Great conversations at Growth founder dinner as part of toronto tech week.

Me when I'm watching Yasiel Puig hit the Game Winning Home Run onto Bloor Street off my old semi-pro teammate Bradley to win the Toronto Maple Leafs the Intercounty Baseball League Cup

if you're a tattoo artist, take a look at venue.ink (what a great tld). we hosted them at our weekly all-hands at @stripe today—a cool company.

@alexandernorman has built something rare: a startup community that genuinely puts founders first, while backing 80 early-stage companies at N49P. In our conversation, he breaks down: → Why community can't be a dealflow strategy (but creates alpha anyway) → The 4 traits that predict pre-seed success → Why founders need to get back on planes to build trust-based relationships youtu.be/N8m_3Uh_FeY

Holiday party with the YC fam 🧡

because I like Canada

TECH WEEK HIGHLIGHT ✨ Check out Off The Record: The Unfiltered Founder Truths You Can’t Google. Tired of polished success stories? Off The Record delivers the raw, behind-the-scenes climb. This isn't a panel, podcast, or typical fireside chat. It's a closed-door gathering where accomplished Tech Founders ($30M average revenue) share stories they've never told publicly. Curated for high-potential founders and Peerscale members, this "apply to attend" session reveals what really happens on the path to scale: near-breakdowns, tough calls, and game-changing breakthroughs. No cameras, no PR polish – just peers who get it. Expect first-time stories from bold Canadian founders like Michael Hyatt (Dragon, Investor, Builder), Sally Daub (Web3 powerhouse, BorderPass), and Eva Wong (transforming FinTech with Borrowell). A room full of serious builders, not spectators. If you're building in tech and ready for what it actually takes to scale, this is the unmissable conversation. The stories that inspire and stay in the room. You'll also hear from Mark Jaine, Ryan Osten, Ron Spreeuwenberg, Wayne Pommen, and Michael Kravshik, CPA, CA Thank you to @SchulichSchool Venture Academy who is sponsoring the stage all week long, BrightIron who is sponsoring our Tuesday stage, and @rbcx who is sponsoring our Thursday stage 👏 and a massive thank you to StartWell who is giving us a home base for our tech week events (TechTO HQ) Apply to attend our OTR stages all week long. lu.ma/home

Huge update: Dimensional is (finally) building a dating app. “Another dating app?” Yes. But we’re doing things differently - we’re focused on compatibility. The biggest problem with dating apps today is that they optimize for quantity over quality. In a hetero context, it usually plays out like this: 1. Matches are mostly based on looks - because there’s not much else to go on. 2. The most desired people (usually women) are overwhelmed. There’s no way to filter, no sense of real compatibility. 3. You can’t have meaningful conversations with everyone, so it devolves into “hey what’s up” territory. 4. The people who get dates are “good at dating apps” - not necessarily good partners. 5. Less-desired users get discouraged. So they pay to get more matches. 6. More-desired users get discouraged. Too much supply. Too many repetitive convos that lead nowhere. 7. Everyone is discouraged. Because you're only as good as someone else’s next-best option. We think the best way to fix this is ironically to give people fewer, but much better matches. As Hinge founder, Justin McLeod, put it - we need to “flatten the power curve” of dating. And the only way to do that? You have to predict real compatibility. That’s what we’ve spent the last few years getting very good at.

AND WE ARE LIVE! 👏 🔥 TechTO is going to be hosting 10 events during Toronto Tech Week, taking place from June 23–27! To help you make the most of the week, we’re offering an exclusive, limited-time bundle—giving you access to three of our biggest events for just one price. For only $85, you can attend: - The TechTO Hackathon, in partnership with Koru (Monday, June 23): Calling all builders and dreamers for a full day hack focused on this open theme "where AI agents and apps meet real-world connection". - The TechTO Summer Social (Wednesday, June 25): Join 500 attendees at one of Toronto’s coolest outdoor venues for an evening of networking, cold drinks, and great food. - The @TiEToronto Summit (Thursday, June 26): A full-day conference featuring some of the biggest names in North American tech, discussing this year's important theme: 🇨🇦 Building in Canada for the World. This offer is only available for a limited time—so lock in your spot and ride with us this Toronto Tech Week! Check it out here: lu.ma/6ogpkni2 Explore all our Tech Week events including opportunities to apply to attend some of our more intimate curated content opportunities at TechTO HQ here: lnkd.in/eHXjUwVr We can’t wait to see you at Tech Week! 🚀 #TorontoTechWeek #TTW #TechEvents #TorontoEvents #BundleDeal #LimitedT

Another reason to love @venueink 🙌🏻 It has seriously streamlined my entire booking and payment process! And it’s free for artists. Click my referral link and we both get $$ too! venue.ink/sign-up?referred_b…

We are back next week with our most popular event series!!! Get together with us in #irl on March 3, at @MaRSDD Check out what you can expect here: youtube.com/watch?v=coOYX2n1… Register for Monday's event here: techto.org/event/together-to…

MEET YOUR JAN 27 SPEAKERS FOR OUR #TRAVEL TORONTO EVENT ✈️ Next week, we launch our first #travel event of 2025, and we are proud to introduce the speakers who will join us in real life to share their knowledge from the travel space. - George Yao, CFO at @plusgrade is joining us to share all things partnerships and staying competitive in a saturated industry - Steven de Blois of StudentUniverse.com will share knowledge on building a travel platform for students - Meraj Delavari, CEO at #Flok is sharing his expertise on group travel and how Flok is tailoring their services to the next generation of travelers - And finally Jeff Kischuk, CEO at #Tripian who shares insights on all things travel and hashtag#AI It's a night you don't want to miss, especially if you want to see what's next for the travel industry ✈️ Register here >> lnkd.in/e8uH-Qbk Huge thanks to our hosts Max Tremaine, John Boguslawski, and Christian Wolters for helping us make this happen @Intrepid_Travel #travel #tech #torontoevents #techevents #ai #networking

