Last update 6-Mar-2023
Authors:
Erik Torenberg twitter.com/eriktorenberg
Daryna Kulya [DK] twitter.com/darynakulya
Mohammed Asaduallah twitter.com/heymosef
Paul Krajewski twitter.com/salesenablement
Kamil Rextin [KR] twitter.com/kamilrextin
Mustefa Jo’shen twitter.com/mustefaj
1. Toronto Tech Scene FAQs
Q: What word best describes Toronto’s tech/startup scene?
[DK] Breakthrough. With so many great companies in the city, a lot of support networks for entrepreneurs and, hopefully, more funding for local companies, feels like Toronto is about to have its breakthrough moment.
[KR] Diversity & Openness. Both in terms of backgrounds, gender, ethnicity & cultures but also the type of companies from marketplaces to financial technology, commerce, marketing technology & many more. There’s no ‘right’ kind of founder or company, they come in all shapes & sizes. The TO community is open, welcoming and embracing to anyone who wants to get involved.
Q: How does someone break into Toronto’s tech/startup scene?
[DK] Depends what you’d mean by “breaking in”. If it’s just about finding a job at a startup, section 4 with a list of some startups that are hiring could be a good place to start. However, if you’d like to get involved in the community, meet future co-founders and make friends, I’d have a different answer.
I believe that creating value for others is the best way to “break into” any industry, including tech. Based on your skills and talents, find a way to help someone with what they are working on. Don’t ask for anything in return. Repeat. Keep doing it until people start reaching out to you for help (this means you’re creating value). Same people will be much more willing to help you after you’ve helped them.
Volunteer at an event, design / redesign someone’s logo, build something people in the community want / need, step up to host a meetup, write and publish a thorough product review, connect two people who should know each other, find an answer to the question someone has, do research nobody volunteered for.
Don’t forget to share your story. If you have a compelling story, strangers will go out of their way to help you. Thanks to Ruben Harris for sharing this important point in his post.
[KR] Don’t ask for permission. You own the community as much as anyone else. As long as you aren’t rude or an a**h**** you will be welcome and embraced. Get involved by going to meetups, asking people out for coffee, writing about your experiences and being active on Twitter & relevant Facebook Groups.
2. Where should I meet Toronto’s Tech Community?
Meetups
UXResearch|TO — meetup.com/UXResearchTO/
TORONTO TECH: Wearable, IoT, Big Data, 3D, Energy, AI, Robot
(UXD / UX) User Experience Design Toronto — meetup.com/uxtoronto/
Product Hunt Toronto — producthunttoronto.com For all of you makers, hunters and early adopters.
#ProductTO — meetup.com/productto/
Tech Toronto (Meet & learn from Toronto’s tech founders) TechToronto / TechTO techto.org
#BotTO — meetup.com/Bot-TO/ (Get your bot on)
#DesignTO — meetup.com/DesignTO (Toronto’s monthly Design Meetup)
#DevTO — devto.ca
Girl Geeks Toronto — girlgeekstoronto.com/
LEAN Coffee Toronto — meetup.com/leancoffeeto/
MaRS Entrepreneurship 101 — Canada’s largest live & online entrepreneurship course — marsdd.com/entrepreneurship-101/
Startup Grind — meetup.com/Startup-Grind-Toronto/
SalesTO – techtoronto.org – Canada’s tech community – TechToronto / TechTO techto.org
Subscribe to the feed from startupdigest.com/digests/toronto from your own Google calendar to automatically see it filled with a good portion of events in the city
Conferences / Annual Events
DigiFest — torontodigifest.ca
FITC — fitc.ca/
HoHoTO — hohoto.ca
Startup Open House — startupopenhouse.com
Startupong — http://get.uberflip.com/startupong/
TEDxToronto — tedxtoronto.com
Uberflip Experience
Hackathons
Startup Weekend — toronto.startupweekend.org
U of T Hacks — uofthacks.com
3. Where should I pick up necessary skills?
Bitmaker Labs — bitmaker.co General Assembly generalassemb.ly
Brainstation — brainstation.io
HackerYou Juno College of Technology — hackeryou.com junocollege.com
Ladies Learning Code — ladieslearningcode.com
Lighthouse Labs — lighthouselabs.ca
Design Cofounders designcofounders.com (UX/UI & Design Thinking courses)
RED Academy — redacademy.com
Founder Institute Toronto http://fi.co/s/toronto
4. What Toronto startups are hiring?
500px — https://about.500px.com/jobs/
Autonomic.ai — autonomic.ai
ConnectedLab — connectedlab.com connected.io
Drop — earnwithdrop.com joindrop.com
Influitive — influitive.com
PostBeyond postbeyond.com @postbeyond cloud-based employee engagement & advocacy platform that enables employees & partners to post approved brand content to their personal networks in an efficient, consistent, & measurable way. $9M in revenue? PostBeyond Inc. Toronto, ON, Canada. 8-Dec-2021 Influitive Inc influitive.com @influitive (also Toronto, ON, Canada) acquired PostBeyond for an undisclosed amount.
