Scaling Agile

Hear from Kathleen Chan (Founder and CEO at Calico), Jonah Midanik (Managing Partner at Forum Ventures) and Goodmans Partner, Danielle Levesque, as they share their experience of venture financing as a founder, investor, and lawyer to growing technology companies. This session is curated specifically for Seed+ founders and active venture investors looking to navigate their next funding round. The Agenda: 8:30 AM: Arrival & Networking 9:00 AM: Keynote Masterclass 10:00 AM: Refreshments & Networking The Perks Spend the morning with a founder, investor and lawyer who have extensive experience with venture financing. Network with a select group of growth-stage peers and institutional investors - high-level conversation without the noise is guaranteed! Enjoy refreshments provided by our hosts at Goodmans. Secure your seat to master your venture capital strategy. Agenda --- Hosted By Ankur Sethi, Director Ankur Sethi is a seasoned entrepreneur and venture capitalist with over 17 years of experience building and scaling consumer businesses across technology, finance, and healthcare. He has led ventures from inception to over $350 million in annual revenue and $2 billion in valuation, combining operational excellence with a deep understanding of evolving consumer behavior. Daria Tilikanova, Co-Director Daria Tilikanova is a business and startup coach who helps founders and service-based entrepreneurs build scalable businesses with clear strategy, strong positioning, and predictable revenue systems. Originally from Russia, she founded and sold two education companies before moving to Canada, where she shifted into full-time mentoring for early-stage and growing founders. Daria has worked with 200+ entrepreneurs across tech, education, wellness, and agency-based businesses, guiding them from first clients to stable growth and team building. Alongside her private practice, she is a Venture Fellow at Winner Capital, supporting startup evaluation and founder readiness for investment. Her coaching combines business structure, mindset work, and execution clarity - helping entrepreneurs grow without burnout or chaos. Lydia Emanuel, I run a consultancy that focuses on Talent Strategy and Operations for fast-moving companies. Instead of just hiring people, I build the systems that help businesses scale without the chaos. I also lead Events and Sponsorships for Startup Grind Toronto, connecting the best brands to our local tech community. Diana Subbotkina, I help grow the Toronto startup ecosystem through Startup Grind Toronto, connecting founders, investors, and operators through curated events, partnerships, and community initiatives. My work focuses on bringing the right people into the room and creating opportunities for meaningful connections and growth. Shabs Badsha, Sukanta Goswami, Inquisitive entrepreneur connecting and collaborating with earlystage ventures by investing time and energy in bringing new ideas and concepts to the market. --- Global Partner Carta (http://www.carta.com/launch?utm_campaign=20240423-nam-general-smb-startup_grind_partnership&utm_medium=social&utm_source=startup_grind) Carta helps people manage equity, build businesses, and invest in the companies of tomorrow. Carta Launch is the only free cap table product, helping new founders get started. The company is trusted by more than 40,000 companies, over 7,000 funds and SPVs, and over two million equity holders to manage cap tables, compensation, valuations, liquidity, and more. For more information, visit carta.com. Strategic Goodmans LLP (https://Www.goodmans.cq) Canadian Corporate Law Firm Partner Winner Capital (https://winner.capital) Winner Capital is an early stage to growth stage syndicate fund investing across North America --- Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. We host monthly events in more than 600 cities and 125+ countries featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share personal stories and lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Our monthly fireside chat interviews, startup mixers and annual conferences provide ample opportunities to connect with amazing startups and the people behind them, tap into a strong support network, form meaningful connections and gain inspiration for the startup journey ahead. For more information visit StartupGrind.com or follow us on twitter @StartupGrind. --- Complete your event RSVP here: https://www.startupgrind.com/events/details/startup-grind-toronto-presents-breakfast-masterclass-goodmans-llp-venture-financing-and-term-sheets/.

