Toronto has two loud weeks in tech, and both are behind us for 2026. Toronto Tech Week ran May 25 to 29, with more than 600 events and 32,400 attendees. Elevate ran September 22 to 24. The next one, Toronto Tech Week 2027, opens on May 31. That leaves more than seven months of ordinary weeks, and this guide is about those.
We've hosted five evenings in Toronto since June, in three rooms. The record so far, evening by evening. Our stake, up front: the three dates at the end of this guide are ours.
What shapes the room here
Two big weeks, then quiet. A festival week is where you meet people. The months after are where you find out which of those conversations were real. A room that repeats is one place to do that.
Research, close by. The Vector Institute, the AI research institute founded in 2017, is downtown on the University of Toronto's Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus. If you can answer a technical AI question properly and you're deciding whether to start a company, the fourth ask below is written for you.
Not downtown. Elevate was at Meridian Hall, downtown. Our room is Blood Brothers Brewing at 165 Geary Avenue, an old industrial street just north of Dupont, in the west end. Check the route before you leave.
What our Toronto base is building
One company is on the record as having pitched at our Toronto evenings so far: TrailerCast Inc., idea stage, an AI sales tool that covers the deal cycle in one workspace, from call notes to a signed contract.
Four more Toronto companies are in our startup base, described from their own applications:
- Winskel. Multi-model coding orchestration for developers who use Claude Code and Codex.
- BizLoc App, seed. An AI location agent that scores an address for location risk in about 90 seconds.
- Friendlier, Series A. Reusable packaging for foodservice, with the software and reverse logistics to run it.
- VCycene Inc., seed. A home composter that the company says turns household food waste into compost in seven days.
Two of the five work on waste: one takes it out of food packaging, the other composts it at home. If you build something physical, you won't be the only one in our Toronto base.
How to plug in
- Use the big weeks to meet people and the ordinary weeks to continue. A recurring evening lets you pick a conversation up where it stopped.
- Come with one ask. The first hour is at a table on a topic the city voted for. Vote for the problem you actually have. How the evening runs, hour by hour.
- If you have a job or a degree to finish and are thinking about starting, use the fourth ask: "I have an idea, I want your honest take." Founders and operators at the table will tell you what they'd need to see.
- If you invest, Toronto companies go into the weekly digest for investors approved on application, filtered to stage, sector and geography.
- Check the day. Our first five Toronto evenings were Wednesdays. The next three are a Thursday and two Tuesdays.
Dates for the fall
Blood Brothers Brewing is at 165 Geary Avenue, just north of Dupont Street. The tables start at 7.
Quick answers
- Is there a record of past evenings?
- Yes. All five are on the Toronto history page, with the photographs we have.
- Where is it?
- Blood Brothers Brewing, 165 Geary Avenue, Toronto. It's in the west end, not downtown.
- Do I need a startup to come?
- No. The room is built around founders, and investors and operators are who founders come to meet.
- Will investors be there?
- Sometimes. We never promise it for a given evening.
- How do I get on stage?
- Pitching is by application. Applying is free, and you need a ticket for the evening you pitch at. How the five seats are filled.
- When is the next Toronto Tech Week?
- May 31 to June 4, 2027.
Mentioned in this piece
Companies · in our startup base
- TrailerCast Inc. · pitched Sep 23
- Winskel · Toronto
- BizLoc App · Toronto
- Friendlier · Toronto
- VCycene Inc. · Toronto
Places
- Blood Brothers Brewing · 165 Geary Avenue, Toronto
Organizations
- Toronto Tech Week · May 25–29, 2026 · next May 31–Jun 4, 2027
- Elevate · Sep 22–24, 2026
- Vector Institute · AI research institute
Sources
- BetaKit, Toronto Tech Week announces dates for 2027 edition, Sep 15, 2026
- BetaKit, Toronto Tech Week returns in 2026
- BizBash, Canada event industry news, Sep 8, 2026: Elevate Festival
- Vector Institute, About
- NOW Toronto, Blood Brothers Brewing
- Ascent Valley, Toronto event history, as of Oct 6, 2026
- Ascent Valley, Toronto city page
- Ascent Valley startup base, Toronto
- Ascent Valley, Toronto, Oct 22 event page
