Vancouver Startup Week

There wasn't a room at VSW 2026 where someone wasn't holding a PeelTea. A fully stocked fridge at HQ, cans cracked open between panels, and in side conversations all week. The drink became part of the feel of VSW 2026. So Deborah W., VSW's Head of Content, and Tej Nathoo, VSW's Social Media Marketing Manager, headed to the Mizu Brands office to find out who's making it. Patrick Bourne, CEO of Mizu Brands, walked us through PeelTea from the ground up. The drink is made by extracting nutrients from organic fruit and veggie peels and infusing them into every can. All-natural ingredients. Built around sustainability. The can the whole VSW community spent a week reaching for has a Vancouver founder, a Vancouver office, and a story worth telling. Thank you to PeelTea and Mizu Brands for sponsoring VSW 2026, for keeping HQ fuelled all week, and for opening your doors so we could share this with our community. Vancouver is lucky to have you. 🫶 #VSW2026 #VancouverStartupWeek #PeelTea #BuiltInVancouver

There's a pattern that shows up on LinkedIn every year, in the 2 weeks after Vancouver Startup Week ends. 🧩 Something specific: founders revisiting decisions they made in a room at VSW and describing what those decisions produced. → sat in a session and walked out having decided to build something → showed up to VSW years ago and came back this year wearing a completely different badge → credits a conversation in a hallway with a career they didn't see coming The week itself is substantial. What it sets in motion shows up months and years later. 🪄 We documented it: what VSW 2026 actually set in motion, and what twelve years of building this community has produced. Link in comments. ↓

Web Summit is in Vancouver this week. Welcome! 🌊 If you’ve just landed in the city and want a read on what kind of ecosystem you’ve arrived in, Canada Now's Ashley Smith wrote the piece for you. She spent time at Vancouver Startup Week a couple of weeks back and came away with one of the clearest articulations of how Vancouver builds we’ve seen this year. The frame that stuck: "Web Summit Vancouver 2026 brings scale, visibility, and global attention. But the foundation it’s landing on is something more grounded — a community thinking carefully about how it builds, who it builds for, and what kind of ecosystem it wants to become." For visiting founders and investors trying to understand why the conversations here sound different, this is your primer. 💬🌱 Thanks to Ashley for the read, and to the seven Vancouver founders and operators who shared what they’re seeing right now: Ashley, Laura, Shreya, Viktoriia, Ashley, Ivanni, and Martin. 👉 The piece: https://lnkd.in/e2nqhpyS Enjoy your week in Vancouver! 🏔️🌊

Web Summit Vancouver has officially landed. 🌍🍁 But before the global spotlight turned toward the city this week, Vancouver Startup Week brought together founders, operators, and emerging builders from across the region — offering a closer look at the people and perspectives shaping Vancouver’s startup ecosystem right now. After speaking with attendees, founders, and speakers across the community, a few themes stood out: → A growing focus on sustainable growth over “growth at all costs” → More conversations about humanity, participation, and long-term thinking in the age of AI → An ecosystem that feels increasingly confident doing things its own way One thing that struck me most: the accessibility of it all. For many newer founders, the value of the week wasn’t just networking — it was learning how to engage, ask questions, build confidence, and participate in a broader community of builders. And if you’re in Vancouver for Web Summit this week, that’s probably the most important thing to understand about the local scene: it’s collaborative, thoughtful, and deliberate in the way it builds. I pulled together a deeper reflection on the signals, conversations, and momentum shaping Vancouver for Canada Now — featuring insights from Ashley Gallant, Laura Fortey, Shreya Motee, Viktoriia Popovych, Ashley Armstrong The Hidden Rules Expert, Ivanni Tayabas ♾️ 🤙🏻 🔜 🚀 📕 🦄, and Martin Montero. 🔎 Read here: https://lnkd.in/geCxTfy8 #WebSummit #WebSummitVancouver #VancouverTech #StartupCanada #CanadaNow #Innovation #VancouverStartupWeek

VSW 2026 was built by the community that showed up. What comes next is too. The picture of what VSW is is only complete with the people who were actually there: who you are, what you're building, and what the week gave you. A 3-minute post-event survey is how we capture that, and filling it out goes directly toward securing the funding that determines VSW's future. Your response is one of the most direct ways to shape what this community builds next. If you were at VSW 2026, take 3 minutes. https://lnkd.in/eenCabNZ

Did you miss us? We missed you too. Some of you also apparently missed your belongings on the way out. Still waiting at #VSW2026 HQ: - One water bottle - One Yeti - One bike helmet (we have questions...) They’re ready to go home. DM us if one of these is yours. 🏠💬

👋 HI! HELLO! (wow, fellow parents of littles, did y'all just hear Ms. Rachel in your head? When I said it's back to regular programming over here for me, I meant it!) VSW Friends, we want to hear from you!! 🫵 Vancouver Startup Week is built for the community, by the community, and now we need our community to help us out! I'm talking to you, my event partners, sponsors, attendees and supporters... If you want VSW to come back, we'll need your help! 🙏 Take our Post VSW 2026 survey: https://lnkd.in/g3AFGMyw It'll only take 3 minutes, but your responses would mean the world to us. Also, you get a prize after you complete it. 📸 And for those that know, I'm all about dishing out those prizes! (*ahem* like coffee with Sam if you sit in the front row. #sorrynotsorry) Thank you in advance and help us spread the word to fellow attendees to take the survey! 🫶🏻