Every Wednesday Night! Free Magic The Gathering Commander games at Hairy Tarantula, hosted by Toronto Gaymers! Please note: Masks are required in store! For more information and to RSVP please over to harryt.com/events

**🎟 This is a paid event. Tickets must be purchased on Luma. Get yours:** [luma.com/techto-summer-social-may-27-2026](https://luma.com/techto-summer-social-may-27-2026) TechTO is BACK with its annual Summer Social at Bobby Bermuda's Sunset Bar. 🌊 **The setup** 600 people. Tacos. Drinks. Sunshine on Toronto's waterfront. One of the most coveted outdoor venues in the city. Need we say more? 🤝 **The crowd** Founders, operators, investors, and builders from across Canada's tech scene - all in one place, all in a good mood. This is the event where real connections get made. 🌮 **What's included** Every ticket comes with food and one drink (alcoholic or non-alcoholic). Just show up and make it happen. 📍 Bobby Bermuda's Sunset Bar (formerly The Slip), 235 Queens Quay W, Toronto 📅 Wednesday, May 27, 2026 · 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

We’ve missed our Mandarin gatherings at Yonge & Eglinton… but no more! Join fellow Toronto Senior Social Club members for a relaxed and friendly lunch at the Mandarin 2206 Eglinton Avenue East on **Wednesday, May 27, between 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM**. **Getting there is easy:** Take Line 5 (Eglinton Crosstown) and exit at **Birchmount Station (2225 Eglinton Avenue East)**. From there, the Mandarin is just a short **5 minute walk**. Come for the food, stay for the company—we look forward to seeing you there! Thanks for hosting Jim and Judy.

**Hello. I'm [Bruce Hunt](www.brucehunt.ca)** your **Confidence and Communication Coach** in downtown Toronto. I host a variety of inspiring and growth provoking experiences all designed to help you learn to express yourself more confidently and effectively. **All my events are aimed at helping you...** * Build speaking confidence. * Learn speaking skills. * Gain speaking experience. * Hear some inspiring stories and perspectives. * Meet friendly people. **What is Community Breakthrough Night?** This is an event for anyone who wants to learn and practice speaking skills with other friendly, supportive people. Anyone is welcome to participate and no experience is necessary, This experience is meant to have everyone participate but you're welcome to watch if that makes you feel more comfortable right now. Check out one of my other more intensive communication training experiences or my [1:1 Coaching Programs](https://brucehunt.ca/coaching) if you need intensive personalized help. **You** **would defend benefit from this event if...** * You're socially anxious and want to be coaxed out of your shell. * You experience speaking anxiety or fear and want some gentle, supportive exposure therapy * You are a confident speaker and want to practice and learn new skills with a dynamic and inspiring community. **Is there a fee to attend?** **Yes. A** **$25 drop in fee** is in effect or bring a friend and pay **$40** for the two of you. You can pay via e-transfer to bruce@brucehunt.ca. Just add a message in the transfer which event you're planning to attend. **What to expect?** 1. Bruce opens the event with a friendly welcome and warm up for everyone and introduces the speaking theme for the night. 2. You'll get some tips for how to build your 2 Minute Talk and be reminded of some skills you can practice. 3. Everyone gets 2 Minute Speaking opportunities until everyone has had at least one, but often two opportunities to speak. **Do you need to prepare anything?** No. There is a unique speaking theme for each event that is based on a personal growth theme of some kind. They are always easy to talk about and designed to get you sharing your unique perspectives and experience not give a prepared presentation. If you have any questions please feel free to ask! Cheers! Bruce

**🎟 This is a paid event. Tickets must be purchased on Luma. Get yours:** [luma.com/techto-summer-social-may-27-2026](https://luma.com/techto-summer-social-may-27-2026) TechTO is BACK with its annual Summer Social at Bobby Bermuda's Sunset Bar. 🌊 **The setup** 600 people. Tacos. Drinks. Sunshine on Toronto's waterfront. One of the most coveted outdoor venues in the city. Need we say more? 🤝 **The crowd** Founders, operators, investors, and builders from across Canada's tech scene - all in one place, all in a good mood. This is the event where real connections get made. 🌮 **What's included** Every ticket comes with food and one drink (alcoholic or non-alcoholic). Just show up and make it happen. 📍 Bobby Bermuda's Sunset Bar (formerly The Slip), 235 Queens Quay W, Toronto 📅 Wednesday, May 27, 2026 · 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

