowing which one to take when circumstances change. At TechExit.io Vancouver 2026, Swish Goswami, Co-Founder of Surf and current Head of Growth & Marketing at Boardy, joined Gena Custode of Roynat Capital to share the story behind Surf's acquisition journey. What emerged was a reflection on changing markets, failed transactions and the decisions founders face when the path they expected suddenly disappears.

Most founders spend years proving they can build a company. Eventually, a different challenge emerges. Can the company continue to grow without them? In a recent TechExit.io conversation, we sat down with Simon Foster, Vice Chair & Partner at Capital Canada Limited, where he leads the Technology Investment Banking practice. A former SaaS founder and CEO, Simon now advises technology companies on growth equity and M&A, bringing a perspective shaped by both building businesses and evaluating them from the other side of the table.

Markets shift, expectations change and companies that looked perfectly positioned a few years ago now face a different set of conditions and a new set of questions around growth and value. In a recent TechExit.io conversation, we sat down with Anush Sachdeva of RBCx to discuss valuation environments, buyer behaviour and the impact AI is beginning to have on software. One idea surfaced throughout the discussion: durable businesses rarely stand still.

Most founders think about exit at some point. What often gets overlooked is how much of that outcome is shaped long before any process begins. In a recent TechExit.io conversation, Michael Garrity, Executive Chair of Financeit, shared a perspective that reframes how founders should approach building and selling a company.“ Building a company just to sell it doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “It’s like getting into a marriage with the goal of getting a divorce.”

Optionality doesn’t show up when a buyer calls. It’s built much earlier through how a company is financed, how it grows and the decisions made long before any transaction is on the table. TechExit.io recently sat down with JD Saint-Martin, founder of Chronogolf (acquired by Lightspeed) former President of Lightspeed and now Managing Partner at Boreal Ventures, to unpack what it takes to build that kind of leverage. Having built, sold, and then helped scale the business within Lightspeed, JD has seen the full lifecycle and one idea stood out: the best outcomes are designed, not timed.