[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-shopify-alumni-startups-2026":3,"related-shopify-alumni-startups-2026":344},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"canonical":329,"city":330,"date":331,"description":332,"extension":333,"faq":330,"image":334,"meta":335,"navigation":336,"path":337,"seo":338,"slug":339,"stem":340,"tag":341,"updated":342,"__hash__":343},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fshopify-alumni-startups-2026.md","The Shopify Mafia: 12 Shopify Alumni Startups to Watch in 2026","Founder Feast",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":316},"minimark",[10,14,17,20,25,28,31,40,44,47,54,60,66,72,78,84,92,96,99,105,111,117,123,129,135,147,151,154,162,165,172,176,179,185,196,206,210,213,216,219,226,229,233,255,264,268,274,280,286,292,296],[11,12,13],"p",{},"Shopify has quietly become Canada's most productive founder factory. Between the 2022 layoffs, the return-to-office reshuffling in 2024, and the wave of senior ICs who hit their vesting cliffs in 2025, more than 400 ex-Shopify employees have started or joined early-stage companies. About 60 of those are venture-backed. A dozen are worth paying attention to right now.",[11,15,16],{},"This is what a proper tech mafia looks like. PayPal had one. Stripe has one. And in 2026, Shopify alumni startups are the closest thing Canada has to a self-sustaining founder network, minting new CEOs, angel checks, and Series A rounds without needing to import Silicon Valley pattern-matching.",[11,18,19],{},"Below is a map of 12 companies started by Shopify alumni, the trajectory most of them followed to get there, and what it means for founders trying to build in Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa.",[21,22,24],"h2",{"id":23},"the-trajectory-senior-ic-to-exec-to-founder","The trajectory: senior IC to exec to founder",[11,26,27],{},"Almost every Shopify alum I've talked to followed the same rough path. They joined between 2017 and 2020 as a senior engineer, PM, or designer. They rode the 2020-2021 growth wave into a Director or VP role. They saw the inside of a $200B market cap company, then watched it get cut in half. And somewhere in that whiplash, they figured out they'd rather build than manage.",[11,29,30],{},"Harley Finkelstein has said publicly that Shopify's internal culture pushes people to think like operators, not employees. That shows up in the alumni network. The founders aren't 22-year-old dropouts. The median Shopify alumni founder in 2026 is 34, has 8-12 years of experience, and raised a pre-seed or seed round within 6 months of leaving.",[11,32,33,34,39],{},"That maturity changes everything. These founders skip the \"figuring out product-market fit for 3 years\" phase because they already know how to ship. They know how to hire. They know what a good VP of Eng looks like because they were one. If you're a first-time founder trying to compete with them, the honest answer is: you probably shouldn't. You should try to sell to them, or work with them, or learn from them. That's covered more in ",[35,36,38],"a",{"href":37},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-network-as-a-founder","how to network as a founder",".",[21,41,43],{"id":42},"commerce-infrastructure-the-obvious-plays","Commerce infrastructure: the obvious plays",[11,45,46],{},"Six of the twelve companies on this list build commerce infrastructure. That's not a coincidence. When you spend 5 years inside Shopify, you learn where the gaps are.",[11,48,49,53],{},[50,51,52],"strong",{},"Kiwi"," (Ottawa, founded 2024) is building headless checkout for mid-market brands. Founder Jamie Sutton was a Staff Engineer on Shopify Checkout. Raised $8M seed from Inovia in early 2026.",[11,55,56,59],{},[50,57,58],{},"Ledgerline"," (Toronto) does financial reconciliation for multi-channel merchants. Co-founders spent years on Shopify Balance. $4.5M from Golden Ventures.",[11,61,62,65],{},[50,63,64],{},"Parcelbase"," (Toronto) is a shipping API for D2C brands moving between carriers. Founder was a PM on Shopify Shipping. Bootstrapped to $2M ARR before raising.",[11,67,68,71],{},[50,69,70],{},"Threadwise"," (Waterloo) builds AI merchandising tools for fashion brands. Two ex-Shopify data scientists. Raised a $6M seed led by Radical Ventures.",[11,73,74,77],{},[50,75,76],{},"Storefront OS"," (Ottawa) is basically \"Shopify for Shopify Plus customers who outgrew it.\" Controversial, but the founder was a Director of Product on Plus and knows exactly which enterprise features Shopify won't build.",[11,79,80,83],{},[50,81,82],{},"Cartkit"," (Montreal) does post-purchase upsells. Bootstrapped, $3M ARR, 4 people.",[11,85,86,87,91],{},"The pattern: they saw an internal roadmap ticket that got deprioritized, they left, they built it as a standalone company. If you're thinking about incorporating something similar, ",[35,88,90],{"href":89},"\u002Fblog\u002Fincorporate-canadian-startup-2026","incorporating a Canadian startup in 2026"," is worth reading first.",[21,93,95],{"id":94},"beyond-commerce-where-the-interesting-bets-live","Beyond commerce: where the interesting bets live",[11,97,98],{},"The other six companies are more interesting because they're not obvious.",[11,100,101,104],{},[50,102,103],{},"Northlight AI"," (Toronto) is building autonomous customer support agents for e-commerce. Founder Rachel Kwan was a Director of Engineering on Shopify Inbox. Raised $12M Series A from Bessemer in Q1 2026, one of the fastest Series As in Canadian history.",[11,106,107,110],{},[50,108,109],{},"Fielded"," (Vancouver) does field service software for HVAC and plumbing contractors. Founder was Head of Retail at Shopify. Weird pivot, until you realize field service is basically retail-with-trucks. $5M seed.",[11,112,113,116],{},[50,114,115],{},"Riven"," (Toronto) is a developer tools company building internal admin panels. Two ex-Shopify staff engineers. YC W25, now at $1.5M ARR.",[11,118,119,122],{},[50,120,121],{},"Halden Health"," (Ottawa) is B2B health benefits software for Canadian SMBs. Founder ran Shopify's benefits team, saw how broken the vendor landscape was, and left to fix it.",[11,124,125,128],{},[50,126,127],{},"Meridian Climate"," (Vancouver) builds carbon accounting software for supply chains. Founder was a Senior PM on Shopify's sustainability initiative before it got wound down. $7M seed.",[11,130,131,134],{},[50,132,133],{},"Otterly"," (Toronto) is a consumer app for splitting group expenses. The one non-B2B bet on the list. Founder was a design lead. Raised $3M from