### **Build Your First Streaming AI Personal Assistant** **2-Hour Hands-On In-Person Workshop** #### **Details** * 📅 **Date:** Wednesday, May 27, 2026 * 🕕 **Time:** 06:00 PM – 08:00 PM * 📍 **Location:** B-213, Davis Campus OR Virtual * 🔒 **Sheridan College students only** * 🎟️ **Free \| Limited spots — RSVP now\! AWS Cloud Club swag included\! 🚀** Ready to build modern, real-time streaming generative AI applications on AWS? In this fast-paced, hands-on session you'll: * Spin up a **Next.js frontend interface** * Write Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using the **AWS CDK** * Deploy an **AWS Lambda Function URL** configured for live HTTP response streaming * Connect **Amazon Bedrock with Amazon Nova 2 Lite**—AWS's newest model, auto-enabled out of the box with zero form approval wait times! * Get a live, public HTTPS URL of your running AI Assistant Bring your laptop - we'll provide the starter GitHub repo at the start. See you there - let's build and deploy!

**DevOps Toronto is officially back, and we’re kicking off 2026 with an in-person meetup!** After a pause, we’re excited to bring the community together again for an evening of learning, connection, and great conversations 🤝 This is a great chance to reconnect and meet fellow DevOps, cloud, and platform engineering professionals in Toronto. **What to expect:** 🎤 **2 technical sessions** 1. Crawl, Walk, Scale: Building Maturity into your internal development platform by Jeferson pereira 2. Bring Your Own AI: Running LLM Models in Your Lab by Alexander Kharkevich 🤝 **Dedicated networking time** with the community 💡 Real-world insights, hands-on learnings, and meaningful discussions **📅 Event Details:** 📅 **Date:** 28th May 2026 ⏰ **Time:** 5:00 to 7:30 PM EST 📍 **Venue: 7th Floor, AWS Office,** **18 York St, Toronto, ON M5J 0B2, Canada** **🎤 Interested in speaking?** We’re actively looking for speakers to take the stage and share their experiences with the community. 👉 **Submit your talk here:** [https://sessionize.com/devops-toronto-2026/](https://sessionize.com/devops-toronto-2026/) ✨ Let’s bring the DevOps Toronto community back stronger than ever. 🔒 **Note:** This is a **community-driven event**. We respect your privacy and **will never share attendee information for any monetary or promotional purposes**.

Can your agents scale without bankrupting your API quota or your compute budget? Join this session to explore a production-ready architecture that uses the LLM Council pattern, Google’s Agent Development Kit (ADK) for Java and Spring AI, all deployed on Cloud Run. And discover how replacing probabilistic reason-and-act (ReAct) loops with LLM Council enable goal-oriented action planning (GOAP) creates agents that are not only smarter but also significantly lighter and faster – making them the perfect workload for serverless execution. **About the venue** Free Times Cafe has bistro-style seating and a full food and drink menu. Please consider helping to support the venue by planning to have supper during the talk. **Speaker Bio** Dan Dobrin is an App Architect in Google Cloud, helping customer teams adopt modern AI technologies, cloud-native patterns, practices and technologies in GCP. Dan focuses on building GenAI applications, adopting AI coding assistance tooling with Gemini, Native Java Images, Spring AI, event-driven architectures, production-readiness and performance optimization. Prior to joining Google Cloud, he has built highly scalable, low-latency, frameworks for technology, security and financial services organizations.

