What a whirlwind this week was. Still recovering. It started with the Plug and Play Tech Center Expo in Calgary followed by 3 intense days of Inventures 2024. I've attended Inventures since it started back in 2018 (I think) and this was by far the best and most productive one yet. Without hyperbole I can also state that it was the best conference event that I've attended in the last few years - hands down. Met over 100 founders and a dozen or so investors that Sprout Fund is likely to syndicate with in the future (hint, hint BDC IT Venture Fund, GreenSky Ventures, and TALLGRASS VENTURES, LLC among others). Well done Alberta Innovates - amazing. This just gets better and bigger every year.
Had a blast facilitating the 500 Global panel on Fundraising Strategies and talk "for real" with Al-Karim K. (Propra), Mukul Pal (AlphaBlock), and Louis Kolla (Runnr) who shared their very different fundraising journeys and lessons to a standing room only audience. Lots of great knowledge transfer happened there. that's to Fatima Mohamed, Rosa Cai, and Luk Pham for making that all happen.
Learned a great deal at Platform Calgary's Commercializing Quantum session. I feel a little smarter about this topic now (but not yet smart enough to invest). Thanks Karam-Ali Talakshi, Nathan Karbonik, Terry Rock, Jennifer Lussier, Bilal Rasool and the rest of the Platform team.
Enjoyed some down time socializing with so many like minded folks at Startup TNT as they took over the James Joyce Pub and hosted hundreds of folks and likely broke the 🔥 code.
Also enjoyed the startup pitches, especially the Student Pitch Competition organized by Craig Elias and Brandy Old and Bow Valley College - inspired to see the next gen of founders honing their skills on stage.
Sooooo looking forward to Inventures 2025 - just need to catch up on some sleep first and get through the stack of new contacts made this week.
Kristina Milke Laura Kilcrease Lan (Scaleup) Tan Reesa John Abhay Ghatpande, PhD, MBA Rahim Nathu Lawrence Korngut