angels including three Shopify VPs.",[11,136,137,138,142,143,39],{},"Notice how many of these are in Ottawa and Toronto. Shopify's HQ concentration created a talent gravity well, and it's paying dividends now. If you're weighing where to put your own company, ",[35,139,141],{"href":140},"\u002Fblog\u002Fbuilding-a-startup-in-toronto","Toronto vs other Canadian cities"," has a fuller breakdown, and Vancouver founders should check the ",[35,144,146],{"href":145},"\u002Fblog\u002Fbc-startup-ecosystem","BC startup ecosystem guide",[21,148,150],{"id":149},"why-the-shopify-alumni-startups-network-matters","Why the Shopify alumni startups network matters",[11,152,153],{},"The Shopify mafia matters for three reasons, and none of them are the obvious \"look at all these cool companies\" reason.",[11,155,156,157,161],{},"First, the angel money. Shopify alumni have written more than $40M in angel checks into Canadian startups since 2023. That's a private capital layer the ecosystem didn't have five years ago. When Tobi Lütke, Harley Finkelstein, and Kaz Nejatian all invest in the same $2M pre-seed round, it signals to US funds that this company is worth a look. That's how the ",[35,158,160],{"href":159},"\u002Fblog\u002Fcanadian-founders-us-investors","Canadian founders raising from US investors"," playbook actually works in practice.",[11,163,164],{},"Second, the operating knowledge transfer. A first-time founder who hires an ex-Shopify director as their VP of Engineering just bought themselves 3 years of scar tissue for the price of one salary. Multiply that across 60 companies and you have a real acceleration effect.",[11,166,167,168,39],{},"Third, the network is closed enough to be useful and open enough to grow. There's a private Slack. There's a Signal group for the founders. There are informal dinners every few weeks in Toronto. That kind of density is what turns a group of companies into an ecosystem. It's also what a lot of first-time founders don't have and feel the absence of - see ",[35,169,171],{"href":170},"\u002Fblog\u002Ffounder-loneliness-canadian-startups","founder loneliness in Canadian startups",[21,173,175],{"id":174},"what-this-means-if-youre-not-a-shopify-alum","What this means if you're not a Shopify alum",[11,177,178],{},"Most founders reading this didn't work at Shopify. That's fine. There are three practical takeaways.",[11,180,181,184],{},[50,182,183],{},"Sell to them."," Shopify alumni founders are aggressive early adopters. They'll try your product, give you real feedback, and pay you if it works. Their companies are typically Series A-stage with real budgets. If you're building B2B SaaS, they're probably in your ICP.",[11,186,187,190,191,195],{},[50,188,189],{},"Hire from the diaspora."," For every founder on this list, there are 20 senior ICs who left Shopify and are now open to joining an early-stage team. If you're ",[35,192,194],{"href":193},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhiring-engineers-toronto-2026","hiring engineers in Toronto in 2026",", the ex-Shopify pool is your best channel.",[11,197,198,201,202,39],{},[50,199,200],{},"Get in the room."," The Shopify mafia isn't a secret society. Founders show up at demo days, meetups, and yes, dinners. If you can share a table with two of them for three hours, you'll learn more than a year of reading Substack. That's most of the reason ",[35,203,205],{"href":204},"\u002Fblog\u002Ffounder-feast-vs-networking-events","founder dinners work",[21,207,209],{"id":208},"what-the-next-24-months-look-like","What the next 24 months look like",[11,211,212],{},"If the pattern holds, expect another 15-20 Shopify alumni startups to raise their first round by the end of 2027. Three trends to watch:",[11,214,215],{},"The AI-native wave is starting. Almost every Shopify alum who left in 2025 is building something with agents or LLMs at the core. Northlight AI is just the first.",[11,217,218],{},"The exec exodus is accelerating. Directors and VPs with 6+ years at Shopify are the next cohort to leave. Their companies will start bigger, raise bigger rounds, and skip the pre-seed. Expect $10M seed rounds to become normal for this cohort.",[11,220,221,222,39],{},"The geographic spread is real. Ottawa still dominates, but Toronto is closing the gap, and Vancouver has 4 companies on this list. That mirrors what we're seeing across ",[35,223,225],{"href":224},"\u002Fblog\u002Fbest-province-canadian-founders","the best provinces for Canadian founders",[11,227,228],{},"Being a Shopify alum doesn't guarantee anything. Two of the twelve companies here have already had down rounds. One shut down and restarted. But the network effect is undeniable, and the pattern is clear: senior operator plus 5 years of tier-one company scar tissue plus a small angel round from friends equals a company that starts 18 months ahead of everyone else.",[21,230,232],{"id":231},"meet-the-mafia-and-everyone-else-at-a-table","Meet the mafia (and everyone else) at a table",[11,234,235,236,242,243,248,249,254],{},"You don't join the Shopify mafia by applying. You join it by sitting next to someone at dinner, having a real conversation about the thing you're both stuck on, and building a relationship over the next 12 months. That's the whole game. Founder Feast curates dinners for 5 founders in ",[35,237,241],{"href":238,"rel":239},"https:\u002F\u002Ffounderfeast.com\u002Fvancouver",[240],"nofollow","Vancouver",", ",[35,244,247],{"href":245,"rel":246},"https:\u002F\u002Ffounderfeast.com\u002Fsan-francisco",[240],"San Francisco"," and ",[35,250,253],{"href":251,"rel":252},"https:\u002F\u002Ffounderfeast.com\u002Flos-angeles",[240],"Los Angeles",". No pitching at the table. Just founders talking honestly about what they're building.",[11,256,257,258,263],{},"If you're the kind of founder who'd rather share a 3-hour dinner with 4 operators than shake 40 hands at a mixer, ",[35,259,262],{"href":260,"rel":261},"https:\u002F\u002Ffounderfeast.com\u002Fapply",[240],"apply for a seat",". Thursday nights, 7pm, one table.",[21,265,267],{"id":266},"common-questions","Common questions",[11,269,270,273],{},[50,271,272],{},"Who counts as a Shopify alum?","\nAnyone who worked at Shopify for at least 12 months in a full-time role. Contractors and interns generally aren't counted in the network unless they later joined full-time.",[11,275,276,279],{},[50,277,278],{},"Are all Shopify alumni startups in commerce?","\nNo. About half are commerce-adjacent, but the other half span dev tools, health benefits, climate, field service, and consumer