Startupfest will return to Montreal from July 8 to 12 for its ninth year, presenting five days of pitching, hacking, learning, and networking. This year, the festival will host two new workshops on founding and funding, and according to the festival’s content chair, new changes to Startupfest’s format.
“We’ll be tackling wide-ranging topics from emerging world of content businesses, to sustainability, to startup mental health.”
“Year nine of Canada’s iconic startup conference takes a deeper dive into the content founders need to turn their idea into a business model, then close the funding they need in order to fuel that growth,” said Alistair Croll, Content Chair of Startupfest. “We’re adding two days of workshop content featuring renowned authors and international experts, aimed at the specific skills and challenges of founding and funding new companies.”
One of the two new workshops being introduced to StartupFest is the Founding Workshop, which is designed to take aspiring innovators from an initial idea to a sustainable, repeatable business model. This workshop was created in partnership with accelerators to ensure graduates are ready to seek early funding and will take place from July 9 to 10.
The Founding Workshop is specifically for early-stage founders, pre-funding startups hoping to join an accelerator, and researchers and entrepreneurs seeking a sustainable, repeatable business model. To qualify for this workshop, applicants:
• cannot have raised institutional funding
• should not have any experience in an accelerator
• have a pre-product or market fit
• should clearly articulate their product, target audience, and basic assumptions
The Funding Workshop is another addition to this year’s lineup. The workshop comprises a lineup of talks, interactive discussions, and lessons on finding a product-market fit and creating the systems in order to scale. Taking place July 9 to 10, the two-day event will allow startups to pitch to a room of VCs, and is sponsored by the BDC.
Related: #Startupfest tackles Canada’s scaleup problem
The Funding Workshop is for pre-series-A startups, those who have closed early funding and proven the product, those who have raised or are raising a seed round, and those who may have graduated from an accelerator program, although this is not a requisite. Admittance criteria for this workshop include:
• Raised funding, but not closed a Series A
• An accelerator graduate (not a requisite)
• A sustainable, repeatable business model hypothesis
• Core founding team (hacker, hustler, designer, analyst)
“The main-stage lineup is as fascinating as ever. We’ll be tackling wide-ranging topics from emerging world of content businesses, to sustainability, to startup mental health,” Croll said. “Many of our world-class keynotes will also be participating in ask-me-anything style interactive discussions.”
Returning to this year’s lineup of invents are VentureFest, AcceleratorFest, the Women in Tech Bootcamp, and HackerFest. Keynote speakers and prizes have not yet been announced.
Image courtesy Startupfest.
