Techstars Edmonton Startup Week 2021
Monday, October 18, 2021
Got ethics? Applied ethics for AI with Ethically Aligned AI
As a technology start-up, you play a key role in designing our digital future.
But what happens when our design choices go sideways? When we thought we were making the world a better place, but we made it worse for some people? How do we make sure that our technologies don’t cause harm and ideally, promote well-being?
Investors, employees, customers, and society at large expect technology that works for everyone. Making good choices from the start is not only easier, but it sets your business up for long term success.
In this workshop, we’ll explore some of the core ethical issues encountered in developing AI/ML enabled systems. We’ll unpack the reasons why building ethics into your technology design choices is a smart business decision and touch on practical steps you can take in your business to apply ethical principles.
Thank you to the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) for sponsoring the AI/ML track as part of Edmonton Startup Week.
Startup Week Kickoff 🎉 Sponsored by the Downtown Business Association and Communauto
Monday. Noon. It's kick off time. 🎉
Edmonton Startup Week kicks off Monday, October 18th from noon-2pm, and we’re planning something extra special. Trust us, you won't want to miss it!
Here's a handy list of your Startup Week kickoff essentials:
✅ Follow us on social media @startupedmonton on Instagram and Twitter #yegsw21 so you can be the first to discover where your Startup Week freebies are located, and what you're getting. 👀 In case you missed it, check out these clues we shared on Friday and keep your eyes peeled for more hints around noon on Monday!
✅ Be in downtown Edmonton just before noon so you’ll be nearby your favorite coffee, lunch, and bar spots, ready to grab your free sips and snacks, and swag bag worth over $75! Freebies and swag bag quantities are limited, so get yours before they’re gone!
✅ Use the special password 'STARTUP WEEK' once you get to each kickoff location. You’ll need to share the password with staff to get your freebie.
✅ Don't be a stranger! At each kickoff location, Innovate Edmonton and Startup Edmonton staff will be on-site with smiling (and masked!) faces to greet you and provide your swag bag, while quantities last. We can't wait to meet you!
✅ Wear a mask and bring your proof of vaccination. Please keep in mind that many of the kickoff locations have adopted the Government of Alberta’s Restrictions Exemption Program (REP), which means proof of vaccination may be required upon entry.
✅ Get social! There are plenty of social sharing options on our platform, so be sure to share your Edmonton Startup Week experience on Twitter and Instagram using #yegsw21, and let everyone know you're attending
We can't wait to see you tomorrow to ring in #yegsw21!
Startup Week's Kick Off is made possible thanks to the support of Edmonton's Downtown Business Association and Communauto.
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Market Research and Competitive Analysis with the Mawji Centre at NAIT
Register in advance at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/market-research-and-competitive-analysis-tickets-159034411205
Market Research is the way to gather information about customer needs and market drivers. If you want to gather information from actual customers or potential customers to make a decision, then you need to understand and use market research. Competitive analysis is a subset of market research. When you investigate your competition or potential competition, you use market research techniques and concepts to understand what your competition is doing today and gain insights into their plans for tomorrow.
Garrett Fleck is one of the Mawji Centre’s valued Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. He is the founder of Reputed Digital Marketing Inc. At Reputed, their vision is to help businesses realize the full potential of the internet, to drive a new evolution of development, growth, and productivity.
Thank you to DrugBank for sponsoring the Entrepreneurship track as part of Edmonton Startup Week.
Pitch Foundations Bootcamp with Volition
A lecture-style “bootcamp” that brings together the science of storytelling with Volition's proven investor pitch building methodology.
By the end of the Bootcamp, participants will:
- Know the key elements of investor pitch structure and narrative storytelling.
- Understand how to apply Volition’s pitch-building methodology to capture their value proposition and incorporate all necessary components.
- Be able to effectively design, build, and present a clear, concise, and compelling pitch and presentation.
Additional resources:
- Pitch Building Workbook (Self-assessment tool)
Fireside chat with Arden Tse: Insights into how VCs strategically think about product-market fit for early-stage startups with Hassar Consulting Group Inc.
Early-stage startups put in the time and sweat to find and demonstrate product-market fit. Demonstrating it is crucial, especially when you are seeking investment money. And yes, you might say, I need to hit this MRR number, or % monthly growth, etc. Investors know well, that early-stage startups don’t have enough data to make a strong case, but what does that mean for you?
- What does product-market fit mean for an early-stage startup?
- How do you demonstrate that your product solves a worthy problem for which enough customers want to pay?
- What evidence do you provide to make the case, data and beyond, especially when the numbers are not quite there?