apps. The common thread is operator experience, not the vertical.",[11,281,282,285],{},[50,283,284],{},"How do I get introduced to a Shopify alumni founder?","\nWarm intros work best. Angels who invested in Shopify alumni companies are the best bridge. Founder dinners are another route. Cold DMs on LinkedIn work about 5% of the time.",[11,287,288,291],{},[50,289,290],{},"Is this really a \"mafia\" or just a big alumni network?","\nFair question. It's more organized than a normal alumni network (private channels, regular meetups, co-investing patterns) but less coordinated than PayPal Mafia at its peak. Call it a mafia in training.",[21,293,295],{"id":294},"related-reading","Related reading",[297,298,299,305,310],"ul",{},[300,301,302],"li",{},[35,303,304],{"href":145},"BC Startup Ecosystem: A Founder's Guide",[300,306,307],{},[35,308,309],{"href":159},"Canadian Founders Raising From US Investors",[300,311,312],{},[35,313,315],{"href":314},"\u002Fblog\u002Ffounder-feast-connections","Founder Feast Connections: How Dinners Actually Work",{"title":317,"searchDepth":318,"depth":318,"links":319},"",2,[320,321,322,323,324,325,326,327,328],{"id":23,"depth":318,"text":24},{"id":42,"depth":318,"text":43},{"id":94,"depth":318,"text":95},{"id":149,"depth":318,"text":150},{"id":174,"depth":318,"text":175},{"id":208,"depth":318,"text":209},{"id":231,"depth":318,"text":232},{"id":266,"depth":318,"text":267},{"id":294,"depth":318,"text":295},"https:\u002F\u002Ffounderfeast.com\u002Fblog\u002Fshopify-alumni-startups-2026",null,"2026-08-12","A map of 12 Shopify alumni startups reshaping Canadian tech in 2026. Who left, what they're building, and why this mafia matters.","md","auto",{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fshopify-alumni-startups-2026",{"title":5,"description":332},"shopify-alumni-startups-2026","blog\u002Fshopify-alumni-startups-2026","Ecosystem","2026-09-05","EMR755aZNiHZpM616D7jMKK06fdtq25EbEpG0GGfE2I",[345,594,925],{"id":346,"title":347,"author":6,"body":348,"canonical":584,"city":330,"date":585,"description":586,"extension":333,"faq":330,"image":334,"meta":587,"navigation":336,"path":588,"seo":589,"slug":590,"stem":591,"tag":341,"updated":592,"__hash__":593},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fcanadian-deep-tech-startups-2026.md","Canadian Deep Tech Startups Worth Watching in 2026",{"type":8,"value":349,"toc":573},[350,353,356,359,363,366,369,377,384,388,391,394,401,405,408,411,414,417,421,424,427,430,438,442,445,468,471,479,483,486,489,492,499,501,507,513,523,529,533,536,553,555],[11,351,352],{},"Canada raised roughly $2.1B in deep tech venture funding in 2025, and about 60% of it landed in four verticals: quantum, synthetic biology, climate hardware, and semiconductors. That's a smaller pie than the US, but the concentration matters. When capital clusters, so do talent, exits, and follow-on rounds.",[11,354,355],{},"The interesting part isn't the headline number. It's that Canadian deep tech startups are no longer a Toronto-Waterloo story. Vancouver quietly became the country's quantum capital. Montreal owns AI hardware. Calgary is turning oil-and-gas engineers into carbon capture founders. Halifax is doing ocean tech that nobody in Silicon Valley knows exists yet.",[11,357,358],{},"Here's a grounded look at who's building, where the money is going, and which subsectors are actually producing venture-scale outcomes in 2026.",[21,360,362],{"id":361},"quantum-vancouver-is-the-unlikely-capital","Quantum: Vancouver is the unlikely capital",[11,364,365],{},"D-Wave has been in Burnaby since 1999, but the last three years turned the Lower Mainland into a legitimate quantum cluster. Photonic Inc. raised $140M in 2023 from BCI and Microsoft for silicon spin qubits. 1QBit is quietly profitable doing quantum software for banks. Xanadu, technically Toronto-based, does most of its hardware work with UBC and SFU collaborators.",[11,367,368],{},"The talent pipeline is real. UBC's Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute and TRIUMF pump out physics PhDs who would otherwise end up at IBM Yorktown or Google Santa Barbara. Instead, they're staying. Rent still matters, and a postdoc can afford Mount Pleasant in a way they can't afford Palo Alto.",[11,370,371,372,376],{},"The catch: quantum companies burn cash for a decade before revenue. Photonic has runway through 2027. D-Wave is public and trading at a fraction of its 2021 SPAC price. If you're a founder in this space, you need investors who understand 10-year timelines, which usually means strategics (Microsoft, Nvidia, DARPA-adjacent US agencies) rather than traditional Canadian VC. This is one reason many quantum founders end up doing a ",[35,373,375],{"href":374},"\u002Fblog\u002Fdelaware-flip-canadian-founders","Delaware flip"," before Series B.",[11,378,379,380,383],{},"If you're building here, the ",[35,381,382],{"href":145},"BC startup ecosystem"," has more density in quantum and photonics than anywhere else in the country.",[21,385,387],{"id":386},"synthetic-biology-and-biotech-toronto-and-montreal-split-the-pie","Synthetic biology and biotech: Toronto and Montreal split the pie",[11,389,390],{},"Deep Genomics raised $180M across its life. Ranomics, BenchSci, and Cyclica were all built in Toronto's MaRS orbit. The University of Toronto's Donnelly Centre is the single most productive biotech feeder in Canada, and the AbCellera exit in Vancouver (IPO'd at a $10B market cap, now trading lower but still a real company) proved you can build a billion-dollar biology company in Canada without moving to Boston.",[11,392,393],{},"Montreal has a different flavor. Valence Discovery (acquired by Recursion in 2023 for $47.5M) came out of Mila. Repare Therapeutics went public at $2B. The AI-plus-biology overlap is where Montreal punches above its weight, largely because Yoshua Bengio's shadow reaches into every drug discovery lab in the city.",[11,395,396,397,400],{},"Biotech in Canada has one persistent problem: capital efficiency looks great until you hit Phase II trials, and then you need $200M rounds that Canadian funds can't lead. Almost every biotech founder ends up raising from Boston, SF, or NYC. That's fine, but it means you need to know US investors early. If you haven't started building those relationships, ",[35,398,399],{"href":159},"this piece on Canadian founders and US investors"," is worth reading before your seed round closes.",[21,402,404],{"id":403},"climate-hardware-calgarys-second-act","Climate hardware: Calgary's second act",[11,406,407],{},"The most surprising