Since 2010, GROW has delivered every year on its promise to bring together the best founders, executives, and investors for a curated experience exploring the ways entrepreneurs can build a billion-dollar company. In the past, the event has had speakers across diverse industries, including Amit Singh, president of Google for Work, Evernote COO Linda Kozlowski, and Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield.
But in a blog post on Grow’s website, Debbie Landa, founder of GROW, announced that 2016 would be a no-grow year. “The original purpose of GROW — bringing Silicon Valley to Canada to drive innovation — has been realized,” Landa said. “Over the last six years, Silicon Valley quickly embraced and invested in some of the leading Canadian entrepreneurs. In turn, the Canadian ecosystem stepped up, created, built and invested in their own community, showing the power and influence that happens when a country unites.”
Landa says she’s now focused on pursuing new projects that she didn’t have time to pursue between organizing GROW. “I have never regretted it, but this year I have made a commitment to myself that I’ll pursue those new things,” she wrote.
As the CEO of Dealmaker Media since 2000, Landa has used curated conferences to help people outside and inside of the startup community understand the changes happening in the startup community and their impact. She ran the Under the Radar conference for 10 years, which included appearances from unicorns like LinkedIn, and detailed in the post how GROW was a catalyst in creating the accelerator that is now HIGHLINE.
For the 800 attendees that look forward to GROW ever year, Landa ends on a positive note: “That’s not to say that I won’t produce Grow again.”