August update: time to recharge and get ready for the fall!
Devhouse, Builders Club, and Communitech is working to help policy folks help founders stay in Canada. Busy September ahead!
Summer comes to a close
August is the month of vacations and wrapping the spring term on the Waterloo campus so you don’t see many events. Hope you are rested up. This month we had Devhouse, a few Monday Club’s, a CivicTechWR, and Builders Club keeps building!
Be sure to scroll to the end, Communitech is working hard on improving government policy that effects both founders and their employees.
Devhouse
The end of August Devhouse was anotehr packed one. Devhouse is a place for people to share what they are working on — from fun projects to products. No slides and no pitches. We had a bunch of folks demo.
Here are a few:
Aceteam by Jason Sun
Figma db. - https://github.com/peopledrivemecrazy/figma-scrapbook by https://www.linkedin.com/in/shrijikondan/
iPhone scanning - https://thankq.ca
Actor System by Ryan Deschamps and the demo can be found at https://www.github.com/professor-greebie/sids
The next Devhouse is on Monday September 30th.
In August at Monday Club we had three very different sessions. At one we talked about developing ideas and explored a few products people have been thinking through. At another we went deep on a few products that included Lumina. Then we got back into some technical demos for the third one.
The purpose of Monday Club is to give people a place to share early ideas and even pitch your product for the first time. Be sure to sign up and come out if you have something to share.
Builders Club
The Builders Club kept growing in August! With some experimental months over the summer, the place for people who building ‘stuff’ in the Waterloo Region is going to be an exciting place this fall.
We will be adding member-exclusive and community events
Support for people with kids is being developed
The Founder dinner series is seeking applications
If you are building something in the Waterloo Region, you should be a member.
Level the playing field for founders (and employees)
Communitech is leading an effort to help founders with their choice to build their company in Canada and they could use some help from you. More details on LinkedIn.
There’s a critical need to level the playing field & align the CEI with the U.S. QSBS program. Introducing a broader alignment to ensure a competitive level playing field.
Canada must have a level playing field for our founders to start, scale, and succeed. Canada's productivity, jobs, and future depends on commercializing our best ideas in Canada. Without a level playing field, we risk yet another generation of our best inventions and commercialized value drift south.
Please go to the post and follow up with your MP. Share your stories. Thank you to Communitech for its effort to help government policy folks understand better how they can help you build in Canada.
Coming up in September
Some big events for September.
CivicTechWR - season 1 finale - Sept 4th
Tech connect mixer - Sept 12th
Hack the North - Sept 13th
Communitech Breakfast Series: Investor Insights with Janet Bannister and Caitlin MacGregor - Sept 19th
Accelerator Centre - She Talks Tech - Sept 26th
Then there are the regular events and a few others to be announced. It will be a busy month.