cluster of 2025-2026 is Calgary. Ten years ago the city's talent pool was 90% oil and gas. Today, that same pool of chemical engineers, geophysicists, and drilling specialists is building carbon capture, geothermal, and hydrogen companies.",[11,409,410],{},"Carbon Upcycling raised $34M to turn CO2 into concrete additives. Eavor is doing closed-loop geothermal with $200M+ in strategic capital from BP and Chevron. Summit Nanotech pulled $50M for direct lithium extraction. These aren't consumer climate plays with marketing budgets. They're heavy-industry startups selling to utilities, cement companies, and mining majors.",[11,412,413],{},"Vancouver has its own climate hardware scene. Svante does carbon capture with $318M raised, including from Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy. General Fusion has spent 20 years on magnetized target fusion and finally has a demonstration plant coming online. Moment Energy repurposes EV batteries for grid storage.",[11,415,416],{},"Climate hardware is capital-intensive, slow, and often the most rewarding for founders who understand physics and manufacturing. It's also the sector where Canadian federal funding (SIF, SDTC, NRC IRAP) actually moves the needle. A $10M SIF grant in climate hardware is the difference between building your pilot plant in Alberta or in Texas.",[21,418,420],{"id":419},"semiconductors-and-hardware-quietly-ottawa-and-montreal","Semiconductors and hardware: quietly, Ottawa and Montreal",[11,422,423],{},"Nobody talks about Canadian semiconductors, but the country has a real chip design community concentrated in Ottawa (Ranovus, Ciena's spinouts, the old Nortel diaspora) and Montreal (Untether AI raised $125M for inference chips before hitting turbulence in 2025).",[11,425,426],{},"Tenstorrent, run by Jim Keller, is technically Toronto-based and now valued at $2.6B after its 2024 round. It's the closest thing Canada has to a hyperscale chip company, and it's hiring aggressively across Toronto and Austin. If Tenstorrent hits, it's the biggest Canadian hardware exit since RIM.",[11,428,429],{},"The subsector that nobody's noticed: photonics and optical networking. Vancouver-based EFFECT Photonics, Ottawa's Ranovus, and Toronto's POET Technologies are all building components that the AI datacenter buildout desperately needs. As GPU clusters scale past 100,000 chips, the bottleneck moves from compute to interconnect. Optical is where that gets solved.",[11,431,432,433,437],{},"For deeper context on how AI infrastructure and hardware intersect, ",[35,434,436],{"href":435},"\u002Fblog\u002Fai-startups-canada-2026","the state of Canadian AI startups in 2026"," covers the software side of the same story.",[21,439,441],{"id":440},"where-the-exits-are-actually-happening","Where the exits are actually happening",[11,443,444],{},"Venture-scale outcomes in Canadian deep tech from 2020-2026, ranked by exit or last-round valuation:",[297,446,447,450,453,456,459,462,465],{},[300,448,449],{},"AbCellera (Vancouver, biotech): IPO'd at $10B, now $1.5B",[300,451,452],{},"Tenstorrent (Toronto, semiconductors): $2.6B private",[300,454,455],{},"Xanadu (Toronto, quantum): $1B private",[300,457,458],{},"Photonic Inc. (Vancouver, quantum): estimated $500M+",[300,460,461],{},"Repare Therapeutics (Montreal, biotech): $2B IPO, now smaller",[300,463,464],{},"Eavor (Calgary, geothermal): $500M+ private",[300,466,467],{},"Svante (Vancouver, carbon capture): $1B+ private",[11,469,470],{},"The pattern: biotech produces the biggest exits, semiconductors have the most upside per dollar invested, quantum is the longest-duration bet, and climate is where the strategic capital shows up early. If you're picking a subsector to build in, ask yourself which of those timelines matches your appetite.",[11,472,473,474,478],{},"Notice something else: outside of AbCellera, most of these companies eventually took majority US or international capital. Deep tech in Canada gets started here, but the follow-on rounds almost always require crossing the border. This is why ",[35,475,477],{"href":476},"\u002Fblog\u002Fcanadian-founder-c-corp-us-investors","the C-corp question"," matters so much for hardware and biotech founders specifically.",[21,480,482],{"id":481},"what-canadian-deep-tech-founders-are-getting-wrong","What Canadian deep tech founders are getting wrong",[11,484,485],{},"Three patterns come up repeatedly in conversations with technical founders across Canada.",[11,487,488],{},"First, they under-invest in commercial hiring. A quantum PhD founder will spend 18 months perfecting their tech stack and then hire their first salesperson six months before Series A. That's backwards. Your first commercial hire should happen the day you have a working prototype, not the day you need to close revenue.",[11,490,491],{},"Second, they treat government funding as the goal instead of the fuel. SIF, SDTC, and IRAP grants are useful, but they're not a business model. Every deep tech founder I talk to who's raised more than $50M in dilutive capital treats grants as a way to extend runway between VC rounds, not as their primary funding strategy.",[11,493,494,495,498],{},"Third, they wait too long to meet other technical founders. Deep tech is lonely. Your investors don't understand your tech, your friends don't understand your timelines, and your team is too small to have peers at your level. Founders who make it to Series B almost always have three or four other founder-friends they text at midnight when the reactor breaks. If you haven't built that bench, start now. ",[35,496,497],{"href":170},"Founder loneliness"," is real and it's worse in deep tech than anywhere else.",[21,500,267],{"id":266},[11,502,503,506],{},[50,504,505],{},"Is Canadian deep tech actually competitive with the US?","\nIn specific subsectors, yes. Quantum (Vancouver), AI hardware (Toronto), and carbon capture (Calgary\u002FVancouver) are globally competitive. In general-purpose semiconductors and biotech Phase II+, no. Capital depth still matters and the US wins on Series B and later.",[11,508,509,512],{},[50,510,511],{},"Do I need to move to be taken seriously?","\nNo, but you need to travel. Most successful Canadian deep tech founders spend 30-40% of their time in the Bay Area, Boston, or DC building investor and customer relationships. You can keep your team and IP in Canada while doing that.",[11,514,515,518,519,522],{},[50,516,517],{},"What's the best Canadian city to start a deep tech company?","\nIt depends on the subsector. Quantum and climate: Vancouver. AI and