Lilia CEO Alyssa Atkins on how COVID-19 changed her Y Combinator demo day

Y Combinator

While some people are embracing back to school, in Canadian tech, it’s accelerator graduation season (yes, that’s a thing).

“Within the span of a week or two, it went from ‘I’m prepping for demo day’ to ‘holy shit, go raise whatever you can.'”
– Alyssa Atkins
 

Most accelerator programs had to scramble quickly for their summer cohorts, switching from on-location to remote models. But there were some companies in the middle of programs as the pandemic struck. One such company is Toronto-based Lilia, which was preparing for its Y Combinator demo day in March.

As YC and other North American accelerator programs, from Google and Techstars, go fully remote, Lilia might be one of the last Canadian companies to experience an accelerator in person.

Today we talk to Lilia co-founder and CEO, Alyssa Atkins, about that experience, and her recommendations for cohorts to come.

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Black Swan is a BetaKit podcast. Hosted by Douglas Soltys & Rob Kenedi. Edited by Kattie Laur.
Produced with support from TWG.

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