Ecobee — ecobee.com
-
- 1 Nov 2021 — Toronto-based smart home thermostat startup Ecobee acquired by generator manufacturer Generac Holdings for $770M
Hubba betakit.com/hubba-to-shut-down
Joist — joist.com/careers/
PagerDuty — careers.pagerduty.com/home
StreetContxt — http://streetcontxt.com/careers/
Shopify — shopify.com/careers#work-at-shopify
TribalScale — tribalscale.com
Wealthsimple — jobs.lever.co/wealthsimple
Wattpad — wattpad.com
-
- 20-Jan-2021. Wattpad acquired by Naver, the South Korean conglomerate, in a $600M cash-and-stock deal.
Hired — https://hired.com/ [The Hired Toronto team is awesome and if you get a chance, talk to them about all things Toronto, startups, recruiting]
Format — https://format.com/
Uberflip — https://uberflip.com/careers
Betakit Job Board — http://betakit.com/jobs/
5. What companies beyond startup stage are hiring?
See Canadian Sales Enablement companies
Pivotal (Pivotal Labs, former Xtreme Labs now part of VMware and called Tanzu Labs Toronto) awaits approval for an acquisition by chip maker Broadcom Inc.
Now, Ford owns Autonomic.ai autonomic.ai
6. Where can I get office space?
Breather — https://breather.com/locations/toronto
DMZ — http://dmz.ryerson.ca
Lab T.O. http://labto.com
One Eleven — oneeleven.com
Project Spaces — http://www.projectspac.es
WeWork — wework.com/l/toronto
7. Who could help me build my product?
ConnectedLab connectedlab.com https://www.connected.io
Konrad Group — konradgroup.com
Pivotal Labs VMware Pivotal Labs (Used to have POH Product Office Hours: one hour of free consulting: pivotal.io/product-consultation) tanzu.vmware.com/labs awaits approval for an acquisition by chip maker Broadcom Inc.
Tiny Hearts — (Shopify acquired them)
Design Cofounders — designcofounders.com (UX/UI Design + Design Thinking)
TribalScale TRIBALSCALE LAUNCHES $100 MILLION VENTURE STUDIOS PROGRAM TO CO-CREATE AI AND BLOCKCHAIN STARTUPS
TWG — (TWG, a Deloitte business now) @TWG
Kinetic Cafe — http://kineticcafe.com
Playground Inc — playgroundinc.com @PlaygroundInc 11-Jun-2022, Playground Inc. has been acquired by @versettinc, a global design & technology agency.