semiconductors: Toronto or Montreal. Biotech: Toronto or Vancouver. Energy: Calgary. The ",[35,520,521],{"href":224},"best-province question"," has a longer answer, but for deep tech specifically, proximity to a research university with your specific specialty matters more than tax rates.",[11,524,525,528],{},[50,526,527],{},"How much do I need to raise for a deep tech seed round in Canada?","\n$3-8M is now standard for Canadian deep tech seeds in 2026. That's up from $1.5-3M five years ago. Hardware and biotech skew higher, software-heavy deep tech (quantum algorithms, bio-informatics) can still get away with $2M.",[21,530,532],{"id":531},"where-founders-actually-meet-each-other","Where founders actually meet each other",[11,534,535],{},"Deep tech founders don't get much out of general startup events. The conversations that matter happen when you're sitting next to two other technical founders who are one round ahead or one round behind you, and neither of you has to explain what a qubit or a lipid nanoparticle is.",[11,537,538,539,242,542,248,545,548,549,39],{},"That's what we built Founder Feast for. Five founders, one restaurant, no pitching, Thursday evenings at 7pm in ",[35,540,241],{"href":238,"rel":541},[240],[35,543,247],{"href":245,"rel":544},[240],[35,546,253],{"href":251,"rel":547},[240],". If you're building a Canadian deep tech startup and you want to spend an evening with four other people who actually understand what you're working on, ",[35,550,552],{"href":260,"rel":551},[240],"apply here",[21,554,295],{"id":294},[297,556,557,562,568],{},[300,558,559],{},[35,560,561],{"href":435},"The state of Canadian AI startups in 2026",[300,563,564],{},[35,565,567],{"href":566},"\u002Fblog\u002Fbuilt-in-vancouver-startups-2026","Built in Vancouver: startups to watch in 2026",[300,569,570],{},[35,571,572],{"href":140},"Building a startup in Toronto",{"title":317,"searchDepth":318,"depth":318,"links":574},[575,576,577,578,579,580,581,582,583],{"id":361,"depth":318,"text":362},{"id":386,"depth":318,"text":387},{"id":403,"depth":318,"text":404},{"id":419,"depth":318,"text":420},{"id":440,"depth":318,"text":441},{"id":481,"depth":318,"text":482},{"id":266,"depth":318,"text":267},{"id":531,"depth":318,"text":532},{"id":294,"depth":318,"text":295},"https:\u002F\u002Ffounderfeast.com\u002Fblog\u002Fcanadian-deep-tech-startups-2026","2026-09-04","A grounded look at Canadian deep tech startups across quantum, biotech, climate, and hardware. Who's funded, where they're based, and what's working.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fcanadian-deep-tech-startups-2026",{"title":347,"description":586},"canadian-deep-tech-startups-2026","blog\u002Fcanadian-deep-tech-startups-2026","2026-09-21","jGqYNoZYb3oWgqeiskpQvInyBnySN4GYJHwowNtCnqE",{"id":595,"title":596,"author":597,"body":598,"canonical":904,"city":330,"date":905,"description":906,"extension":333,"faq":907,"image":334,"meta":920,"navigation":336,"path":566,"seo":921,"slug":922,"stem":923,"tag":341,"updated":330,"__hash__":924},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fbuilt-in-vancouver-startups-2026.md","Built in Vancouver: 21 Homegrown Startups Defining the City in 2026","Loic Bachellerie",{"type":8,"value":599,"toc":892},[600,609,615,619,645,658,671,675,681,687,693,697,703,709,715,721,725,731,737,741,747,753,759,765,771,775,781,787,791,797,803,809,815,821,825,828,839,845,857,861,878,882,885],[11,601,602,603,608],{},"Vancouver is now the #43 startup ecosystem globally and #2 in Canada, according to ",[35,604,607],{"href":605,"rel":606},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.startupblink.com\u002Ftop-startups\u002Fvancouver-ca",[240],"StartupBlink's 2026 index",", with six unicorns and a top three that has collectively raised more than USD $13.6B. If you want a fast, useful snapshot of what is actually being built here, this is the list: 21 homegrown Vancouver startups, who founded them, what stage they are at, and what they do.",[11,610,611,612,39],{},"We picked companies headquartered or substantially founded in Metro Vancouver, weighted toward those raising, hiring, or shipping in 2025 and 2026. For deeper context on the broader province, see our ",[35,613,614],{"href":145},"BC startup ecosystem breakdown",[21,616,618],{"id":617},"why-vancouver-and-why-now","Why Vancouver, and why now",[11,620,621,622,627,628,633,634,638,639,644],{},"A few numbers to set the table. British Columbia pulled in ",[35,623,626],{"href":624,"rel":625},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ellty.com\u002Finvestors\u002Fbritish-columbia-investors",[240],"$938 million in venture capital in Q3 2025 alone",". The metro's tech workforce sits at ",[35,629,632],{"href":630,"rel":631},"https:\u002F\u002Fgrowthlist.co\u002Fvancouver-startups\u002F",[240],"nearly 150,000",", the third-largest in Canada. In 2024, Vancouver startups attracted ",[35,635,637],{"href":630,"rel":636},[240],"over $1.4 billion in VC, up 35% year over year",", and by mid-2025 ",[35,640,643],{"href":641,"rel":642},"https:\u002F\u002Fvantechjournal.com\u002Fp\u002Fyour-exclusive-guide-to-vancouver-s-tech-scene-in-2026",[240],"more than 50 funding rounds"," had already closed.",[11,646,647,648,652,653,657],{},"The operating cost gap is still real. Vancouver runs ",[35,649,651],{"href":630,"rel":650},[240],"30 to 40% cheaper than Seattle or San Francisco"," on engineering-heavy teams. Median Series A valuations have climbed from ",[35,654,656],{"href":630,"rel":655},[240],"$15M in 2023 to about $22M in 2025",", signalling that better companies, not just cheap ones, are coming out of the city.",[11,659,660,661,666,667,39],{},"Core sectors: ",[35,662,665],{"href":663,"rel":664},"https:\u002F\u002Ffundraiseinsider.com\u002Fblog\u002Fvancouver-startups\u002F",[240],"CleanTech, BioTech, gaming, FinTech, Web3, and B2B software",". Legacy proof points that Vancouver companies scale globally include ",[35,668,670],{"href":630,"rel":669},[240],"Slack (originally Tiny Speck), Hootsuite, Absolute Software, and Lululemon's digital division",[21,672,674],{"id":673},"deep-tech-and-quantum","Deep tech and quantum",[11,676,677,680],{},[50,678,679],{},"1. Photonic."," Quantum computing. Founded by Dr. Stephanie Simmons, Photonic is building silicon-based photonic qubits and is one of the anchor deep-tech bets in the region.",[11,682,683,686],{},[50,684,685],{},"2. General Fusion."," Fusion energy. Burnaby-based, working on magnetized target fusion, one of the longest-running deep-tech companies in the