In this fireside chat with Arden Tse, we get insights into how VCs think about and assess product-market fit in early-stage startups. We’ll go beyond metrics.
Three key takeaways from this session include:
- Learn practical insights to help you make your case for product-market fit
- Discover actionable strategies to incorporate in your next conversation with a VC
- Uncover top mistakes to avoid when you want to demonstrate product-market fit to a VC
✨ FEATURED✨ All Your Legal Questions Answered: Q&A and Mixer with Parlee McLaws
📣 📣 📣 Let us know you're coming & sign up for some sips & snacks! Sign up through this link before 11pm on Oct 18 to receive some delicious free refreshments from Parlee McLaws. (Note: deliveries will happen on October 19th.)
Parlee McLaws is excited to meet you and answer all your burning startup legal questions at our Q&A and Mixer Event!
You can bring us your legal questions, and we will bring you a beverage and snack to enjoy while we get to mingle in our virtual Parlee Lounge.
We want to introduce you to our experienced lawyers in 3 different areas of the law: Intellectual Property, Corporate, and Labour and Employment.
You may have questions for an Intellectual Property Lawyer or Patent Agent. Questions like:
- When should a patent application to be filed?
- What is patentable?
- Do we need to register our brand name as a trademark?
Or questions for a Corporate Lawyer such as:
- What are the benefits of incorporating?
- Do I need a Unanimous Shareholder Agreement?
- What do I need to consider when bringing investors on board?
Well, feel free to bring those questions to the table, literally! We will have some of our experienced lawyers and Patent Agents waiting at tables in our virtual lounge to answer your burning legal questions and help you get started on the right foot.
What could make this even better? We want to make this event feel as much like we are in person as we can, so we will be delivering a charcuterie snack along with a beverage to our early sign ups. Sign up for our event by Monday, October 18 at 12pm, so we can make sure you get something a little extra to enjoy while we get to know each other.
We are looking forward to meeting you!
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
100 No's and 1 Yes: Closing Your First Sale with Innovate Edmonton
Every start up needs that first sale, but how do you get that first sale? How do you close the deal? All the marketing efforts, all the pitches, you need to be able to close the deal. What does it take to get that first sale? After a 100 No's how do you get that first Yes.
Thank you to DrugBank for sponsoring the Entrepreneurship track as part of Edmonton Startup Week.
From start-up to scale up, Alberta’s new business Accelerators are getting ready with Innovate Edmonton & Alberta Innovates
Join us for an information session with the four accelerator programs.
Learn more to understand which program you should apply for to take your company to the next level.
This event is a partnership between Innovate Edmonton & Alberta Innovates.
How to Grow a Startup Using Partnerships with Senkow Ventures Inc
This session will touch on how you can, as an early-stage company, leverage someone else's audience or customers to promote and grow your business. Partnerships aren't just for the well-funded startups or billion-dollar unicorns, they are for all businesses. You will leave this session with a game plan and hit-list of possible partners you can collaborate with to grow your business faster and stronger, together.
Thank you to DrugBank for sponsoring the Entrepreneurship track as part of Edmonton Startup Week.
Job Mixer + Company Meet and Greet Sponsored by Jobber
Log on and check out the local startup scene! Edmonton startups are growing and need great teams to help build innovative products that solve problems worldwide. Learn more about job opportunities available now and get to know what kind of skills they will be looking for in the future.
This job mixer is open to anyone curious about opportunities at growing tech-enabled companies - students from all programs of study and schools, recent grads, people on the job search and more.
Join at any time during the two-hour event, and stay as long or short as you'd like.
Companies include:
- Neo Financial
- Jobber
- Edmonton Screen Industries Office (ESIO)
- Harvest Builders
- Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii)
- Bitcoin Well Inc.
- Drugbank
- AltaML
- PainWorth
- samdesk
- Betable
- QuoteToMe
- DevFacto Technologies
- Parlee McLaws LLP
- Jobs Alberta
- Drivewyze
- Intuit
- Fly & Fetch
The Job Mixer is made possible thanks to the generous support of Jobber.
Deconstructing Data Rooms with Startup TNT and 4th Street Capital
Thinking about raising money for your startup in the next 6-12 months? You need a Data Room!
A well-organized data room signals to investors that you are detail-oriented, serious, credible, and have thoroughly thought through how you plan to use the investment to grow your business.
It is the best way to enable investors to easily peruse all the company documents that they need to make an investment decision about your deal.
In this interactive seminar, we will walk you through the key components of a data room, practical tips on how to organize them, and share the same Data Room checklist that our investors use at the Startup TNT Investment Summit.
