Founders Day 2025 AGENDA
8:00 AM
REGISTRATION
9:00 AM
Welcome to Founders Day!
9:10 AM
HOW AI IS CHANGING CODING
Dennis Pilarinos, CEO and Founder, Unblocked
Allen Pike, CEO and Cofounder, Forestwalk
Brooklyn Zelenka, CTO and Cofounder, Fission
9:45 AM
HOW AI IS CHANGING SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Marc Laventure, CEO and Founder, Scalar
Olivia Higgs, CPO and Cofounder, Blok
Shivansh Vij, CEO and Founder, Loophole Labs
10:20 AM
HOW AI IS CHANGING STARTUPS
Ian MacKinnon, CTO and Cofounder, Later.com —> Stingray Security
Nejeed Kassam, CEO and Cofounder, Keela —> Multiple Startups
Brandon Waselnuk, CEO and Cofounder, Squire AI —> Mintlify
10:50 AM
BREAK
11:00 AM
HOW AI IS CHANGING VCs
Dana Oshiro, General Partner, Heavybit
Dominic Lau, Partner, Ripple Ventures
Maria Pacella, Managing Partner, Pender Ventures
Patrick Lor, Managing Partner, Panache Ventures
11:30 AM
How AI is Changing Founder Communities
Jacob Shadbolt, CEO and Cofounder, IcePanel
Mai Tuyet Trinh, Cofounder, Red Thread Club
Toki Hossain, Vancouver.dev
11:55 AM
Lunch
12:45 PM
HOW GOOGLE IS THINKING ABOUT AI
John Alioto, Startup Evangelist, Google (San Francisco)
1:15 PM
HOW GOVERNMENTS ARE THINKING ABOUT AI
Sana Khareghani, Former Head of UK Office of AI
Shivam Kishore, UN Senior Advisor, Digital Transformation
1:45 PM
THE OPPORTUNITIES IN ENERGY
Angela Das, CTO and Cofounder, Hyfluence
Ath Caramanolis, CEO and Cofounder, Soma Energy
Edward Chiang, CEO and Cofounder, Moment Energy
Martin Ordonez, CEO and Founder, FUTURi
2:15 PM
Break
2:25 PM
The Opportunities in Climate
Derrick Emsley, CEO and Cofounder, Veritree / Tentree
Phil De Luna, Former CSO, Deep Sky
2:55 PM
The Opportunities in Deep Tech
Allen Lau, Operating Partner and Cofounder, Two Small Fish Ventures
Mike Winterfield, Managing Partner, Active Impact Investments
Marty Reed, Partner, Evok Innovations
Jenny Yang, Partner, RiSC Capital
3:25 PM
Closing Thoughts
3:30 PM
Founder-Only Office Hours
After the program, meet the speakers and other mentors from the BC ecosystem for a special founders-only “office hours” session.
5:00 PM
Networking Event
Join us at GoodCo on Granville to toast BC’s startup ecosystem with founders, investors and other supporters from across the province.