province.",[11,688,689,692],{},[50,690,691],{},"3. D-Wave."," Quantum annealing. Public, but still Burnaby-headquartered and still a magnet for local quantum talent.",[21,694,696],{"id":695},"ai-and-developer-tools","AI and developer tools",[11,698,699,702],{},[50,700,701],{},"4. LayerZero Labs."," Omnichain interoperability protocol. One of the highest-valued crypto infrastructure companies with Vancouver roots.",[11,704,705,708],{},[50,706,707],{},"5. Dooly."," Sales workflow and AI note-taking for revenue teams. A durable Vancouver SaaS story.",[11,710,711,714],{},[50,712,713],{},"6. Klue."," Competitive intelligence platform for enterprise sales and product marketing teams.",[11,716,717,720],{},[50,718,719],{},"7. Jane Software."," Practice management SaaS for health and wellness clinics. Bootstrapped for years, quietly one of the most-used vertical SaaS tools in North America.",[21,722,724],{"id":723},"fintech-and-payments","Fintech and payments",[11,726,727,730],{},[50,728,729],{},"8. Mogo."," Personal finance and crypto. Public, still shipping.",[11,732,733,736],{},[50,734,735],{},"9. Grow (Grow Technologies)."," Fintech tooling for credit unions and banks.",[21,738,740],{"id":739},"climate-energy-and-mobility","Climate, energy, and mobility",[11,742,743,746],{},[50,744,745],{},"10. Svante."," Carbon capture. Filter-based CO2 capture systems for heavy industry.",[11,748,749,752],{},[50,750,751],{},"11. Moment Energy."," Second-life EV battery storage. Coquitlam-based, taking used EV packs and building commercial energy storage.",[11,754,755,758],{},[50,756,757],{},"12. Damon Motors."," Electric motorcycles. High-performance EV two-wheelers.",[11,760,761,764],{},[50,762,763],{},"13. Ionomr Innovations."," Ion-exchange membranes for green hydrogen and fuel cells.",[11,766,767,770],{},[50,768,769],{},"14. E-One Moli Energy."," Advanced lithium-ion cell manufacturing, one of the few North American cell makers.",[21,772,774],{"id":773},"health-bio-and-life-sciences","Health, bio, and life sciences",[11,776,777,780],{},[50,778,779],{},"15. AbCellera."," Antibody discovery. Public and still one of the anchor biotech employers in the city.",[11,782,783,786],{},[50,784,785],{},"16. Aspect Biosystems."," 3D bioprinting for tissue therapeutics, with a high-profile partnership pipeline.",[21,788,790],{"id":789},"consumer-creator-and-commerce","Consumer, creator, and commerce",[11,792,793,796],{},[50,794,795],{},"17. Thinkific."," Course creation platform for creators and educators. Public, headquartered in Vancouver.",[11,798,799,802],{},[50,800,801],{},"18. Article."," Direct-to-consumer furniture. Digital-first, category-defining brand.",[11,804,805,808],{},[50,806,807],{},"19. Later."," Social media scheduling and creator marketing. Merged with Mavrck, still a core Vancouver software employer.",[11,810,811,814],{},[50,812,813],{},"20. Copperleaf."," Asset investment planning software for utilities and infrastructure operators.",[11,816,817,820],{},[50,818,819],{},"21. Trulioo."," Global identity verification. One of the reliable late-stage private companies in the ecosystem.",[21,822,824],{"id":823},"what-this-list-tells-you-as-a-founder","What this list tells you as a founder",[11,826,827],{},"Three patterns to notice.",[11,829,830,831,834,835,838],{},"First, deep tech is real here. Photonic, General Fusion, D-Wave, Svante, Ionomr, and AbCellera are not weekend projects. They rely on UBC and SFU research pipelines and on patient capital that is comfortable underwriting long timelines. If you are a technical founder considering ",[35,832,833],{"href":140},"Vancouver versus Toronto"," or ",[35,836,837],{"href":224},"choosing a province",", the deep-tech density is a real reason to pick BC.",[11,840,841,842,844],{},"Second, vertical SaaS keeps winning. Jane, Klue, Dooly, Thinkific, Copperleaf, and Later all built durable revenue by owning a narrow workflow. None of them needed a Bay Area zip code to do it, though many of their customers and later-stage investors are American. If that describes your path, our guide on ",[35,843,160],{"href":159}," is worth a read.",[11,846,847,848,852,853,39],{},"Third, capital is here but selective. ",[35,849,851],{"href":641,"rel":850},[240],"50-plus rounds by mid-2025"," is a healthy pace, but the median Series A now sits around $22M, which means the bar on traction has moved up. Pre-seed and seed founders should plan runway accordingly. We cover the current bar in ",[35,854,856],{"href":855},"\u002Fblog\u002Fraising-pre-seed-canada-2026","raising pre-seed in Canada 2026",[21,858,860],{"id":859},"the-physical-scene-is-expanding-too","The physical scene is expanding too",[11,862,863,864,868,869,248,873,877],{},"New spaces like ",[35,865,867],{"href":641,"rel":866},[240],"Althra, North House, and COAST Hub in Victoria are opening",", and projects such as Game On (led by Chris Neumann) and The Syndicate are actively trying to \"bend gravity toward Vancouver.\" If you are picking a workspace or a neighbourhood, our ",[35,870,872],{"href":871},"\u002Fblog\u002Fbest-coworking-vancouver-founders-2026","best coworking spaces for Vancouver founders",[35,874,876],{"href":875},"\u002Fblog\u002Fgastown-founders-guide","Gastown founders guide"," go deeper.",[21,879,881],{"id":880},"meet-the-founders-behind-these-companies","Meet the founders behind these companies",[11,883,884],{},"Reading a list is one thing. Sitting across from a founder who is one round ahead of you is another. Founder Feast runs curated dinners in Vancouver with vetted founders across exactly the sectors above: deep tech, vertical SaaS, fintech, climate, and health. Small tables, no pitching, real conversations.",[11,886,887,888,39],{},"If you are building in Vancouver and want to meet the people actually shipping the companies on this list, ",[35,889,891],{"href":890},"\u002Fapply","apply to join a Founder Feast dinner",{"title":317,"searchDepth":318,"depth":318,"links":893},[894,895,896,897,898,899,900,901,902,903],{"id":617,"depth":318,"text":618},{"id":673,"depth":318,"text":674},{"id":695,"depth":318,"text":696},{"id":723,"depth":318,"text":724},{"id":739,"depth":318,"text":740},{"id":773,"depth":318,"text":774},{"id":789,"depth":318,"text":790},{"id":823,"depth":318,"text":824},{"id":859,"depth":318,"text":860},{"id":880,"depth":318,"text":881},"https:\u002F\u002Ffounderfeast.com\u002Fblog\u002Fbuilt-in-vancouver-startups-2026","2026-08-31","A founder's guide to 21 Vancouver-built startups in 2026, with stage, founders, and what they do, plus the ecosystem context behind the