### Each Crossroads & Connections workshop is a fast, friendly mash-up: short demos, paired practices and intentional reflection. We keep it light, embodied, and social—so wisdom lands in your muscles and your circle, not only your mind. There isn’t one technique that fixes everything, for everyone, in every situation. ### What is it? We pair complementary domains to spark shared flow, fresh insight, and unforgettable “aha!” moments. You leave with lived skills, not just notes. * **Dialogue** gets you out of solo spin: small-group formats expose blind spots and sharpen “shared reality,” so your next move matches *this* person and *this* moment. * **Imaginal** practice is guided “as if” rehearsal you look *through*, not *at*: walking the beats before the scene means your body recognizes turns when stakes rise. * **Mindfulness** steadies the camera: attention stops jerking around, drama gets de-amplified, and you can catch the instant you’re narrating motives and swap in one honest question. * **Embodiment** makes it actionable through direct, non-verbal experience and how your inner experience matches your outer expression. Facilitators: Varies Fee: $30USD - Or a 10-pack for $200USD [Please visit here](https://awakentomeaning.com/crossroads-and-connections/) for registration and more information.

What does fundraising look like in 2026? The capital landscape has shifted. The "growth at all costs" era is over, replaced by a focus on sustainable unit economics, AI-driven efficiency, and strategic resilience. Whether you are raising a pre-seed or gearing up for a Series A, the rules of the game have changed. Join Startup Grind Toronto on May 28th at Startuptive for a tactical deep dive into the current state of venture capital. We’ve assembled a powerhouse panel to give you a 360-degree view of the fundraising journey: Swish Goswami (CEO and Founder, Stealth Startup, formerly Head of Growth @ Boardy, CEO of Surf) breaks down how to leverage modern growth tactics and AI to build the traction that investors can't ignore. Kayli Smith (Co-Founder & CEO of Friendlier) shares the raw, "boots-on-the-ground" experience of successfully raising capital and scaling a circular economy startup in today’s evolving economy. Miryam Lazarte (Founder & CEO of Global Startups Accelerator; General Partner, GSA Ventures): Offers a unique dual perspective as both an accelerator leader and a venture capitalist focused on global scale. Wael Jabir (Moderator | Chief of Staff at Hustle Fund): Represents an early-stage venture firm investing in "hilariously early" startups. Wael brings insights from Hustle Fund’s massive 600k+ media ecosystem and their 2,600-member global angel community. This isn't just a panel; it’s a masterclass in modern storytelling and financial strategy. Come for the insights, stay for the high-energy mixer with fellow founders, beer, and pizza. The Agenda: 6:00 PM: Doors Open & Pre-Event Networking 7:00 PM: Fundraising in 2026: Panel Discussion & Q&A 7:45 PM: Founder & Investor Mixer (Pizza & Beer provided) Stop pitching like it's 2021. Come learn how to win in 2026. About Our Venue Partner Startuptive is a collaborative coworking community designed for ambitious founders, remote teams, and independent professionals. We offer flexible workspace options, high-speed internet, curated events, and a supportive environment that helps you focus, connect, and grow your business. Whether you’re launching your first startup or scaling your next big idea, Startuptive is where productivity meets community. Sponsor Highlight Deel is the all-in-one global HR platform helping companies hire, pay, and scale international teams from day one — no local entities required. From onboarding contractors and employees in 150+ countries to running compliant payroll in 100+ currencies, Deel simplifies global hiring, HR, equity, and equipment management through one centralized platform — so founders can focus on building, not paperwork. As part of the Startup Grind community partnership, eligible new clients can access up to $5,000 in Deel credits through