Welcome to the 10th Anniversary of SAAS NORTH! Join MC Manuela Bárcenas on a B2B SaaS growth journey! The 2025 BetaKit keynote stage is overflowing with tactical advice and lessons learned from grizzled veterans and the ecosystem players that have seen it all.
The BetaKit Keynote Stage
SAAS NORTH is excited bring back our partnership with BetaKit for another year! Re-introducing, the BetaKit Keynote Stage! BetaKit is known for sharing cutting-edge, timely insights on Canada’s tech ecosystem – The BetaKit Keynote Stage is where you’ll see the people that are building and financing Canadian SaaS. Check out the keynote sessions that SAAS NORTH + BetaKit have in store for 2025!
More speakers to be added, schedule subject to change.
Manuela Bárcenas
Head of Marketing
Fellow.ai
The SaaS Surge: AI, Adaptation & the Next Growth Frontier
Welcome to SAAS NORTH 2025—where ambition meets acceleration. In this high-energy opening keynote, we take a bold look at the forces reshaping the SaaS landscape: the AI arms race, shifting capital markets, leaner teams, and the ever-hungry need to differentiate…read more. You’ll hear what’s actually working, what’s fading fast, and how to seize the opportunities AI unlocks—from product to pricing. This is your wake-up call and your rally cry: it’s time to challenge assumptions, rethink what growth looks like, and gear up for the next chapter of SaaS success.
Swish Goswami
Head of Growth and Marketing
Boardy
Boardy Boardman
AI Superconnector
Boardy
Zero to AI Hero
Can you build the future in real time? One fearless builder is about to try—live. Watch Hai Nghiem from the AGI Ventures Canada as he codes, creates, and iterates at lightning speed by using vibe coding tools like Claude Code, v0, Figma Make, Cursor and more. This isn’t just a demo—it’s a real-time look at how ideas can go from “what if” to “what’s next” in minutes. No slides. No fluff. Just pure innovation, unfolding live.
Hai Nghiem
Co-Founder & CEO
AGI Ventures Canada
AI-Native vs. AI-Adaptive: What SaaS Founders Must Learn Now
AI-native startups are rewriting the SaaS playbook—new pricing, new GTM, and lightning-fast growth (think $0 to $1M in 30 days). But what does that mean for traditional SaaS companies trying to evolve? In this tactical session, Radical Ventures’ Sanjana Basu explores how AI-first companies are structured differently—and what SaaS founders can actually learn from them. From pricing models and distribution to team design and customer quality, this is a grounded, no-hype look at the realities of adapting (or being replaced).
Douglas Soltys
Founder & Editor-in-Chief
BetaKit
Sanjana Basu
Partner
Radical Ventures
How StackAdapt Hit $500M Revenue-on less than $5M Raised
This is the story of a SaaS company that skipped the hype and focused on what mattered—building. Led by a tight-knit founding team, they scaled from humble beginnings to a global presence in 20+ markets. This is a company few in Canada had heard of—until they grew well past $500M annual revenue. No media frenzy, no viral hype—just smart moves, intentional leadership, and a culture built for staying power. In this candid conversation, Vitaly shares exactly how they did it. From humble beginnings building a minimum viable product for one client, to making a $500/mo salary and raising minimal VC funding, to becoming one of Canada’s largest startups today.
Pablo Srugo
Partner, Mistral
Founder & Host of the Product Market Fit Show
Vitaly Pecherskiy
Co-Founder & CEO
StackAdapt
Hot Tub Time Machine: SaaS Legends on the Past, Present & AI Future
Climb into the metaphorical hot tub with a crew of SaaS legends as they time-jump through the industry’s biggest moments—past and future. From bootstrapped beginnings and bubble bursts to billion-dollar exits, these veterans have seen it all… and they’re not done yet. In this candid, wisdom-packed session, our all-star panel reflects on the pivotal moves, painful lessons, and unexpected wins that shaped today’s SaaS landscape—then fast-forwards into an AI-powered future to share where they believe the real opportunities (and risks) lie next. Expect war stories, hot takes, and a few predictions you’ll wish you wrote down.
Sean Silcoff
Technology Reporter
Globe & Mail
Mallorie Brodie
CEO & Co-Founder
Bridgit
Eldon Sprickerhoff
Founder
eSentire
From SaaS to RaaS: Building for the Future of Business Software
In this bold and personal keynote, Vidyard’s Michael Litt unpacks the shifting SaaS landscape—where customers no longer pay for software, but outcomes. From contract lock-ins to value-driven results, the next era is Results-as-a-Service. Drawing on two decades of pivots—on-prem to SaaS, marketers to sellers, desktop to AI—Michael shares how to navigate uncertainty, place strategic bets, and build in the age of large language models. Where does AI end and your product begin? What categories are untouchable? What gets swallowed by foundation models? Expect war stories, real talk, and a future-forward look at what it really takes to evolve.
Michael Litt
Co-Founder
Vidyard/Garage Capital
Building Better Products and Even Better Humans
Wherever you are in your journey as a founder or product leader, two pillars maintain the foundation of your product: people and (product) systems. Delivering on your promise to customers relies on your product systems running at the highest efficiency so that your people can focus on executing high-quality work, not complex systems or navigating management. Join me for tactical insights from over twenty years of learning in enhancing product systems and teams for my web agency, external clients, and startup teams.
