When founders solving some of the worldâs toughest challenges come together for a one-day event, there’s only one way to describe it: a CDL Super Session.
Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is convening its top builders, mentors, and investors from around the world for its annual CDL Super Session, which will be held during the first-ever Toronto Tech Week.
“The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts for the CDL network.”
Sonia Sennik, CDL
This gathering marks the culmination of CDLâs nine-month program, celebrating the startups that made it through and their breakthroughs along the way.
Attendees can expect a packed room of investors, founders, and some of the most influential voices in the tech sector.
Founded at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto in 2012, CDL is among Canadaâs most widely recognized acceleration programs. It uses a focused mentorship model designed to guide some of the worldâs most commercially ready startups to the finish line.
This year, CDL ran programming in 12 different locations around the world, including Estonia, Paris, Melbourne, Seattle, Berlin, Wisconsin, and five cities in Canada.
âWe had 30 different programs this year around the world, from artificial intelligence and carbon removal, to cancer and space,â said Sonia Sennik, CEO of CDL. âAll graduating companies from these programs will be featured in our Startup Zone at CDL Super Session, so attendees can walk through and meet really inspiring and ambitious founders from all over the world.â
In addition to featuring CDLâs latest graduating cohort, this yearâs CDL Super Session will feature keynote conversations on its main stage and networking opportunities throughout the day.
The invitation-only event on June 24 will open with keynote talks and panel discussion featuring leading innovators, AI pioneer Richard Sutton, Neuralink President Dongjin “DJ” Seo, quantum physicist Suzanne Gildert, and University of Alberta professor Patrick Pilarski, exploring how our understanding of cognition is evolving across learning, experience, and control.
An afternoon fireside chat will feature Shopify CEO Tobi LĂŒtke and Sennik in a discussion about making tough decisions and staying agile while scaling a global business.
Throughout the day, featured ventures from CDLâs graduating cohort will take the main stage to showcase their innovations. At the heart of CDL Super Session, the Startup Zone will be buzzing with graduates from every CDL innovation stream.
Among the graduates attending Super Session are 9Bio, which is creating biotech therapies that boost the immune systemâs ability to target cancer; Aiba, which is using AI to detect and prevent harmful online behaviour in real time; and Juno Propulsion, which is developing rocket engines that enhance satellite agility and performance in space.
Sennik said attendees can expect to see âpostcards from the futureâ via scientists and inventors working at the cutting edge of technology as they attempt to bring their research to life.
âItâs really about connecting with the community,â Sennik said. âItâs an opportunity to meet your peers from around the world who may be working on something similar to you. Iâve seen new relationships form, business opportunities, and investment opportunities. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts for the CDL network.â
That kind of support is something Robert Brooks, co-founder of ForceN, experienced firsthand. ForceN joined the CDL Health stream as two PhD students building touch-sensing materials for surgical training tools. Mentors quickly challenged them to think bigger, pushing them to explore use cases across industries.
By the time they reached CDL Super Session, the pair had pilot contracts lined up and were preparing to raise a pre-seed round. At the event, they met BioWare founder Ray Muzyka, who later became an investor, along with a robotics professor from the University of British Columbia, and Andra Keay, director of Silicon Valley Robotics.
Keayâs advice to avoid aerospace and automotive manufacturing led the duo to double down on surgical robotics. ForceN went on to close an $8.35-million CAD funding round. Brooks said their meetings at CDL Super Session were real turning points in their early journey.To date, companies that have participated in CDL have generated over $51 billion CAD in equity value, and CDL is set to add new program sites in Texas and Milan, Italy. Applications for CDLâs next cohort, across all streams, are now open.
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Creative Destruction Lab is now accepting applications for all 2025/26 program streams across our global sites.
If youâre a founder developing a science- or technology-based venture with the potential for massive scale, this is your opportunity to work with world-class mentors, serial entrepreneurs, investors, scientists, and operators whoâve built and backed industry-defining companies. Apply now.
All photos provided by CDL.