Startup Grind Toronto. Learn more: Startup Grind x Deel Credits Agenda --- Hosted By Ankur Sethi, Director Ankur Sethi is a seasoned entrepreneur and venture capitalist with over 17 years of experience building and scaling consumer businesses across technology, finance, and healthcare. He has led ventures from inception to over $350 million in annual revenue and $2 billion in valuation, combining operational excellence with a deep understanding of evolving consumer behavior. Daria Tilikanova, Co-Director Daria Tilikanova is a business and startup coach who helps founders and service-based entrepreneurs build scalable businesses with clear strategy, strong positioning, and predictable revenue systems. Originally from Russia, she founded and sold two education companies before moving to Canada, where she shifted into full-time mentoring for early-stage and growing founders. Daria has worked with 200+ entrepreneurs across tech, education, wellness, and agency-based businesses, guiding them from first clients to stable growth and team building. Alongside her private practice, she is a Venture Fellow at Winner Capital, supporting startup evaluation and founder readiness for investment. Her coaching combines business structure, mindset work, and execution clarity - helping entrepreneurs grow without burnout or chaos. Lydia Emanuel, I run a consultancy that focuses on Talent Strategy and Operations for fast-moving companies. Instead of just hiring people, I build the systems that help businesses scale without the chaos. I also lead Events and Sponsorships for Startup Grind Toronto, connecting the best brands to our local tech community. Diana Subbotkina, I help grow the Toronto startup ecosystem through Startup Grind Toronto, connecting founders, investors, and operators through curated events, partnerships, and community initiatives. My work focuses on bringing the right people into the room and creating opportunities for meaningful connections and growth. Shabs Badsha, Sukanta Goswami, Inquisitive entrepreneur connecting and collaborating with earlystage ventures by investing time and energy in bringing new ideas and concepts to the market. --- Global Partner Carta (http://www.carta.com/launch?utm_campaign=20240423-nam-general-smb-startup_grind_partnership&utm_medium=social&utm_source=startup_grind) Carta helps people manage equity, build businesses, and invest in the companies of tomorrow. Carta Launch is the only free cap table product, helping new founders get started. The company is trusted by more than 40,000 companies, over 7,000 funds and SPVs, and over two million equity holders to manage cap tables, compensation, valuations, liquidity, and more. For more information, visit carta.com. Partners Startuptive (https://startuptive.com/) Startuptive is a collaborative coworking community designed for ambitious founders, remote teams, and independent professionals. We offer flexible workspace options, high-speed internet, curated events, and a supportive environment that helps you focus, connect, and grow your business. Whether you’re launching your first startup or scaling your next big idea, Startuptive is where productivity meets community. Winner Capital (https://winner.capital) Winner Capital is an early stage to growth stage syndicate fund investing across North America --- Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. We host monthly events in more than 600 cities and 125+ countries featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share personal stories and lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Our monthly fireside chat interviews, startup mixers and annual conferences provide ample opportunities to connect with amazing startups and the people behind them, tap into a strong support network, form meaningful connections and gain inspiration for the startup journey ahead. For more information visit StartupGrind.com or follow us on twitter @StartupGrind. --- Complete your event RSVP here: https://www.startupgrind.com/events/details/startup-grind-toronto-presents-fundraising-in-2026-panel-amp-mixer/.

