The view from the all-glass Grand Quay of the Port of Montréal was grandiose during Startupfest 2025 last week, the festival’s 15th edition, when the thousands of attendees connected, fundraised, problem-solved and mined potential business opportunities in every corner of the globe (and beyond). Ranging in topic from the final frontier of space to the greatest depths of the ocean economy, all under the umbrella theme of Ambition+, Startupfest 2025 was a festival of bright ideas.
Why the plus in Ambition+
As explained by host Alistair Croll (author of Just Evil Enough and Startupfest’s Content Chair) in a punchy opening address titled A Million Tiny Horses, ambition means nothing without that plus factor that turns a good idea into an actionable business. And in his view, the businesses of tomorrow don’t make use of AI — they are transformed by AI. Gone is the software development landscape that created the Internet 2.0: we’re on the cusp of a new dawn, ushering in the next phase of global economic development, where it’s not about finding unicorn ideas but rather tailoring opportunities to solve myriad small, mundane problems. Tiny horses, not unicorns.
With that inspiring opening address, Startupfest 2025 kicked off three days of gold from its great roster of founders, funders, accelerators and authors.
A stellar roster of speakers
Among the speakers this year were Zencoder-founder Andrew Filev (previously of Wrike), as well as other founders like Josh Domingues (Flashfood), Peter Hwang (Alyst Ventures, previously of EnWise Power Solutions and Globalfaces), Tara Akhavan (AI4Eyes Medical Technologies) and Marie Chevrier Schwartz (TechTO) and funders including Brice Scheschuk (Globalive Capital), Amy Wu Martin (Menlo Ventures), Talia Abramowitz (Deloitte Ventures) and Mike Cegelski (Panache Ventures).
In a format that looked to generate conversation and an accessible, real-life exchange of ideas, most of the knowledge spouted on the three large stages was exchanged in panels designed to expose the good, the bad and the ugly. No stone was left unturned in The Real Founder Stories and Cash & Candor: The Startup Investor Panel sessions, for example, where the next generation of startup dreamers could hear what it’s really like.
Meanwhile, elsewhere
Croll apologized in his opening talk for all the gold attendees were going to miss because of the packed-to-the-gills programming, and he was right. While galvanizing talks like Tam Danier’s How to Spot a Good Idea were going on in one of the three conference rooms upstairs, the main hall was bustling with Braindates, pitch opportunities, the Chill Zone and Mentor Office Hours that put fledgling founders into close contact with seasoned pros on topics like Founder Mental Health, Building the Best Team and AI & Automation.
The overarching theme of Ambition+ was broken down into other “smaller” themes like OceanFest (dedicated to investing in the deep, arguably the true next frontier), HardTechFest and ImpactFest. The latter, held in the stunning 13th floor Sky Stage in the Port of Montréal Tower, with 360-degree views of the city and river, was so well attended and felt so important that we predict a future edition of the fest completely dedicated to ideas aimed at improving tomorrow’s world.
Inclusivity in action
Dedicated to diversity since Day 1, Startupfest features both attendees and experts aged from 12 years old to 92, from every background, and has a strict code of conduct based on mutual respect.
“In our current era of intolerance, Startupfest doubled down on inclusivity publicly, and that was very important to me as a Canadian,” said Lise Birikundavyi in her talk Impact Together.
And the prizes reflect that spirit: among them are the two $100K Black Entrepreneurship prizes, the $100K Women in Tech prize, the $100K 2SLGBTQIA+ prize and the famous Grandmothers’ Choice award — awarded by a committee of carefully selected literal grandmothers (slash business moguls) whose life experience, instincts and bullshit-detectors are extra well-honed.
Without further ado, the Startupfest 2025 award-winning startups are…
- $100K Best of the Fest Investment Prize: mTatt
- $100K Investment Prize for Women in Tech: Tydra Laboratories
- $100K Black Entrepreneur Investment Prizes: Serenity Power and Wosler
- $100K 2SLGBTQIA+ Investment Prize: Ready Plan Go
- $100K Impact Investment Prize: Aruna Revolution
- $50 Impact Investment Prize: Tree Track
- $100K Student Entrepreneur Investment Prize: HyC Light
- $75K Fintech Grant: Ready Plan Go
- $60K Black Innovation Grants: ElleLogic AI, CELLECT Laboratories, BeBlended and Kare Chemical Technologies
- $25K Impact Grant: Enda Technologies
- $10K Productivity Grant: TissueTinker
- Grandmothers’ Choice Award: New Grounds
- Audience Choice Award: mTatt
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