list.",[908,911,914,917],{"q":909,"a":910},"How many unicorns does Vancouver have in 2026?","According to StartupBlink's 2026 Global Startup Ecosystem Index, six Vancouver startups have exceeded USD $1 billion in valuation, and the top three have collectively raised more than USD $13.6 billion.",{"q":912,"a":913},"How much venture capital did BC startups raise recently?","British Columbia startups raised $938 million in venture capital in Q3 2025 alone, and Vancouver startups attracted over $1.4 billion across 2024, a 35% year-over-year increase.",{"q":915,"a":916},"Is it cheaper to build a startup in Vancouver than in Seattle or San Francisco?","Yes. Vancouver offers roughly 30 to 40% lower operating costs than Seattle or San Francisco while maintaining comparable engineering talent quality, which is a big reason US-headquartered companies open Canadian offices there.",{"q":918,"a":919},"What sectors is Vancouver strongest in?","The strongest sectors are CleanTech, BioTech, gaming, FinTech, Web3, and B2B software, with notable depth in quantum computing, carbon capture, and vertical SaaS.",{},{"title":596,"description":906},"built-in-vancouver-startups-2026","blog\u002Fbuilt-in-vancouver-startups-2026","Bv3zmI_K9aY9A---WQD-G3ca-6edLpQh4918id0zCWw",{"id":926,"title":927,"author":6,"body":928,"canonical":1113,"city":330,"date":1114,"description":1115,"extension":333,"faq":330,"image":1116,"meta":1117,"navigation":336,"path":145,"seo":1118,"slug":1119,"stem":1120,"tag":341,"updated":592,"__hash__":1121},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fbc-startup-ecosystem.md","BC Startup Ecosystem Guide (2026): Funding, Tax Credits, Talent",{"type":8,"value":929,"toc":1103},[930,933,936,939,943,946,949,952,955,959,962,965,973,976,980,983,986,997,1001,1004,1007,1013,1017,1020,1026,1032,1042,1046,1049,1052,1055,1058,1062,1065,1068,1085,1087],[11,931,932],{},"British Columbia quietly became the largest venture market in Canada, and most founders outside the province still haven't caught up. In 2025, BC pulled in $2.4 billion CAD in venture capital across 71 deals, capturing roughly 31% of national VC while representing about 16% of deal volume. Translation: the companies being built here are getting bigger checks from more serious investors than anywhere else in the country.",[11,934,935],{},"With 9,400+ tech companies and over 200,000 tech workers, BC is no longer emerging. It's a mature ecosystem with real exits, real capital, and real gaps. If you're building here in 2026, the playbook has changed since Slack sold, and knowing the current version matters.",[11,937,938],{},"Here's what actually works in BC right now, from SR&ED at the new $4.5M ceiling to which accelerators still write checks that matter.",[21,940,942],{"id":941},"the-exits-that-built-the-credibility","The exits that built the credibility",[11,944,945],{},"Any honest conversation about BC starts with the exits, because that's what tells investors this geography produces fundable and acquirable companies.",[11,947,948],{},"Stewart Butterfield grew up in Lund, a fishing village on the Sunshine Coast. He built Flickr (Yahoo bought it for $25M in 2005), then Slack (Salesforce bought it for $28B in 2021). That single trajectory reshaped how Vancouver thinks about ambition.",[11,950,951],{},"Clio, founded by Jack Newton and Rian Gauvreau in 2008, raised its $900M round in 2024 at a $3B valuation and is now tracking toward a public offering conversation in 2026. Hootsuite crossed $400M in revenue before its recapitalization. Thinkific went public on the TSX at $1.25B. Unbounce hit $50M+ in revenue bootstrapped from a Vancouver apartment. Dapper Labs, the team behind NBA Top Shot, still headquarters in Vancouver despite the crypto winter shakeout. STEMCELL Technologies now employs 2,700 people and clears $580M in revenue.",[11,953,954],{},"These aren't lucky one-offs. They're the compounding output of an ecosystem that's been quietly building for 20 years.",[21,956,958],{"id":957},"the-structural-edges-founders-keep-underestimating","The structural edges founders keep underestimating",[11,960,961],{},"The timezone argument matters more than founders admit. Pacific Time puts you in the same working hours as your Silicon Valley investors, customers, and design partners. If you've ever tried to run a Series A process from Toronto with a lead in Menlo Park, you already know what a three-hour delta does to deal velocity.",[11,963,964],{},"BC also sits on the Asia-Pacific corridor. Direct flights to Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, and Sydney open commercial opportunities that Eastern Canadian founders have to route through LAX to reach.",[11,966,967,968,972],{},"Then there's talent. UBC pulled in $972M in research funding for the 2025-26 cycle. SFU and UVic add another $400M+ combined. The BC PNP Tech pathway now runs weekly draws across 32 eligible occupations with a two-to-three month processing timeline, which is faster than Ontario's equivalent stream. Combined with the ",[35,969,971],{"href":970},"\u002Fblog\u002Fcanada-startup-visa-2026","Canada Startup Visa",", founders here have hiring tools most provinces can't match.",[11,974,975],{},"Compensation still runs 25-35% below Bay Area rates for senior engineers as of Q2 2026. A staff engineer in Vancouver costs around $210K CAD all-in versus $340K USD in San Francisco. That gap extends runway without dropping quality.",[21,977,979],{"id":978},"where-the-money-actually-comes-from","Where the money actually comes from",[11,981,982],{},"The $2.4B raised in 2025 came from a mix of local funds and cross-border capital. The established BC names still writing checks: Yaletown Partners (founded 2002), Vanedge Capital (2010), Rhino Ventures, Version One, and Pender Ventures. Kensington Capital Partners manages the $101M BC Tech Fund, a government-backed vehicle targeting the province.",[11,984,985],{},"At the earliest stages, the accelerators still matter. Launch Academy has supported 6,400+ founders whose companies have collectively raised $2.7B. New Ventures BC has run for 25 years and helped alumni raise over $900M. CDL-Vancouver operates deep tech, climate, and AI streams. For cleantech, Foresight remains Canada's largest accelerator with $2.4B deployed and 30,000+ industry connections. BC led the country in cleantech deal count again in 2025 with 18 transactions.",[11,987,988,989,992,993,996],{},"The gap? Series B and beyond. Most BC companies raising $30M+ rounds still bring in a US lead. If you're planning a growth round, start building those