Building a company is one thing. Figuring out how to grow it is another. ​We are creating a room where founders think better, together. A curated gathering for founders who are working full-time on their business and already have something in the market. ​The format is simple: coffee, conversation, and real discussions around what it actually takes to sell, scale, and make better decisions as a founder. ​No panels. No pitches. No surface-level networking. ​Instead, expect a relaxed but focused space to share what you’re working on, what’s challenging right now, and what’s actually moving the needle. ​This is designed for founders who are actively building—not exploring ideas—so conversations stay relevant, practical, and high-signal. ​Space is limited to keep the room thoughtful and engaging.

Join other experienced and aspiring agile coaches and professionals to: * develop and practice your coaching skills in a peer-to-peer environment * share current successes and challenges in your work environment and get support from each other * learn together, build better relationships and experiment with new ideas

QA or the Highway is a one-day, affordable, regional, professional conference featuring real-world experience and thought leadership in the QA and testing industry. This is a ticketed event please register here: https://www.qaorthehwy.com/ Featured Keynote Speakers: **Matthew-Hope Eland** **(Wizard at Leading EDJE)** \- An AI Specialist and Wizard at Leading EDJE who is known to teach software engineering\, AI\, and data science concepts in the most ridiculous ways possible\. Matt has used machine learning to settle debates over whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie\, reinforcement learning to drive the behavior of digital squirrels\, data analytics to suggest improvements to his favorite TV show\, and AI agents to play board games and create an AI agent with the personality of a dog\. Matt is the author of "Data Science in \.NET with Polyglot Notebooks" and "Refactoring with C\#" as well as several LinkedIn Learning courses\. Matt helps organize the Central Ohio \.NET Developer Group\, runs several blogs and a YouTube channel\, has a Master’s of Science in Data Analytics\, and is a current Microsoft MVP in AI and \.NET\. **Tatyana Arbouzova** **(CEO at Innovate QA)** \- Tatyana Arbouzova is an engineering and business leader with a strong background in Quality Engineering across multiple industries\, including Big Tech\, Healthcare\, and Entertainment\. She has held leadership roles at world\-class companies such as Microsoft\, VMware\, Disney\, and The Pokémon Company International\, where she focused on building quality\-driven cultures and scaling teams to deliver high\-impact products\. With decades of experience\, Tatyana has helped organizations transform their quality practices so teams can deliver software efficiently\, confidently\, and with measurable business outcomes\. Today\, Tatyana advises software companies on adopting AI to optimize quality practices and improve how software is delivered at scale\. She is also a passionate community builder and the founder of Innovate QA\, a thriving Seattle\-based community and conference for quality professionals\.

**Important time note:** Please plan on arriving between 5:30 and 6:00 as the elevators lock after 6 and you'll need to message us and we'll need to come get you. The building address is 4450 Bridge Park The entrance is 6620 Mooney St, Suite 400 You will need to scan your ID at the door to get a visitor badge. **Abstract** Like it or not, AI agents are now capable of turning a quickly written paragraph of requirements into a pull request that is ready to be integrated into real-world production applications and it's now our responsibility to make sure AI doesn't go rogue and take down prod - or corrupt our data by misunderstanding the requirements or our existing schemas. In this session we'll explore strategies to protect our codebases through unit and integration testing, documentation, and code review along with additional ways of providing context and guard rails to our AI agents as they carry out the work we've assigned them to do. By the time we're done, you'll have a firm grasp of the problem and understand some helpful options for protecting your codebase from vibe coding mishaps getting YOLOed into prod. **YouTube Link** https://youtube.com/live/BltmWMH1zG0?feature=share

Join us for Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn! Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the unsolved murder of a preteen girl and the disappearance of another. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story-and survive this homecoming.

Get ready for a Picnic, this is our social and member appreciation event for the year! Feel free to bring family, but be sure to reach out with the number of attendees, so we can provide food for everyone. There will of course be food, music, games and fun! Event is held rain or shine, we have a covered shelter house reserved for the event. Agenda --- Moderators Kimberly Deal - Columbus Atlassian User Group Leader Kevin Stanley - Columbus Atlassian User Group Leader Greg Sprowls - Columbus Atlassian Community Leader Hosted By Kimberly Deal, Atlassian User Group Leader Kevin Stanley, Chief Everything Greg Sprowls, Agility Lead --- Global Partner Atlassian (http://atlassian.com) Millions of users globally rely on Atlassian products every day for improving software development, project management, collaboration, and code quality. For over a decade, Atlassian customers have come together to network, share ideas, solve problems, and find new ways to use Atlassian products. Today, more than 15,000 people take part in Atlassian community events in more than 30 countries. --- Complete your event RSVP here: https://ace.atlassian.com/events/details/atlassian-columbus-presents-annual-columbus-ace-summer-picnic/.

Couldn't make Knowledge? Or want to debrief the dancing robots or Autonomous Workforce? Join us for a Knowledge '26 recap, insights sharing, a couple rounds of golf, and fun at Topgolf. As always, drinks and food will be provided. More details to come — mark your calendar, RSVP, and save your spot today!

Christians in Tech is a community at the intersection of faith and technology. Our meetups are designed to spark meaningful conversations, promote knowledge sharing, and encourage growth—both in your career and your spiritual walk with God. Whether you're an experienced professional or just starting your tech journey, CIT welcomes you. Our Website [https://linktr.ee/citcbus](https://linktr.ee/citcbus) Sponsors and Partners * Improving (Venue Sponsor) * Bethel World Prayer Center (Fiscal Sponsor) * Fruits & Roots (Coffee Partner)