Tech founders make their pitch at L-Spark’s SaaS Showcase

Event celebrates ninth cohort of program graduates with networking reception, chance to hear founders pitch their startups

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An Ottawa-based Canadian startup accelerator designed to help entrepreneurs grow their great ideas into thriving tech companies celebrated the graduation of its ninth cohort Thursday.

There were no caps, gowns and diplomas, nor tearful hugs and long goodbyes at the SaaS Showcase presented by L-Spark at the Horticulture Building at Lansdowne Park. Rather, the six founders got to pitch their startups on stage in front of a 300-person audience of investors, mentors and community partners before heading next door to Jack Astor’s Bar & Grill for the after-party sponsored by Dentons LLP.

L-Spark is led by executive managing director Leo Lax, who’s devoted more than 40 years of his career to advancing Ottawa’s technology sector. An engineer by profession, Lax studied at the Royal Military College and got his start at Mitel and Newbridge Networks, working closely with tech giant Terry Matthews, founder and chairman of Wesley Clover International. 

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“Standing in front of you this evening brings back many memories,” Lax told his audience of the journey the accelerator and incubator program began nearly 10 years ago.

“We took our first steps not knowing where it would lead, but with hope and faith that we can create a nurturing environment that will foster the growth of a few unicorns right here in Canada,” said Lax. He wasn’t referring to the long-horned mythical creatures but to the ultimate dream that private startups have to reach a value of $1 billion. “We are not there yet, but we live in hope.”

Among those in attendance were Capital Angel Network executive director Suzanne Grant and her board chair, Jennifer Francis, who’s also co-founder with fellow leader, mentor and investor Julia Elvidge of the SheBoot program for women-led tech companies.

Also spotted from the business community were: Veronica Farmer, new vice-president of marketing for Wesley Clover; BDO Canada partner Jeff Johnson; Chase Irwin, a partner in the corporate, securities and venture technology and emerging growth companies practice groups of Dentons’ Ottawa office; Boast.ai director and QuickFund lead Chikei Yeung; Nick Quain, vice-president of venture development at Invest Ottawa; Maxime Page from National Bank; and Ray Rashed, director of RBCx Ottawa.

Leo Lax
Leo Lax, executive managing director of L-Spark, at SaaS Showcase 2023, held at the Horticulture Building at Lansdowne on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Photo by Caroline Phillips
From left, Capital Angel Network board member Julia Elvidge, board chair Jennifer Francis and executive director Suzanne Grant at SaaS Showcase 2023, presented by L-Spark at the Horticulture Building on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Photo by Caroline Phillips
From left, BDO Canada’s Brandon Bignell, Jennifer DiFruscio, Bruce Beggs, Melissa Fournier and Jeff Johnson at SaaS Showcase 2023, presented by L-Spark at the Horticulture Building on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Photo by Caroline Phillips
Former high-tech executive Bruce Lazenby, who’s on the advisory board at arvizio.io, with Veronica Farmer, new vice-president of marketing for Wesley Clover, at SaaS Showcase 2023. Photo by Caroline Phillips
Capital Angel Network chair Jennifer Francis is joined by RBCx team members (from left) Peter McArthur (VP of National Cleantech Lead), director Ray Rashed, vice-president of banking Abood Mohamed, and Jake Malette, associate vice-president of banking, at L-Spark’s SaaS Showcase 2023. Photo by Caroline Phillips
From left, L-Spark mentor Peter Melanson, former CEO of Bullfrog Power, with Roger Egan, retired customer engagement executive at SAP, at L-Spark’s SaaS Showcase 2023. Photo by Caroline Phillips
From left, Neha Issar, senior associate at Dentons Canada LLP, with Dentons partner Chase Irwin, Trent Pora, associate Sampford Advisors, Boris Petkovic, director at Sampford Advisors, and Heather Bonnell, associate at Dentons Canada, at L-Spark’s SaaS Showcase 2003. Photo by Caroline Phillips
From left, L-Spark business development manager Andrew Hudon with Kathleen Kemp, manager of the Entrepreneurship Hub at the University of Ottawa, and her colleague, program officer Tess MacLellan, at L-Spark’s SaaS Showcase 2023. Photo by Caroline Phillips
From left, Tyler Morton, investment analyst at Invest Ottawa, with his colleagues, Attianna Palmer, Marissa DiNardo and Erin Seegmiller, at L-Spark’s SaaS Showcase 2023. Photo by Caroline Phillips
Maxime Page from National Bank at the podium during L-Spark’s SaaS Showcase 2023. Photo by Caroline Phillips
L-Spark’s SaaS Showcase 2023 at the Horticulture Building got started with a 90-minute networking reception. Photo by Caroline Phillips

