AGI Ventures Canada

Registrations are open now for @Shopify 's next Builder Sunday in Ottawa! Link below. Come ready to build, connect, and collaborate. See you there! buildersundays.ca/products/build…

When AGIV and Mila come together, builders ship. AGIV is partnering with Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute for Build OS26 in Montreal on May 14. Five hours to build a working agentic system, pitch it, and defend every decision in front of a jury. $25,000 in prizes on the line. Oatmeal, our hackathon platform, is powering the day. If you are a Quebec-based AI founder already building agentic systems, this one is for you. Apply here: luma.com/2pvpyrya

One of our own is hosting a pitch competition. We're backing it. Daesol Jung joined the AGIV Hacker House in January. Now he's leaving his mark on Canada's startup scene. The connections, the feedback, the late nights building alongside other builders, all of it fed directly into what Pitch Tank has become. Pitch Tank 2.0 is happening on May 8 in Ottawa. A gamified pitch competition where every audience member gets $1M in play money to invest in their favorite founder. The one who raises the most wins the night and takes home a share of $10,000 in prize money. As a community sponsor, this is exactly the kind of initiative AGIV gets behind. Let's show up for one of our own. Get your tickets: luma.com/3n20t6g3

This Sunday, AGIV is hosting Lightning Talks again before Builder Sundays, with Keena Swanson leading the session. Share an idea, a project, or something you've been thinking about. Past sessions have covered integrating AI into your workflow, powerful dev tools, and more. Come early, meet builders, and spark a conversation before rolling into a full afternoon of focused work at Shopify Ottawa. Lightning Talks at 11am. Builder Sundays at 12pm. Register here: luma.com/32g4awbd

Thanks @AGIVentures for the spotlight. Over the a few months, I’ve gone much deeper into understanding and applying AI tools. Through that process, and through many conversations with people in @AGIVentures, @shopify, and @claudeai, I’ve realized how much more I want to do in this space. I’m especially interested in helping small and mid-sized businesses and design teams navigate AI adoption, improve workflows, and explore practical AI deployment. A lot of people are curious about AI, but also unsure about when and how to adapt. I’m beginning to see that helping teams through this transition may be one of the most meaningful things I can do. If this resonates with you, let’s connect.

AGIV Spotlight: Wenting Yong @wentingyong launched an immersive portfolio that turns a personal website into an interactive digital experience. She reworked it, simplified it, and kept shipping instead of waiting for perfect. See it for yourself: wentingyong.com

Co-hacking is back this Wednesday at Wisetown Cafe. Builders have been showing up after work, stepping away from the noise, and putting in real hours on what they're building. The conversations that follow have changed more than a few projects. April 22, 5pm until close. Register here: luma.com/sdu0odbl

Agency 2026 is just around the corner. In just over a week, builders will sit alongside federal and provincial ministers, deputy ministers, hyperscalers, and frontier AI companies to work through 10 challenges on public spending transparency. This is a rare kind of room. AGIV is proud to be advising on the event. We're invested in making this one count. Register here: luma.com/5e83iia8

Josh Earle and his co-founders spent their last $5,000 on a one-way trip from Ottawa to San Francisco. They pitched to investors and attended events every day. It led to a life-changing email from Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator. His advice to founders who aren't there yet? It's very feasible to establish connections and build a personal brand online. Branch out from where you are. Start online. The rest will follow. Watch the full episode on going through YC, navigating pivots, and chasing impossible goals: youtube.com/watch?v=BGd_TH…

AGIV Spotlight: Sukh Saini built Carousel Studio, a top trending Canva app loved by 300K+ creators worldwide. It recently crossed $5K in monthly recurring revenue, more than his first software dev salary. Read more: agivc.substack.com/p/we-built-an-…

