January Update: Wintery Outside, Loads of Hacking inside.

Waterloo did not slow down with the cold and snow. The community kept showing up to connect and share and make things!

Devhouse always brings a crowd and a lot of demos!

January was a strong start to the year. Lots of people showed up, shared what they’re working on, and kept things moving without turning it into noise. A few highlights and then a look ahead.

Founder Dinners

January’s dinners continued to do what they do best: create space for honest conversation among people actually building things. No pitches, no panels, just founders and builders comparing notes on what’s working, what’s stuck, and what they’re learning along the way.

We also put out a series of posts spotlighting some of the founders and operators who’ve joined us. Worth a look if you missed them, Matt talks about robots in agriculture, and Michael + Humza share perspectives on building products today versus the last 15 years. They give a good sense of the people in the room and the kinds of conversations that happen when builders sit down together.

These dinners keep being where the real conversations happen, and we’ll keep iterating on them as the year goes on. Apply for spring here.

Hackathon Energy

We also saw strong momentum heading into hands-on building with UmmahHacks 26. Hackathons remain one of the best forcing functions for progress. Teams form quickly, ideas get tested, and real work happens fast. It’s a good reminder that shipping beats planning every time.

AI Tinkerers is where you can go real deep on AI tools.

January Builder Events

Here’s a snapshot of the builder-centric activity that showed up across the community this month:

• KWLUG Tech Meeting — University of Waterloo, Davis Centre Library

• Technical Wednesday — Builders Club

• Non-Technical Wednesday — Builders Club

• CivicTechWR (Guest Speaker: Rory White, Civic Searchlight) — Builders Club

• StartupCampWaterloo v2 — Builders Club

• Akatos Winter ’26 Kickoff — Builders Club

• Learn & Connect: Turning Startup Ideas into Reality — Communitech

• Velocity Innovation Open House Mixer — Velocity Incubator

• She Talks Tech: Implementing AI with Purpose — Accelerator Centre

• Prompt Engineering for Outreach — Virtual

• 2nd Annual Battle of the Bands: Tech Edition — Maxwell’s Concerts & Events

• GET together with Toast: Women Doing Cool $h!t — Builders Club

• Build Canada Waterloo Chapter Kickoff — Waterloo Region

• KWLUG Dinner Meetup — Crabby Joe’s Bar & Grill

• Learn & Connect: A Founder’s Guide to Early Hiring — Communitech

• UmmahHacks 26 — Builders Club

• Australia Day Tim Tam Slam Afternoon Tea Party — Builders Club

• DevHouse Waterloo — Builders Club

• AI Tinkerers: Waterloo — Builders Club

A lot of surface area, but still very builder-heavy with demos, discussions, and people showing up to work on real problems.

Feb 2nd will tell us what is in store for the month or so!

Looking Ahead to February

February keeps the steady builder rhythm going, with two moments worth circling.

The AI Agents Waterloo Voice Hackathon brings hands-on energy back into the room with a chance to ship, experiment, and collaborate around AI agents and voice interfaces. It’s not a talk. It’s a forcing function.

We’re also looking forward to the Claude Code Meetup at Builders Club, where builders are sharing how they’re actually using Claude in real coding workflows. What’s working, what isn’t, and how it’s changing how they build.

Alongside those, February stays anchored by Technical Wednesdays, Non-Technical Wednesdays, and CivicTech, plus familiar community touchpoints like KWLUG and GET together. No hype. Just staying in motion and building in proximity.

You can find them all on the calendar: https://luma.com/waterlooevents

Thanks to everyone who showed up in January. Let’s keep building.

-Jesse