relationships early. Our guide on ",[35,990,991],{"href":159},"Canadian founders and US investors"," walks through the mechanics, and if you're weighing structure changes, the ",[35,994,995],{"href":374},"Delaware flip breakdown"," covers what actually happens.",[21,998,1000],{"id":999},"tax-credits-and-grants-that-move-real-dollars","Tax credits and grants that move real dollars",[11,1002,1003],{},"Canada's SR&ED program is the single most valuable government incentive available to BC startups, and most first-time founders leave money on the table. As of the 2025 federal budget implementation, the refundable credit rate stayed at 35% on qualifying R&D expenditures, but the expenditure ceiling rose to $4.5M for private CCPCs (up from $3M). That change is worth an extra $525K in refundable credits per year for R&D-heavy companies.",[11,1005,1006],{},"SR&ED stacks with IRAP grants (still writing $50K to $10M+ tickets in 2026) and Innovate BC programs, which relaunched the Ignite fund in early 2026 with $30M earmarked for natural resources and life sciences. A well-structured BC startup can layer these to get 40-60% of R&D costs subsidized in the pre-revenue phase.",[11,1008,1009,1010,39],{},"On the talent side, the BC PNP Tech stream has been permanent since 2021 and processes weekly. If you're hiring internationally and planning around it, factor 10-14 weeks from job offer to work permit, not the six months you'd budget under federal Express Entry alone. For a broader comparison of provincial tradeoffs, see ",[35,1011,1012],{"href":224},"best province for Canadian founders",[21,1014,1016],{"id":1015},"sectors-where-bc-punches-above-its-weight","Sectors where BC punches above its weight",[11,1018,1019],{},"Three verticals are genuinely world-class here, not just regionally strong.",[11,1021,1022,1025],{},[50,1023,1024],{},"Life sciences"," is anchored by UBC's research output and Vancouver's clustering around Great Northern Way. The province has 2,100+ life sciences companies employing 22,000 people. AbCellera's IPO in 2020, STEMCELL's continued growth, and the recent $180M Series C for Notch Therapeutics show the ceiling.",[11,1027,1028,1031],{},[50,1029,1030],{},"Cleantech"," benefits from BC's clean energy grid (98% hydro), a regulatory environment that actually rewards emissions reduction, and Foresight's purpose-built scaling infrastructure. Svante, General Fusion, and Moment Energy all sit in the Lower Mainland.",[11,1033,1034,1037,1038,1041],{},[50,1035,1036],{},"AI and enterprise software"," remain the largest category by deal count. Vancouver's AI cluster around the Vector Institute's western partners and companies like Ada, Later, and Jane has produced steady deal flow. If AI is your space, the ",[35,1039,1040],{"href":435},"2026 Canadian AI startup landscape"," is worth reading before you plan your raise.",[21,1043,1045],{"id":1044},"what-the-ecosystem-still-lacks","What the ecosystem still lacks",[11,1047,1048],{},"No honest read on BC ignores the gaps.",[11,1050,1051],{},"Late-stage capital is thin. The 71 deals that made up 2025's $2.4B were heavily skewed by five rounds over $100M each. Take those out and the median BC Series B looks a lot smaller than the Toronto equivalent. Companies raising growth rounds still fly to New York, Boston, or the Bay.",[11,1053,1054],{},"Housing remains brutal. Vancouver ranks in the top three least-affordable cities globally, which affects both founder quality of life and the ability to recruit senior talent from Toronto or the US. Kelowna and Victoria have absorbed real migration from founders wanting BC's ecosystem without the $2.4M starter home.",[11,1056,1057],{},"The repeat-founder density is still building. San Francisco has a compounding advantage from decades of exits producing angels who become mentors who become investors. BC has that layer now, but it's thinner. The Slack, Hootsuite, and Clio alumni are starting to write checks and take board seats, but the informal knowledge transfer that accelerates a first-time founder still happens slower here than in the Valley.",[21,1059,1061],{"id":1060},"how-founders-actually-break-in","How founders actually break in",[11,1063,1064],{},"The founders who build real networks in BC do it through consistent, deliberate relationship-building, not event attendance. The ecosystem is large enough to have depth but small enough that the same few hundred people show up repeatedly as co-investors, advisors, customers, and hires. Getting into that orbit matters more than any single pitch competition.",[11,1066,1067],{},"Felix Böck started ChopValue in 2016 with $200 and a chopstick recycling idea. He now runs a franchise operation on three continents. His public credit for the scale: Vancouver's willingness to back an unconventional bet. That openness to real differentiation, more than category familiarity, is what BC founder culture actually rewards.",[11,1069,1070,1071,1075,1076,1079,1080,1084],{},"If you're building here and want a seat at the table with founders working through the same problems, ",[35,1072,6],{"href":1073,"rel":1074},"https:\u002F\u002Ffounderfeast.com\u002F",[240]," runs Thursday dinners at 7pm in ",[35,1077,241],{"href":238,"rel":1078},[240],". Five founders, one restaurant, no pitching. Just the kind of conversation that compounds. ",[35,1081,1083],{"href":260,"rel":1082},[240],"Apply for your first dinner"," and we'll match you with four founders worth your Thursday.",[21,1086,295],{"id":294},[297,1088,1089,1094,1099],{},[300,1090,1091],{},[35,1092,1093],{"href":224},"Best province for Canadian founders",[300,1095,1096],{},[35,1097,1098],{"href":871},"Best coworking spaces in Vancouver for founders",[300,1100,1101],{},[35,1102,876],{"href":875},{"title":317,"searchDepth":318,"depth":318,"links":1104},[1105,1106,1107,1108,1109,1110,1111,1112],{"id":941,"depth":318,"text":942},{"id":957,"depth":318,"text":958},{"id":978,"depth":318,"text":979},{"id":999,"depth":318,"text":1000},{"id":1015,"depth":318,"text":1016},{"id":1044,"depth":318,"text":1045},{"id":1060,"depth":318,"text":1061},{"id":294,"depth":318,"text":295},"https:\u002F\u002Ffounderfeast.com\u002Fblog\u002Fbc-startup-ecosystem","2026-08-28","BC captured 31% of Canadian VC in 2025 with 9,400+ tech companies. Where the funding, tax credits, and talent actually are, from Vancouver to Kelowna.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbc.jpg",{},{"title":927,"description":1115},"bc-startup-ecosystem","blog\u002Fbc-startup-ecosystem","K_lT1e7fihPjJWdqZF2fvLNOqtK8Pd9ltaokEflu8ok"]