Tech Thursday

"If you're a founder building a startup and you're complaining about the government or regulation, that's a victim mentality." Rob Khazzam does not do excuses. I sat down with Rob (Float) and Jeff Adamson (Neo Financial) at the Tech Founders Stampede Summit w/ Tech Thursday and HOUSE 831. Two founders who built directly into an industry that has barely moved in a century. What came out of it: - Canadian banking has been frozen for 150 years. It costs about the same to bank today as it did then. - Five players own 96% of the market. - Both of them want more competition. Including the competition coming for them. Jeff's told the story of how Neo refused to charge Non-Sufficient Fund fees. The government noticed, asked why the incumbents were charging $45 for the privilege of being broke, and capped it near $10. A fintech did the right thing and the law followed. Rob's version is operational. Six weeks, not six months. Five minutes, not five business days. "We're cockroaches." Full recap in the comments.

A major event like the #CalgaryStampede drives a massive 18% boost in overall local spending and a 29% surge for restaurants - but the real value is in the timing. Benjamin Jacob breaks down data from the Mastercard Economics Institute showing that local retail spending actually hits its absolute highest peak the Thursday before kick-off. When you can pinpoint those exact shifts ahead of time, you can build the models to keep your inventory ready and stay ahead of the rush.

Who do you want to see on a Tech Thursday stage this fall? 👀 We're off for the summer, with events back end of August. In the meantime we're building out the next season lineup, and we'd love your ideas in the mix. Who should be on stage? What panel hasn't been done? Which company do you want in the room? Tell us what you'd like us to put on in your city! Drop your ideas below 👇

The biggest retail day of Stampede is not during Stampede. It's the Thursday before. Thousands of people realizing at the last minute that they don't own a cowboy hat. That was the opening stat from the Mastercard Economics Institute at our Tech Thursday session, inside an immersive barn at the new Sam Centre, hours after the parade. The lineup was ridiculous: → Claude Guay, Eng., ICD.D, MP, Parliamentary Secretary and former CEO of IBM Canada → Anne Butler, Managing Director of Payments and Regulatory Oversight, Bank of Canada → Ruhee Ismail-Teja, MPP Ismail-Teja, VP Policy and External Affairs, Calgary Chamber of Commerce → Benjamin Jacob, SVP Services, Mastercard → Jennifer M Sloan, SVP Government Affairs and Stakeholder Engagement, Mastercard 5 things that stuck with me: 🤠 Stampede lifts local merchant spending 18%. Restaurants 29%. The data to de-risk those weeks already exists. It just isn't shared in real time. 🤖 Agentic commerce is projected at $1.7 trillion by 2030. If your agent buys the wrong hat and it ships, whose fault is that? Nobody has fully solved it yet. ⛏️ Claude Guay on Canada's AI posture: not "Team Pitchfork," not "Team Pompom." Best line of the night. 📉 30% of businesses have adopted AI. Among small businesses it's 8%. That gap is the whole story. 👩💻 Anne Butler built herself a risk-scanning tool with Claude. Zero coding background. Our designer built the predictions wall in 10 minutes with Claude Code. Full recap in the comments 👇

Not your average Stampede afternoon. With Mastercard, cowboy hats on, and Canada's economic future on the table. 🤠💥 We opened Stampede with an invite-only room of 75+ founders, business leaders, operators, and policymakers. The topic: Leading on the Frontier of Canada's Digital Economy. In partnership with Mastercard, we ran two conversations back to back, inside Sam Centre, the Stampede's own home for its story. A fireside on what commerce looks like as AI takes on more of how we buy, sell, and pay, and what it takes for people to trust the systems underneath. Jennifer M Sloan, SVP of Government Affairs and Stakeholder Engagement at Mastercard in conversation with Claude Guay, Eng., ICD.D, Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources at the Government of Canada, on the future of agentic commerce. Then the panel widened it: what it takes for Canada to stay competitive, and who has to build it together to get there. Our speakers: Anne Butler, Managing Director of Supervision at Bank of Canada, Ruhee Ismail-Teja, MPP, VP of Policy and External Affairs at Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Benjamin Jacob, SVP of Services at Mastercard and Philippe Burns, Co-Founder & CEO at Tech Thursday, on the future digital economy. We wrapped Stampede-style: hats for the whole room, fitted by Ace High Hat Bar. Thanks to our speakers, to the room for showing up, and to Mastercard for partnering with us on this one. Already looking forward to the next Stampede!

Year one of the Tech Founder's Stampede Summit is in the books! 50+ founders, 4 private dinners, 1 full day of tech programming, 1 Stampede 💥 With HOUSE 831, we put together an invite-only experience bringing together a curated group of Founders from across Canada for a full day of insightful conversations. It kicked off Sunday with the Stampede Summit Dinner Series. One city, four private founders dinners, all at once: 🤠 Pre-Summit Dinner 🏦 Fintech Dinner 📈 DefenceTech Dinner 📊 Power & Data Centres Dinner Then the Summit itself. 50+ founders, seed to IPO, one room, one full day. Monday opened with a Stampede Pancake breakfast, then firesides with Andrew D'Souza and Mike Wessinger. Midday, everyone got white-hatted. Followed by a fintech panel with Jeff Adamson and Rob Khazzam, a panel with Kelly Schmitt and Vincent Ircandia, and breakouts on cracking enterprise, embedded AI, the future of payments, and raising in a hard market. A closing chat with Hon. Nate Glubish, Minister of Innovation. Then the Stampede Summit After Party, open to Summit attendees and the broader Calgary Startup Community. Thank you to everyone who showed up, to our speakers, to the partners and sponsors, and to Tate Hackert for building this with us. 🔥 Big shoutout to our Stampede Summit Dinner Series co-hosts Torys LLP, ATB Financial, Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel, Boast, Interac Corp., Fintechs Canada, Western Canada Data Centre Alliance and Calgary Economic Development. And to our Summit/After Party co-hosts Float, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG), RBCx and Boast. See you all next year!