✨ SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT ✨ Meet Daniel Debow, a seasoned entrepreneur, legend in the #Tech space and current VP of Partnerships and Product at @Shopify - a Canadian powerhouse. Daniel joins us on stage tomorrow for our #Commerce #Toronto event on January 20 to share advice on the terror and excitement of building, all the startup feels and challenges and why you're not alone if you're in the throws of building. He's one of the many legendary speakers joining us for tomorrow's event, and it's one you WILL NOT want to miss. Register here >> lnkd.in/eSiiWxNg @rotmanschool #commerce #techevents #torontoevents #canadiantech #founders #startups

ATTN #Vancouver friends 📣 We're bringing our Together event back to the West Coast in February and we want you there!! On February 24, we return to Telus Flex Space and bring together the next batch of change-makers, innovators and top startups from Vancouver to meet in real life. Want to be part of the magic and meet those who can help take your startup or #tech goals to the next level? Register here: techto.org/event/together-va… Speaker announcements coming soon, but we can tell you they are one's you won't want to miss #vancouverevents #techevents #founders #networking #advice #startups

AN UNBELIEVABLE START TO 2025! 🔥 🔥 Thank you to more than 400 of you who joined us in real life for our first Together event of the year!!!! 👏 It was absolutely electric to see so many excited, passionate and hard working pro's in one room, all looking to learn something new and take their dreams to the next level! 400 of Toronto's greatest builders gathered to learn from one another at @MaRSDD, and it was a night full of wisdom and lots of lessons learned. A huge thanks to all those who shared their personal insights and important takeaways for the future builders and founders including: - Corey Gross who shared an amazing perspective about life post-acquisition and answering some of the biggest FAQs founders have around the process. - Alwar Pillai shared her incredible journey building Fable and more on her recent fundraising experience. It's all about finding the 'right' investors who believe in your mission. - Eldon Sprickerhoff, Founder of eSentire ($1B valuation) gave us a preview of his new book Committed and how to win on every level as a Founder. - Finally, TechTO's Alexandra Reilly hosted a hard-hitting fireside chat with Jackie Hanson from Sprout Family on how she is building from passion and solving a massive problem within our Canadian healthcare system. Truly inspiring. If you missed this and want to join the conversation next time, we have several more events coming up including our #Commerce Toronto event on Jan 20, our next Together event on Feb 3, and our Together Vancouver event on Feb 24 Check out the full TechTO events calendar here: techto.org/events WHAT A WAY TO START THE YEAR! LET'S KEEP IT GOING! 🚀 🇨🇦 #techevents #techto #founders #networking

I’m thrilled to share a major milestone in our journey here at @gethumi . We’re joining @EmploymentHero in their mission to make employment easier and more valuable, for everyone. From day one, we’ve taken pride in being people-focused – both internally and externally. The dream was, and still is, to build a team of awesome people that genuinely cared about people, and by extension, would be passionate about building software systems for people. I'm proud to say we’ve done that. What Humi is today is amazing. It’s the result of the hard work and support of so many people that I'm endlessly thankful for: employees, customers, investors, partners, community members, advisors. Thank you. From my cat filled living room nine years ago, to becoming a meaningful platform today that makes a difference in the lives of so many Canadians. I’m proud to share that over 150,000 Canadians are supported by our platform, and we’ve helped pay over $7 billion in wages. Incredible. And, this is just the start. The partnership with Employment Hero is going to be a massive catalyst for us to help more Canadian businesses. Humi will remain proudly Canadian-operated. Our focus on the unique needs of Canadian businesses won’t change. This is a crucial part of what makes Humi, well, Humi. The backing will provide us with the resources to accelerate our growth and broaden our impact, but we will continue to operate from our home base in Canada, with a laser focus on serving Canadian small and medium sized businesses. Employment Hero has an incredible team that feels like Humi’s, and is led by two amazing founders, @bnthompson and @dave_tong . Fired up to continue building for and supporting Canadian businesses.

✨ WE ARE 1 WEEK AWAY FROM OUR FIRST TOGETHER OF THE YEAR ✨ This is not a drill! We are one week away from kicking off 2025 at our first event of the year, our next Together Toronto event at @MaRSDD on January 13! 🔥 It's time to get inspired, build your network and learn something new amongst some of the most brilliant minds in #tech. 🇨🇦 Get excited to meet and learn from the likes of Jackie Hanson (CEO at Sprout Family), Corey Gross (Seasoned entrepreneur and co-founder of Sensibill, a Q2 Company), E. Wayne Sprickerhoff (legendary founder and now startup consultant) and Alwar Pillai (CEO and Co-Founder of Fable) This is your chance to kick-off a new year and make new connections. We're expecting over 200 in attendance including investors, builders, employers, change-makers and community supporters to join us in real life. 👏 🎟️ Tickets are going fast, but available here >>> techto.org/event/together-to… #founders #tech #canadiantech #torontoevents #advice #networking #techjobs

THANK YOU GREENEY 🫶 Announced earlier today, Sam Greene has been hired as the Assistant Pitching Coach of the Toronto Blue Jays! Congratulations on an amazing achievement, we can’t wait to see all the great things you’ll do as a member of our beloved @bluejays! Thank you for an amazing three years Sam, we’ll see you at the dome!

"I’m focused on doing everything I can to bring home some wins for the Maple Leafs." Check out @torontolife’s @taradeboerr in conversation with Ayami Sato, as part of her latest piece on the Leafs!