Lessons Learned as First-Time Founders with FLIK
Michelle & Ravina, Co-Founders of FLIK, sit down to reminisce over their journey together as co-founders and first-time founders. We'll talk about all the lessons we've learned in building this community of 10,000+ women from 70+ countries worldwide, the ups and downs, and how we got through it all together.
Thank you to DrugBank for sponsoring the Entrepreneurship track as part of Edmonton Startup Week.
✨ FEATURED✨ AI Meetup with Amii
Learn about the latest tools and techniques in machine learning, and explore topics that researchers and industry professionals are thinking about or working on. Each meetup features two presenters; at the end of each presentation, participants will have the opportunity to participate in a Q&A session.
Thank you to the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) for sponsoring the AI/ML track as part of Edmonton Startup Week.
Thursday, October 21, 2021
Fireside Chats: Startup F**k-ups and How to Avoid Them with Goodlawyer
It's Small Business Week throughout Canada, and we can't think of a better way of celebrating than getting cozy with Brett & Josh as they share some fun anecdotes about their times as lawyers and entrepreneurs.
Join the conversation as they share the startup lessons we've learned along the way that can help you prevent legal decisions from coming back to haunt you.
Thank you to DrugBank for sponsoring the Entrepreneurship track as part of Edmonton Startup Week.
Avoid needless failure in entrepreneurship with Hubble Incubator
In entrepreneurship, there are a few big ideas that if you get right, will massively increase your ability to succeed. They are not easy, but when understood they will save you a ton of time, energy, and resources. You will walk away with three tools you can immediately implement in your life and business that will make a difference. While designed for the early-stage entrepreneurs, it’s surprising how they are not well defined in established businesses.
This session kicks off Hubble's 4 part series on Hiring, Cash-flow & Budgeting, and Product-market fit. Colin has been in and around business for decades and had his share of big wins and big losses. Navigating the minefield was a disaster at first but it got easier over time. He serves as MacEwan University's Entrepreneur In Residence, has ownership roles in 6 companies in Renewable energy, Building materials, Apps, Social enterprise, and Acceleration. He spends most of his time helping entrepreneurs avoid needless failure.
Join us for fun and a ton of energy around entrepreneurship.
Thank you to DrugBank for sponsoring the Entrepreneurship track as part of Edmonton Startup Week.
Friday, October 22, 2021
Raising Series A with Innovate Edmonton Sponsored by Williams Engineering
Let’s talk about Money! For startups, raising capital is a beast of a task. It’s daunting. It’s endless hours of work. But you aren’t alone.
Hear about raising Series A funding from those who have successfully been through the process! Learn about the ins and outs of raising big money.
Joining the panel to share their stories are:
Colin Bramm, CEO of Showbie
James Neufeld, CEO of samdesk
Andrew Chau, Co-Founder of Skip the Dishes and Co-Founder of Neo Financial
This top-notch panel will be moderated by Catherine Warren, CEO of Innovate Edmonton. Don’t miss out!
Startup Week's Series A Panel is made possible thanks to the support of Williams Engineering.
Social Impact powered by AI/ML with the Edmonton Police Foundation
There’s over $7.5B spent on community / social programs in Edmonton alone and the outcomes aren’t quite what we would have expected for that level of investment. In addition, there’s a great opportunity to lead on social justice and create a model that’s replicable globally.
We believe that we can leverage entrepreneurship, technology, data, AI/ML, mentorship, funding, domain partners to finally help devise and deploy workable solutions that can not only deliver better outcomes but more importantly, make a real difference in the lives of our citizens and help our entrepreneurs scale the solutions globally. Technology can help deliver better outcomes!
This is our chance to do Good, Deliver Better Outcomes and Create Scalable Companies and for Alberta to lead the world in Community Safety and Wellness Solutions.
Thank you to the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) for sponsoring the AI/ML track as part of Edmonton Startup Week.
✨ FEATURED✨ AI Seminar with Amii & UAlberta
The AI Seminar is a weekly meeting at the University of Alberta where researchers interested in artificial intelligence (AI) can share their research. Presenters include both local speakers from the University of Alberta and visitors from other institutions. Topics can be related in any way to artificial intelligence, from foundational theoretical work to innovative applications of AI techniques to new fields and problems.
Thank you to the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) for sponsoring the AI/ML track as part of Edmonton Startup Week.
Forward, Faster, Free- how the ERIN Coach Program can help founders flourish with Innovate Edmonton
Do you have a project or startup that needs expert help to move forward? Hear from founders and advisors in the ERIN Coach program to learn how to move your project forward, faster, for free.
Thank you to DrugBank for sponsoring the Entrepreneurship track as part of Edmonton Startup Week.
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