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OTTAWA, CANADA, NOV 5-6 2025 • ROGERS CENTRE

10 Years. One SAAS NORTH Community.

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

Join thousands of SaaS innovators in Ottawa, Nov 5-6, 2025, and gain strategies to future-proof your SaaS in the age of AI.

SUPER EARLY BIRD SALE! Become A Sponsor

Why Attend SAAS NORTH

Future-Proof Your SaaS In The Age Of AII

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?

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

Michele Romanow
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Clearco

2025 Sponsors

We accept money in exchange for audience visibility.

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.

Become A Sponsor

SAAS NORTH’s Biggest Names

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

View Speakers

Tobias Lütke

Founder

Shopify

Tope Awotona

CEO & Founder

Calendly

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.

No bad LinkedIn pitches. Just real connections that matter.

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Canada’s Largest SaaS Community

For founders.For teams. For investors

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Program Overview

This Year’s Focus: Future-Proof SaaS in the Age of AI

For the first time, SAAS NORTH launches with a theme and it’s all about helping founders stay ahead in an AI-driven world.

From GTM to product, we’ll dive into real strategies, tools, and frameworks that SaaS leaders are using to adapt, scale, and thrive with AI.

Learn More

Like this headline, everything is better with more SaaS.

This November, you and your team will travel to Canada’s Capital* for a transformative professional experience at SAAS NORTH. Yes, we used the word transformative. It’s a business conference, it needs business words. *For any of our American friends reading this, Ottawa is the capital of Canada, not Toronto.

Super Early Bird Sale!
Regular $1,199

$599*/person

*When you bring 3+. Super Early Bird passes available until June 20. Don’t miss out!

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.
 
Your booth. Your spotlight. Your bragging rights.
Become An Exhibitor

The Latest From SAAS NORTH NOW

Behind the Mask: What Founders Really Need to Hear About Venture Capital

The Masked Investor

SAAS NORTH NOW #90

READ MORE

Failing Forward: How Setbacks Shape Stronger Founders

Marie Chevrier Schwartz, CEO, TechTO & Peerscale

SAAS NORTH NOW #89

READ MORE

How to Scale Enterprise Sales Within Your Startup

Rob Crnkovic (Co-Founder & CRO, CapIntel), Vitaly Pecherskiy (Co-Founder & COO, StackAdapt)

SAAS NORTH NOW #88

READ MORE

4 Tips For Managing A High-Performance Team As A Startup Or Remote Company

Michelle Brooks (Chief People & Culture Officer, Security Compass) & Mike Gozzo (Chief Product Officer, Ada)

SAAS NORTH NOW #87

READ MORE

Post-Seed Strategies For Startups & Founders

Janet Bannister, Founder & Managing Partner, Staircase Ventures & Kaylee Lieffer, Co-Founder & CEO, Blanka

SAAS NORTH NOW #86

READ MORE

Continuing A Mission: How Passion Became Martin Basiri’s Driving Force For Entrepreneurial Change

Martin Basiri, Founder & CEO, Passage

SAAS NORTH NOW #85

READ MORE

How To Take A First Principles Approach To Using Capital For Growth

Kevin Kliman, Co-Founder & CEO, Humi

SAAS NORTH NOW #84

READ MORE

How Plaiced Leveraged Community To Scale Globally While Bootstrapping

Kaaveh Shoamanesh, CEO, Plaiced

SAAS NORTH NOW #83

READ MORE

How Thinking Of Customers As Investors Drives Startup Growth

Mehrsa Raeiszadeh, Co-Founder, MintList

SAAS NORTH NOW #82

READ MORE

top

Welcome to 2025!

As we kick off the new year, how about a fresh mindset to help you achieve your goals

A lot of startup advice says to be customer obsessed (or some similar verb). Billionaire businessman Richard Branson famously flipped this on its head, saying a focus on employees will lead to customers being taken care of. Mehrsa Raeiszadeh, Co-Founder of online car marketplace MintList, agrees with Richard Branson and goes one step further: treat all stakeholders as investors. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Mehrsa explained how this mindset drives growth.

Key takeaways:

  • Investors provide resources with the expectation of a return in some form.
  • When customers, employees, partners, and even extended families of founders and employees are considered investors, we ask ourselves more honest questions about what we’re doing at work.
  • More honest questions leads to better ideation and more room for creativity, since you’re focused on delivering commensurate returns for everyone involved.

A lot of early-stage startup growth advice butts heads with itself.

Your customer is your sole focus… but what about employees? You should only ship what makes sense for your vision… but what about customers?

And where do families of founders and employees fit into all of this?

Mehra Raeiszadeh, co-founder of online car marketplace MintList, suggests a mindset shift: every stakeholder is an investor.

Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Mehrsa explained how this mindset drives growth for startups.

What’s in an investor?

Mehrsa explained an investor is any person who puts their resources into an organization, with the expectation of a return.

Every stakeholder in a company fits this definition, not just venture capitalists or bankers:

  • Founders are dedicating their time and career opportunity cost to build the company.
  • Employees are also investing their career and time, typically trading market salaries for equity.
  • Channel partners are opening their networks and social capital to you, hoping for mutually-beneficial outcomes.
  • Grant providers are investing taxpayer dollars, expecting a mission-aligned outcome in the future.
  • Customers are investing their money into your business, trusting your product over a lasting incumbent.

Mehrsa said this definition even extends to families of founders, as they are investing missed dinners and family time, all for the sake of your success.

“They're all contributing to your success, and they're supporting you one way or another,” said Mehrsa.

Asking better questions

When you consider everyone as an investor, the questions you ask yourself change—which in turn changes the trajectory of the company.

Founders, for example, are able to be more honest with themselves.

“Realistically, do I see that I'm filling a real gap here?” said Mehrsa. “Am I on the right path? Am I doing the right thing? Am I distracting myself with this partnership just because I'm desperate? Am I sharing this authentically? Am I sharing my problems and my and my concerns with my board so they can solve this problem with me rather than putting this happy face on?”

When it comes to customers, the questions are more about someone’s underlying motives. It’s not just the product they are buying, but the experience with your organization versus another.

For example, someone buying from a new startup may want its technology but also want to feel like they are at the cutting edge of innovation.

“What moves the needle for them—what is their bleeding neck wound?” said Mehra. “Instead of reducing the price or splashy promotions; what is it they're looking for, for them to invest their money from their budget into the product or services of my company?”

The same mindset extends to employees.

When employees are investors, you begin to ask what you’re giving back to them in exchange for their contributions. This might be as simple as appreciation and gratitude, but it extends to giving people autonomy, room for creativity, opportunities to learn, and an overall enjoyable workplace.

“Is that aligned with the promises I made when I brought that person on board?” said Mehrsa.

Facing reality

The questions we ask ourselves to serve investors also have an additional value: helping us face reality.

When you ask yourself honest questions about whether you’re solving a real need, you might notice the answer is “no.”

If that happens, you can look for your next authentic move—a recalibration, an exit, changing the product, hiring the right person, firing the right person, or even stepping down as a leader.

“It helps us face the reality head on and provide the guardrail to stay on the right path,” said Mehrsa. “And if we're not on the right path, take the next exit.”