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OTTAWA, CANADA, NOV 4-5 2026 • ROGERS CENTRE

CANADA’S CONFERENCE FOR SAAS OPERATORS NAVIGATING THE AI SHIFT.

Real deployments. Real dashboards. Real operators from Canada’s top SaaS and AI companies sharing what’s working.

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Why Attend SAAS NORTH

Future-Proof Your SaaS In The Age Of AI

Meet Top Investors & Raise Capital To Scale Faster

Learn From Industry Leaders On AI, GTM, & Growth

Founder-Only Sessions With Actionable Playbooks

Unmatched Networking With Top SaaS & AI Innovators

Be Part Of Canada’s Largest In-Person SaaS Community

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$599*/person

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SAAS NORTH’s Biggest Names

Since 2016, SAAS NORTH has been attracting the biggest names to our stage. Check out our past speaker alumni!

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Tobias Lütke

Founder

Shopify

Tope Awotona

CEO & Founder

Calendly

Katherine Homuth

Founder

Oomira & SRTX

Swish Goswami

Head of Growth & Marketing

Boardy

Neil Patel

Co-Founder

Neil Patel Digital

Stephany LaPierre

Founder & CEO

Tealbook

Mara Reiff

Chief Data Officer & Co-CEO

FreshBooks

Dax DaSilva

CEO

Lightspeed

Jason VandeBoom

Founder & CEO

Active Campaign

Alison Taylor

Co-Founder & Co-CEO

Jane

David Cancel

Co-Founder & Executive Chairman

Drift

Jason Smith

CEO & Co-Founder

Klue

Sarah Stockdale

Founder

Growclass

Steve Munford

CEO

Trulioo

Kelly Schmitt

CEO

Benevity

Wade Foster

CEO & Co-Founder

Zapier

Sara Cooper

Chief People Officer

Jobber

Canada’s Largest SaaS Community. Your Biggest Networking Opportunity.

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Don’t Just Take Our Word For It

“

SAAS NORTH is the best place to learn, scale, and raise capital. If you’re building a SaaS company, there’s no better event to connect with investors and seize funding opportunities.

Neil Patel
Co-Founder, Neil Patel Digital
“

The best founders in SaaS and AI come together at SAAS NORTH to tackle the industry’s most interesting challenges.

Andrew McLeod
CEO, Certn
“

Each year, SAAS NORTH gathers companies, entrepreneurs, and seasoned industry experts to connect and exchange ideas around one of the most vibrant areas in Canada’s tech ecosystem – SaaS.

Jeff Shiner
CEO, 1Password
“

If you are a founder, investor or interested in SaaS, SAAS NORTH is the conference for you. I was impressed by the caliber of attendees, speakers and ideas presented.

Tobi Lutke
CEO, Shopify
“

I was very impressed by the quality of the content at SAAS NORTH. This conference is a great learning opportunity for both start-up and scaling companies.

Kelly Schmitt
CEO, Benevity
“

SAAS NORTH brings a lot of value to the SaaS ecosystem. You get not only the companies, but also the mentors, financiers and partners that the companies can leverage.

David Ossip
CEO, Ceridian
“

I was here last year and it worked out really well. Met a lot of really cool companies, and I’m here for more of that this year.

Tope Awotona
CEO + Founder, Calendly
“

SAAS NORTH was a game-changer. I closed a $3M round and landed $100K in advisory business, all from connections made at the conference. If you attend one tech event in North America, make it this one.

Adrian Salamunovic
Co-Founder, MILLIONS.co
“

SAAS NORTH has seen tremendous growth…This is a great place for SaaS companies to meet others…

Michele Romanow
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Clearco

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Exhibitor Hall Of Fame

We provide booths so you can scan badges like it’s cardio.

Let’s be real — your product deserves more than a cold LinkedIn DM. At SAAS NORTH, you’ll meet decision-makers, demo-gawkers, and just the right mix of “we’re buying soon” energy.
 
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top

Hello to Canada’s SaaS and AI Community,

Jason Smith, CEO & Co-Founder of Klue, has built and scaled five startups over the past 25 years. From the dot-com era to the SaaS boom and now the AI age, he’s seen how markets evolve and how quickly competitive dynamics shift.