The six graduates of the SaaS Accelerator program received six months of mentoring and technical support tailored to their business from L-Spark’s network of experts and advisers.

The pitch presentations featured Ryan Peatt, co-founder and CEO of Proxi.id, a user verification service provider that helps businesses verify the affiliation of their customers and users through a secure and user-friendly process. Peatt launched his fully bootstrapped company just over 18 months ago.

CEO and founder Marcelo Bursztein brought everyone up to speed, in seven minutes or less, on NovaceneAI. It automates the process of turning raw unstructured data into analytics-ready data. The platform, which integrates with existing cloud data ecosystems and uses artificial intelligence, is designed for both business analysts and data engineers, said Bursztein, who has 20 years’ experience building SaaS products and 10 years’ experience in market research. 

As well, the room heard from Phil Alexandre, CEO of Goodly Cloud, a SaaS platform through which businesses can manage the complete hardware lifecycle events of mobile devices, such as phones, tablets and laptops. 

There were also pitches from Toronto firms Formic.ai (Benji Christie) and Shippie (Jax Zheng), as well as Montreal-based Oxia Initiative (Emmanuelle Tavernier).

Marcelo Bursztein, NovaceneAI. Photo by Caroline Phillips
Ryan Peatt, Proxi.id. Photo by Caroline Phillips
Phil Alexandre, Goodly Cloud. Photo by Caroline Phillips
Benji Christie, Formic.ai. Photo by Caroline Phillips
Emmanuelle Tavernier, Oxi Initiative. Photo by Caroline Phillips
Jax Zheng, Shippie. Photo by Caroline Phillips
Graduating founders of L-Spark’s SaaS Accelerator Program take to the stage at the SaaS Showcase held at the Horticulture Building at Lansdowne on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Photo by Caroline Phillips

In his closing remarks, Lax spoke of the “sea of change” that’s occurred in the technology industry over the last 10 years.

“Today, we live in a world that is always accessible. It’s everywhere at any time and, for some of us, that’s good; for some, not so good. We are all very busy.”

COVID taught businesses that they have to embrace change in order to survive, said Lax, who touched on Open.ai and the way its ChatGPT, a natural language processing tool that allows for human-like conversations, as driving AI’s popularity.

Artificial intelligence has evolved from being a “technology curiosity” to the future as it “seeps into almost every aspect of our daily activities,” said Lax while pulling out his cellphone as an example of how technology has become so accessible.

“We are carrying in our hands the computing power of a mainframe from just a few years ago,” he said. 

Our technology, he added, provides the public with a co-pilot.

“And who doesn’t need a co-pilot? Which brings me back to L-Spark and why we started L-Spark, to provide a co-pilot for our emerging entrepreneurs.

“We dared to dream when we started L-Spark, and I challenge you today to dream with us, going forward. Let’s co-pilot the future together.”

Chikei Yeung, QuickFund lead and director of Boast.ai, and L-Spark managing director Patrick White at L-Spark’s SaaS Showcase 2023, held at the Horticulture Building on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Photo by Caroline Phillips
Nicole Mortillaro, director of marketing for L-Spark, welcomes guests to SaaS Showcase 2023. Photo by Caroline Phillips
From left, SheBoot co-founder Jennifer Francis alongside Danielle Goc, 15, Shahed Lababidi, 14, and Niyati Thondapu, 14, who are members of Technovation Girls Ottawa, at L-Spark’s SaaS Showcase 2023. Photo by Caroline Phillips

caroline@obj.ca

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