Event category: Plenary

Drawing on experience building a business, this founder shares the strategic decisions, pivots, and lessons learned from creating long-term enterprise value in an environment where there is rarely a “perfect” exit. Through a keynote followed by a fireside conversation, this session explores how founders can create strategic optionality and enterprise value rather than waiting for ideal market conditions.

The tech ecosystem is adjusting to a structural shift in how companies are valued and funded. The era of growth at all costs has been replaced by a strict focus on capital efficiency, sustainable unit economics, and proven paths to liquidity. In this closing macro panel, leading institutional investors and market makers break down the current state of Canadian tech M&A, venture debt, and equity financing. They will strip away the headlines to reveal where capital is actually flowing, what strategic acquirers are willing to pay a premium for right now, and how founders should position their balance sheets to maximize optionality going into 2027.

You spend years chasing the outcome. Then the papers are signed, the money lands, and the thing that defined you is no longer yours, and almost no one talks honestly about what happens next. In this closing conversation, two founders who took very different roads to very different exits reflect on what the deal actually changed, and what it did not. One built a venture-backed category leader in transportation tech and sold to a global strategic; the other built a people-powered company from the ground up and became one of the most recognized founders in the country. Both know what it feels like the morning after, the identity shift, the second-guessing, the unexpected questions, and the freedom, and neither will give you the polished version.

A candid, human end to the day, from two people who have stood where every founder in the room is trying to get to.