Kris Nicolaou
Founder & CEO, Strategist
Brain Box Labs
SheBoot Winners Unveiled
SheBoot is a national investment-ready program for early-stage women-led tech and tech-enabled companies that culminates in a pitch competition. The 2025 cohort winners will be announced on stage at SAAS NORTH.
Julia Elvidge
Chair, Co-Founder & Investor
SheBoot
Jennifer Francis
Co-Founder & Investor
SheBoot
Sonya Shorey
Co-Founder
SheBoot
The Funding Game: Where Love, Money, and Metrics Collide
We’re putting a spicy spin on the classic Dating Game- SAAS NORTH style. One lucky investor plays Bachelor or Bachelorette, and three bold, bootstrapped, or Series A founders will battle for their attention. But forget candlelight dinners- it’s charisma, traction, and total addressable market that will win hearts here. Expect rapid-fire questions, snappy pitches, and hilarious one-liners as our mystery investor gets to know the contenders without seeing them. Who will they swipe right on? Which founder has the perfect blend of chemistry and ARR? It’s part matchmaking, part market validation, all in good fun.
Derek Vollebregt
Director Customer Success
Friendlier
Vicky Boudreau
CEO & Founder
Heylist
Marc Gingras
Co-Founder & CEO
Bloks
Alex Liot
President & CEO
BIBLIOnomics
Isaac Souweine
Early Stage Investor & Community Builder
Building Beyond Success: Reinvention and the Entrepreneur’s Journey
This isn’t your typical “success formula” talk. Join a candid, reflective, and forward-thinking conversation about what it truly means to lead, fail fast, and reinvent — both as entrepreneurs and as people. Our panel of SaaS veterans will share raw career highs and lows, personal growth stories, and how they’ve embraced reinvention to reshape their businesses and themselves. We’ll challenge founders to shed conventional definitions of success and lean into the messy, unpredictable journey of true entrepreneurship. Expect honest lessons on navigating failure, trying bold new ideas, and leading with heart in an ever-changing business landscape. This session sets a big-picture table for what it means to build not just companies — but lasting legacies — in SaaS today.
Siri Agrell
CEO
BetaKit
Marie Chevrier Schwartz
CEO
TechTO & Peerscale
Katherine Homuth
Founder
Oomira & SRTX
How Enterprise Embraces AI
One of Canada’s largest enterprise software companies is now all in on AI. In this exclusive fireside chat, OpenText EVP & Chief Product Officer Savinay Berry will share how his company is embracing AI to drive transformation at scale. From reimagining customer experiences to streamlining operations and unlocking new efficiencies, Berry will provide an insider’s perspective on how OpenText is embedding AI across its platforms and products.
Douglas Soltys
Founder & Editor-in-Chief
BetaKit
Savinay Berry
EVP, CTO & Chief Product Officer
OpenText
1 in 10,000: Lessons Learned Scaling a Canadian SaaS business to $1B+ ARR
Lightspeed’s President JD Saint-Martin pulls back the curtain on the extraordinary journey of scaling a SaaS business to a coveted $1 billion in annual recurring revenue – a feat achieved by less than 0.01% of companies. This presentation distills the most critical lessons learned on this path, from navigating hyper-growth and building resilient teams to mastering customer acquisition and product innovation. Discover actionable insights and strategic takeaways that can help your SaaS business defy the odds.
JD Saint-Martin
President
Lightspeed Commerce
Work Rewired: Building Lean, AI-First Teams
In a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, startups are facing major shifts in how work gets done — and who does it. Faced with rising pressure to stay lean and competitive, some companies are significantly reducing headcount to adopt an “AI-first” model, trading traditional teams for smaller, more agile groups powered by smart tools and agents. This session explores the real-world challenges and bold decisions tech leaders are making: from workforce reductions to radically redefined roles, to rethinking who (or what) you hire next. We’ll unpack the rise of tiny teams, share strategies for navigating workforce change with intention, and explore what an efficient, AI-augmented org chart really looks like.
Aydin Mirzaee
CEO & Co-Founder
Fellow.ai
Mohammad Hashemi
Co-Founder & CEO
Gadget
Felipe Izquierdo
Founder & CEO
Quest
Alexis MacDonald
VP People
Klue
PitchFest Finale Throwdown
Our judges have shortlisted the best of the best! Now get ready for an epic showdown at the PitchFest Finale Throwdown, where innovation and creativity collide in a riveting clash of wits and business smarts. With live audience polled results, we’ll find out which company will reign supreme and be our PitchFest Winner for 2025.
Lance Laking
Managing Director & General Partner
Graphite Ventures
Lauren Ledwell
Investment Principal
Sandpiper Ventures
Isaac Olowolafe Jr.
General Partner & Co-Founder
BKR Capital
James Povitz
Principal Venture Capital
NAventures, National Bank of Canada’s Corporate Venture Arm
Jennifer Renda
Investing Partner
Kanata Ventures
The Masked Investor Returns
Get ready for “The Masked Investor” – where one disguised investor spills the unfiltered truth, from working with VCs and avoiding founder pitfalls to the secrets of product success. Join the excitement as the incognito VCs reveal investment strategies, insights, and predictions for the future and navigating the SaaS investment landscape. Who “IS” the Masked Investor – we may never know but we’ll keep you guessing.
Aydin Mirzaee
CEO & Co-Founder
Fellow.ai
The Masked Investor
?
Grand Prize Draw & Closing Remarks
We’re capping off an exciting two days with final remarks and a chance to win the Grand Prize!
Manuela Bárcenas
Head of Marketing
Fellow.ai
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