At SAAS NORTH, Jason warned founders about a risk that cuts across every cycle: the competitive revenue gap (the share of pipeline lost directly to competitors). Too few SaaS companies track it, and the result is millions in lost revenue that could otherwise be won.

Key takeaways:

  • 30% of your pipeline is being lost to competitors' budget-approved deals that should have been yours.
  • Market categories are saturated, and bundling is crushing standalone SaaS.
  • Founders must track why they lose, know competitor claims, and enable their GTM teams with competitive differentiation.

The Competitive Revenue Gap

Jason framed the issue with straightforward math. Imagine a $10 million pipeline: 

  • ~50% will stall in status quo.
  • ~20% may close in your favour.
  • ~30% will go to competitors.

That’s $3 million in lost opportunities every year. These are not weak leads, they’re qualified buyers, with budget in hand, who simply decided to go with someone else.

Jason calls this the competitive revenue gap.

Left unmeasured, it quietly undermines growth but when addressed it can become the fastest path to new revenue without hiring, raising, or chasing new markets.

The Pitfalls That Keep Founders Blind

Why do so many companies underestimate the problem? Jason pointed to three common traps.

  • Competitive Blindness
    It’s tempting to believe your product is so unique it has no real competitors. Jason warned that this mindset ignores market realities and leaves teams unprepared for head-to-head battles.
  • Over-Reliance on AI
    Public AI tools can summarize competitor websites, but they can’t replace the best intelligence: what prospects and customers say in conversations.

“The beauty in your world is you’ve got access to private information. You talk to prospects every day.”

  • Over-Indexing on Customers
    Jason cautioned against focusing so much on current customers that you miss competitive moves. He shared how, at Alida (formerly Vision Critical), the company concentrated on researchers while Qualtrics repositioned to sell directly to CEOs.

    The result: Alida built a healthy business, but Qualtrics scaled into a category-defining giant.

“Markets evolve quickly. If you focus too much on your customer and ignore your competition, you might get leapfrogged.”

How To Close The Gap

Jason outlined a practical framework that any SaaS company can adopt:

1. Run Win-Loss Interviews

Speak directly with buyers after every deal, whether won or lost. Outsider or executive-led interviews uncover unfiltered insights about why decisions were made.

“Call them after every deal... get the real truth, the mainline truth, the unmitigated truth, not what your sales team says.”

2. Map Competitor Claims

Document competitor positioning in detail:

  • What they say they’re best at.
  • What they’ll say about you.
  • How you’ll respond.

This equips your teams to anticipate objections and reposition with confidence.

3. Enable GTM Teams With Differentiation

Sales teams face competitive questions every day. Jason argued that equipping them with competitor insights is one of the most cost-effective growth levers available.

He shared a story of a rep who told a prospect in advance how a competitor would discount. When the competitor followed through, the rep earned credibility and won the deal. Predicting competitor behaviour builds trust in ways product demos alone never can.

Why It Matters More Than Ever

Competitive pressure isn’t new but it has intensified.

  • Market saturation: Categories like MarTech have grown from hundreds to thousands of companies, overwhelming buyers.
  • Bundling by incumbents:

    “There’s a reason why Slack sold to Salesforce... When Teams gets bundled and it’s free, it’s going to get pretty hard to compete.”

    Buyers often prefer bundled solutions from platforms they already use, even if standalone tools are stronger.
  • Budget scrutiny: Every deal now faces executive-level review. Value must be proven in hard ROI terms, not just aspirational outcomes.

In this environment, no SaaS company can afford to ignore the deals they’re losing to competitors.

Final Word: Compete To Win

Jason’s message to founders was simple: customer obsession is vital, but it isn’t enough. To build durable SaaS businesses, leaders must also compete intentionally.

  • Measure your competitive revenue gap.
  • Understand who you’re losing to and why.
  • Equip your teams to anticipate competitor moves and respond with credibility.

“Narrow your competitive revenue gap, quantify it, level up your compete program, and measure that impact.”

Competitive intensity will rise and fall, just as markets do but the discipline of tracking, learning, and acting on competitive dynamics is timeless. The companies that embed it into their growth playbook will not only protect revenue but they’ll also define their categories.

SAAS NORTH is Canada’s hub for scaling SaaS and AI companies. Founders, teams, and investors come to learn, connect, and grow with the country’s largest in-person tech community.