UP25 showcased incredible speakers who founded massive companies, created global change, & scaled world-class startups!
With 35+ years of experience as an early-stage investor and entrepreneur Brad is a champion of the VC & tech startup space. Brad co-founded Foundry VC and Techstars, the accelerator that’s helped scale over 10,000 startup founders! A celebrated author, he (literally) wrote the book on venture deals & has been blogging on the topic since before Twitter even existed.
As Co-Founder and CEO of one of SK’s leading tech scale ups, Brendan is at the forefront of driving Vendasta's growth, innovation, and business strategy. Vendasta offers an end-to-end platform for local experts and agencies, who have delivered digital solutions to over 8.2M small and medium businesses.
A national pitch champion, Azrah represented Canada at EPIC's pitch competition in Hong Kong and beat out hundreds of competitors at the Collision conference. Named one of Globe and Mail's Top 20 Business Changemakers, she's building AI tools to help food founders scale through Syzl, the award-winning platform for food entrepreneurs.
Michael Garrity knows what it takes to scale and sell a company — because he’s done it before (a lot). Now the Executive Chair and Co-Founder of Financeit, he's built a fintech powerhouse, raised capital, navigated acquisitions, and grew the company to a $1B valuation.
Meet the first woman to row across the Atlantic (through 2 hurricanes)! Named National Geographic's Adventurer of the Year Julie is an accomplished adventurer, molecular biologist, bestselling author & CEO. Her company, Open Ocean Robotics is revolutionizing sustainable ocean monitoring, earning a spot on Foresight 50's list of top investable cleantech companies.
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Kim is a 35+ year Silicon Valley executive and 3x CEO. His last startup, deCarta, was acquired by Uber in 2015 where he stayed for 5 years running Bus Dev for US & Canada. Now as a Board Director, Angel Investor/Advisor, C100 director, and a Venture Partner at True North Fund, he brings a unique perspective on tech startups on both sides of the border.
Co-founded Taiv out of his garage, with a mission to make TV commercials more fun, engaging, and profitable. Today, Taiv has partnered with over 2,000 restaurants and retail stores across the US, achieving 422% growth in 2024 and raised funding from top global investors including Y Combinator, FJ Labs, Garage Capital, and IDC Ventures.
Handling all things brand, content, and marketing Alexandra is amplifying the stories of emerging and established startups through her compelling stories and innovations at TechTO. Co-host of the weekly tech news and analysis podcast, Quick Takes.
A dentist turned lifelong entrepreneur and advocate for Canada’s tech talent. As Co-Founder and CEO of one of Canada’s leading HR platforms, Kevin has helped scale Humi to a recent $112M exit, now supporting over 150,000 employees.
Kelsey brings 15 years of experience advising high-performance leaders. As CEO & Co-Founder of Monark, the world's first Leader Relationship Management platform, she is helping transform leadership performance through AI. Successfully raised over $5M in funding to fuel Monark’s growth.
Founder, operator, VC, and a go-to for growing high-performing teams. Faye's helped 250+ startups scale smarter, faster, and with fewer growing pains. From leadership alignment to OKRs, she turns chaos into clarity, fuelling growth without the burnout.
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