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

2025 just wrapped — now gearing up for 2026!

SAAS NORTH is Canada’s go-to hub for scaling and growing SaaS & AI-Native companies, where founders and investors connect to stay ahead.

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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

Why Attend SAAS NORTH?

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$499*/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

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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
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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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Without the brave mid-level marketing managers who convinced their CFOs to give us the money, it would be fiscally irresponsible to run this event.

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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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The Latest From SAAS NORTH NOW

Reinvention In A Hard Market: What Founders Need Most Right Now

Siri Agrell (CEO, BetaKit) Marie Chevrier Schwartz (CEO, TechTO & Peerscale) & Katherine Homuth (Founder, Oomira & SRTX)

SAAS NORTH NOW #102

READ MORE

Why Defence Tech Is Emerging As Canada’s Next Big Innovation Sector

Eliot Pence, Founder & CEO, Dominion Dynamics & Douglas Soltys, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, BetaKit

SAAS NORTH NOW #101

READ MORE

Canada’s AI Moment: Minister Evan Solomon On Building A Nation Of Builders

Evan Solomon, Canada’s first Minister of AI & Digital Innovation, & Michael Buhr, Executive Director, C100

SAAS NORTH NOW Special Edition

READ MORE

From CX To AI Agents: Jo Lai On Redefining The Customer Experience

Jo Lai, VP of Customer Experience & SVP AI Solutions, HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions)

SAAS NORTH NOW #100

READ MORE

What Customers Really Want: Insights From Sarah Stockdale

Sarah Stockdale, Founder & CEO, Growclass

SAAS NORTH NOW #99

READ MORE

Jason Smith On Closing The Competitive Revenue Gap

Jason Smith, CEO & Co-Founder, Klue

SAAS NORTH NOW #98

READ MORE

Louis Têtu’s 6 Rules For Building SaaS Companies That Last

Louis Têtu, Executive Chairman & Former CEO, Coveo

SAAS NORTH NOW #97

READ MORE

From $1M to $10M: 3 Timeless Lessons for SaaS Growth in 2025

Asia Orangio, CEO & Founder, DemandMaven

SAAS NORTH NOW #96

READ MORE

From Idea to Launch: 4 Founder Lessons From goConfirm’s Peter Carrescia

Peter Carrescia, Co-Founder, goConfirm (formerly Confirm, & originally Qui Identity)

SAAS NORTH NOW #95

READ MORE

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Hello to Canada’s SaaS and AI Community,

What does it take to build a category-defining company in 2025, especially in one of the most competitive tech environments we’ve seen in over a decade?

Peter Carrescia, Co-Founder of goConfirm (formerly Confirm, and originally Qui Identity), believes it comes down to three things: team, speed, and market awareness.

At SAAS NORTH 2023, Peter took us inside the earliest days of the company, when it was still an idea shaped by casual conversations with Wave co-founder Kirk Simpson, and shared how they raised $8.5M to tackle a massive, complex challenge: digital identity.

Fast forward to today, goConfirm has officially launched its flagship product, a peer-to-peer identity verification platform built to make online marketplaces safer, and Peter’s advice for SaaS founders navigating a hyper-competitive landscape?

Still as relevant as ever.

Key takeaways:

  • goConfirm was built through fast prototyping, deliberate hiring, and a relentless focus on user trust.
  • Product-market fit is not a milestone, it’s a constantly moving target defined by customer needs and competitive pressure.
  • Peter encourages every founder to measure their “competitive revenue gap” and be mindful that the deals you're losing are likely because you didn’t differentiate well enough.

At SAAS NORTH 2023, Peter Carrescia shared a founder story that revealed just how seasoned operators can build with urgency, clarity, and purpose.

After Wave, Peter could have stepped back. Instead, a conversation with Kirk Simpson sparked an idea that became goConfirm, a startup now tackling one of the internet’s biggest trust gaps.

Keep reading to see how they went from concept to launch and what SaaS founders can learn from the journey.

1. Build Fast, Then Focus

Peter and Kirk didn’t start goConfirm with a polished product. Instead, they focused on rapid prototyping and built an early team that understood ambiguity and urgency.

The big idea: Identity is too fragmented and too centralized. There’s no lightweight way for two people to verify each other online, especially outside of big platforms.

By December 2024, they had something real.

A tool that lets users verify their identity, then share that verification in a secure, privacy-first way during peer-to-peer transactions.

Simon De Baene built a $100M+ SaaS company by focusing on what most overlook: real problems, simple products, and strategic patience.

If you're growing a SaaS business without a roadmap, this journey might be exactly what you need to hear.

2. Your Competitor Is Moving Faster Than You Think

One of Peter’s core messages was that customer obsession is necessary but insufficient.

Founders need to also understand the competitive landscape, or risk being overtaken by faster-moving companies.

“I'm a huge believer in obsessing about your customers, but ignoring your competition is at your peril.”

He shared his own hard-won experience from Alida (formerly Vision Critical), where Qualtrics reframed the market by selling directly to CEOs while Alida focused narrowly on researchers. The result? A massive opportunity lost.

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

3. Know What You’re Losing & Why

Peter introduced a concept that should be top-of-mind for every founder in 2025: the competitive revenue gap. It’s the value of deals lost not because of poor product-market fit, but because of poor differentiation.

“Quantify how much you're losing to competitors. Then build a plan to systematically close that gap.”

Whether you’re a Series A startup or a scaling enterprise, reclaiming just 10% of those deals can transform your growth trajectory.

4. Predict Your Competitor’s Move (Then Win on Trust)

One of the most actionable insights Peter shared was the value of pre-seeding competitor behavior.

By telling prospects exactly how a competitor will respond, whether it’s undercutting on price or using misleading feature comparisons, you gain trust by being right.

“This is about instilling confidence. You should never be surprised by what your competitor does next and neither should your prospect.”

That confidence can tip close deals in your favour, even when the product differences are minimal.

Where goConfirm Stands Today

In just over two years, Peter and Kirk have evolved a simple idea into a real-world solution. With goConfirm’s public launch, they’re tackling a massive problem that sits at the intersection of identity, trust, and peer-to-peer commerce and the timing couldn’t be better. As marketplaces scale, generative AI increases impersonation risk, and users demand more control over their data, goConfirm is positioning identity as a user-owned utility, not a corporate-controlled credential.

In 2025, product-market fit is about more than just who loves your product, it’s about how you win, consistently, in a crowded and often competitive room and Peter Carrescia’s advice remains true: know your rivals, measure the cost of losing, and build to outplay (not just outbuild).

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.