Every week you see the momentum building. Last Builder Sunday, builders from the AGIV community demoed tools solving real problems. Hamza El Sousi built StarterKit4You to fix the time founders lose rebuilding the same SaaS foundations over and over again. Daesol Jung built Pitch Tank, a gamified pitch competition platform where the audience becomes the investor. They are hosting their next competition on May 8. Joe (Beiqiao) Hu demoed a marketing video he built using Claude Code for his IELTS speaking simulator Joe Speaking. Keith N. presented The Hyperteacher, a system tackling something deeper. Instead of AI doing the work for you, it adapts to how you learn so you actually understand what is being built. These are not ideas sitting in docs. These are tools people can actually use. Builder Sundays at Shopify continues this week. If you are building or thinking about building, you should be in the room. Register here: buildersundays.ca/products/build…

Co-hacking is back tomorrow, April 15. This time at a Hacker Mansion in Gatineau. Same format, very different setting. We can't wait for this one. Show up and build alongside the community. 5pm to 8pm. Register here luma.com/j6q0tcoi

The Government of Alberta is hosting a one-day AI hackathon in Ottawa and AGIV is proud to bring our community to it. Most hackathons ask you to build something impressive. This one asks you to build something that matters to every Canadian. Federal and provincial ministers, deputy ministers, hyperscalers, and frontier AI companies will be in the same room as builders, working through 10 challenges focused on public spending transparency. The question on the table: how much can a team of builders surface from public spending data in a single day? Can't make it to Ottawa? A remote link is open to anyone who wants to observe or pick a challenge and build from wherever they are. Date is April 29th. Register here: luma.com/5e83iia8

Congratulations to community member Michael Wallack, a recipient of the 2026 Forty Under 40. Michael builds businesses, supports artists, and strengthens the fabric of Ottawa through Wallacks Art, Wallack Galleries, and Centretown BIA. He is exactly the kind of operator who makes a city worth building in. Seeing you in our community is a reminder of where Ottawa is headed. Thank you to @obj_news @ottawabot for recognizing the builders shaping this city. Read the full list: obj.ca/here-are-the-f… #ott40

Congratulations to our co-founder Neilda Gagné @neildalikezelda, a recipient of the 2026 Forty Under 40. In Ottawa she has been building the infrastructure that lets AI builders find momentum, capital, and each other. This recognition is well deserved and a reflection of how much Ottawa’s AI ecosystem has grown. We are proud to build alongside her. Thank you to @obj_news and @ottawabot for recognizing the builders shaping this city. Read the full list: obj.ca/here-are-the-f… #ott40

If you can’t explain your build in a few sentences, you haven't simplified it enough. Kazi Hossain, founder of Thred AI, joins us to discuss his journey from the public sector to building a tool that helps B2B sales teams capture buyer intent signals from AI search platforms. We dive into the future of agent commerce, his experience grinding in San Francisco, and why clear communication is essential for raising funds and building a network. Watch the full conversation on YouTube youtube.com/watch?v=7mNCon…

Builder Sunday is back at @Shopify Ottawa this Sunday, April 12. Show up with whatever you're working on. Be in the room with some of the best builders in the city. Problem solve together. And if you're ready, get your work in front of people who will give you real feedback. Register here: buildersundays.ca/products/build…

AGIV Spotlight: Parisa Zare and Marc-Antoine Ruel ran a two-week pitch challenge on PitchPal and got 345 submissions. Founders kept coming back and left with sharper pitches than they came in with. Read more on agivc.substack.com/p/we-built-an-…

Last night, AGIV hosted its first AI Designers Series, a space built specifically for designers and creatives building with AI. The AI conversation has been dominated by engineers for a long time. We wanted to change that. Wenting Yong @wentingyong shared the story behind her portfolio and how AI showed up throughout the entire process, from concept to front-end. Heidi Martin brought her own design process into the room, including a live look at an AI-assisted product concept she's been working on. Both of them opened up their workflows and showed the room what's possible. People followed along, experimented with @Lovable in real time, and kept the conversations going. Designers are figuring out where AI fits into the craft. We're glad we could create the space for that. More to come in this series!

Co-hacking is back this Wednesday at Wise Town Cafe. Builders in this community have figured out that being in the same room changes everything. Someone asks a question, a problem unlocks, a project moves forward. It keeps happening here, week after week. Bring whatever you're working on. 5pm until close. RSVP: luma.com/5vrlt2dv