8. Who could write about my startup?
BetaKit — betakit.com
BNN — bnn.ca
Mark Evans @markevans / Marketing Spark marketingspark.co
TechVibes — techvibes.com/global
Yonge Street Media — yongestreetmedia.ca
9. Who could fund my startup?
VersionOne versionone.vc @VersionOneVC
Golden VP — goldenvp.com golden.ventures/
OMERS Ventures — omersventures.com
Two Small Fish Ventures — twosmallfishventures.com
https://highlinebeta.com/about
BDC Venture Capital — bdc.ca
iNovia Capital — https://inovia.vc/
TribalScale TRIBALSCALE LAUNCHES $100 MILLION VENTURE STUDIOS PROGRAM TO CO-CREATE AI AND BLOCKCHAIN STARTUPS
10. Who should I follow online?
Operators
Andrew D’Souza — https://twitter.com/andrewdsouza
April Dunford — https://twitter.com/aprildunford
Ben Zifkin — https://twitter.com/Ben_Zifkin
Brandon Chu — https://twitter.com/BrandonMChu
Breanna Hughes — https://twitter.com/unbrelievable
Dan Debow — https://twitter.com/ddebow
David Crow — https://twitter.com/davidcrow
Farhan Thawar — https://twitter.com/fnthawar
Heather Payne — https://twitter.com/heatherpayne
Huda Idrees — https://twitter.com/hidrees
Ian Gerald King — https://twitter.com/iangeraldking
Ken Seto — https://twitter.com/kenseto
Kyle A Collier — @KyleACollier
Mark MacLeod — startupcfo.ca markmacleod.me @markmacleod_
Mark Evans — https://twitter.com/markevans
Marketing Spark marketingspark.co Mark Evans @markevans markevans.ca a B2B marketing consultant who drives client success with positioning, brand storytelling, strategic planning, & amazing content. He helps B2B SaaS companies with marketing. His latest book, Marketing Spark, is a how-to guide about the power of story-driven marketing. ME Consulting. Marketing Spark: Fractional CMO for B2B SaaS; Strategic positioning Wizard; Brand Storyteller; 3-time Writer Book Author; 🎙 Podcaster. Toronto, ON, Canada
Michael Serbinis — https://twitter.com/mserbinis
Sean Power — https://twitter.com/seanpower
Paul Teshima — https://twitter.com/pteshima
Satish Kanwar — https://twitter.com/skanwar
Amrita Chandra — https://twitter.com/amritachandra
Tara Hunt — https://twitter.com/missrogue
Investors
VersionOne versionone.vc @VersionOneVC
Ameet Shah, Golden VP @goldenventures golden.ventures/— twitter.com/ameetshah
Christian Lassonde, Impression VC — twitter.com/classonde
John Ruffolo, OMERS Ventures — twitter.com/ruffoloj
Marcus Daniels, HIGHLINE — twitter.com/marcusdaniels
Matt Golden, Golden VP @goldenventures golden.ventures/ — https://twitter.com/MattGoldenVP
Two Small Fish Ventures — twosmallfishventures.com
Sunil — twitter.com/sunil_extreme
Sundeep Madra — twitter.com/sundeep angel.co/sundeepm
William Mougayar — twitter.com/wmougayar
(also see mapleleafstartups.ca)
Incubators & Accelerators
Communitech — communitech.ca
MaRS Discovery District — marsdd.com
The Next 36 — thenext36.ca
(also see mapleleafstartups.ca)
Founder Institute Toronto — fi.co/s/toronto
- Founder Institute has a Blockchain Founder Syndicate: fi.co/join/blockchain
[IN]cubes —incubes.ca
One Eleven — oneeleven.com
DMZ — The DMZ is Ryerson University’s business incubator for early-stage technology startups. Launched under the name Digital Media Zone in April 2010 — dmz.ryerson.ca
Techstars Toronto — techstars.com
techstars-announces-first-cohort-toronto-accelerator
Community Builders
Alex Norman, TechTO — twitter.com/alexandernorman
Arati Sharma, Shopify — twitter.com/aratisharma
Danielle Smith, DMZ — twitter.com/DaniMcSmith
Daryna Kulya [DK] — twitter.com/darynaku
Jason Goldlist, TechTO — twitter.com/goldlist
Nicole Kelly, OMERS Ventures — twitter.com/Nicole_Kelly
Nora Bieberstein, Tech Ecosystem Partnerships @RBC & Co-Founder of #TechLadiesPokerTO — twitter.com/NoraVBieber
Ria Riaz, RIGHTSLEEVE — twitter.com/RoastedKeyboard
Mohammed Asaduallah, Women & Color — twitter.com/heymosef
11. What online communities should I join?
Communitech — communitech.ca
StartupNorth Facebook Group — facebook.com/groups/startupnorth/
PH [Product Hunt] Global Slack Community (Pick: “Toronto”) — phglobal.co
Startup Digest — startupdigest.com (“Toronto”)
12. Where does the Toronto Tech community hang out?
Bars / Hangout Spots
Rush Lane — rushlaneco.com
Soho House — sohohousetoronto.com/
Coffee Shops
Dark Horse Espresso (Spadina or John St locations) — darkhorseespresso.com
Fahrenheit Espresso — fahrenheitcoffee.com
Jimmy’s Coffee — jimmyscoffee.ca
Quantum Coffee — quantumcoffee.io
Portland Variety
13. Further reading
Communitech — communitech.ca
blog.websummit.net/toronto-the-startup-city-guide/
Quora — Which startups are hiring in Toronto?
Quora — Startups in Toronto
B2B Sales Enablement and Sales Tech SaaS 