2026 Tech Founders Stampede Summit Recap
On July 6th, we hosted the first Tech Founders Stampede Summit at House 831 alongside Tech Thursday, a invite only, full-day summit bringing together 50+ founders from across the country.
50+ founders, seed to IPO, on the back patio at House 831.
Stampede already pulls people to Calgary every July. But what the city didn't have was a room where founders, seed to IPO, could spend a real day together. So we built one.
Sunday: The Dinner Series
The Summit actually started the night before. On Sunday evening we ran the Stampede Summit Dinner Series — four private founders dinners across the city, all at once: Stampede Summit Dinner, an early welcome for out-of-town founders; Fintech Dinner - Canada's fintech operators around one table; DefenceTech Dinner - a growing corner of the Canadian ecosystem that rarely gets its own room; Power & Data Centres Dinner - the infrastructure conversation Alberta is uniquely positioned to lead.
Small rooms, good food, no slides. By the time people walked into the Summit on Monday morning, half the room already knew each other.
Monday Morning
We started the day the only way a Stampede event should: with a Stampede Breakfast — pancakes, eggs, and sausage for our attendees, courtesy of BLG.
From there, we got into a fireside chat with Andrew D'Souza (Boardy, previously Clearco), followed by our first round of breakout rooms. Attendees picked the room that fit their stage and interests, with each breakout led by an operator who's lived the topic: Cracking Enterprise, Building Internal Leaders, and Embedded AI.
Andrew D'Souza in conversation with during the opening fireside.
After a quick break, Tate Hackert (ZayZoon), moderated a fireside with Mike Wessinger (PointClickCare). Mike founded the company 26 years ago, and they're now doing over $1B in annual revenue — a Canadian founder story that doesn't get told often enough
At midday, we held a White-Hatting ceremony, sponsored by Float - a classic Stampede tradition, and a first for many.
The Afternoon
After lunch, Philippe Burns, co-founder of Tech Thursday, moderated our Fintech Panel with Jeff Adamson (Neo, SkipTheDishes) and Rob Khazzam (Float), which led into a second round of breakouts: The Future of Payments, Changes to Policy for Canadian Competition, and Fundraising in a Hard Market.
Two more sessions closed out the day. Philippe led a panel with Kelly Schmitt (Headversity) and Vince Ircandia (StellarAlgo), and then the Hon. Nate Glubish, Alberta's Minister of Innovation, joined Tate for a closing fireside on what the province is doing to back its tech sector.
The After Party
When the programming wrapped, we opened the doors. The Stampede Summit After Party brought Summit attendees together with the broader Calgary startup community for an evening that ran well past the official end time.
What We Took Away
A few things stood out from year one.
The room matters more than the agenda. The panels and firesides were excellent, but the moments people kept mentioning afterward were the hallway conversations, the dinner tables, the founders comparing notes between sessions. Curate the room well and the rest takes care of itself.
Calgary can host this. Founders flew in from across the country. There's a version of this event that gets bigger every year, leading into Calgary’s SXSW.
Founders want depth, not networking. Invite-only, small breakouts, single-track programming. Nobody asked for a bigger venue or more sessions. They asked if we’ll be back with another next year.
Thank You
To all our speakers, breakout room leaders, and attendees for making the day possible, and to all the hands on deck for executing it.
To our Summit and After Party sponsors: Float, BLG, RBCx, Boast, Calgary Economic Development, and Alberta Enterprise Corporation.
And to our Dinner Series co-hosts: Torys LLP, ATB Financial, Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel, Boast, Interac Corp., Fintechs Canada, Western Canada Data Centre Alliance, and Calgary Economic Development.
See you at year two. 🤠
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