Cities
06+
Local nodes where builders can demo, recruit, and find collaborators.
[AGIV ecosystem]
Canada's AI builder ecosystem
Events, founder sessions, hackathons, and community for the people building AI across Canada.
From AI Tinkerers Ottawa to a national network, AGIV connects the builders who ship demos, start companies, and keep Canada in the conversation.
Builders
1,700+
Hackathon peak
400+
Newsletter reach
10K+
[Network in numbers]
Structured like an operating system, not a list of events.
Every program is designed to move people deeper into the ecosystem: from first meetup, to first hackathon, to first founder conversation, to first company.
Builders per meetup
150+
Dense rooms built around demos and conversations, not panels and fluff.
Hackathon sprint
48h
Compressed build cycles that push teams from idea to prototype fast.
Founder sessions
Year-round
Recurring small-group sessions with operators, peers, and more candid feedback on what to ship next.
[What we do]
More than meetups.
A full stack of programs for AI builders at every stage, from the first person showing a demo to the team preparing to raise or hire.
[Community]
Events & meetups
Monthly AI Tinkerers gatherings in cities across Canada built around demos, sharp questions, and real operator conversations.
Monthly cadence across multiple cities
Builder-first rooms with demo energy
Open entry point for founders, engineers, and researchers
[Build]
Hackathons
48-hour build sprints with sponsor APIs, live judging, and enough density to make serious teams collide fast.
400+ attendee peaks
Working prototypes over slide decks
Fast feedback from operators and sponsors
[Ship]
Co-hacking
Recurring sessions where builders block off time, declare what they're working on, and ship it. The accountability layer that keeps the community moving.
Show up, declare your goal, build
Work alongside other builders in real time
Weekly rhythm to keep you shipping
[Launch]
Founder sessions
Small-group sessions for founders who want sharper feedback, better operator context, and more honest conversations about what to ship next.
Recurring operator conversations
Practical feedback on product and narrative
Rooms built for candid peer review
[Live]
Hacker House & Hacker Cottage
Physical bases for founders and builders who want more time around other people building at full speed.
Co-working and community under one roof
Informal peer review every day
Place-based momentum for early teams
[Why builders stay]
We make it feel like SF.
The point is not to imitate another city. The point is to create the same density of ambitious people, useful feedback, and permission to ship.
“You can live in Iowa, you can live in Ottawa, you can live anywhere in the world, and all that matters is what you ship.”
Lee Robinson
Head of AI Education, Cursor
[Event calendar]
The live schedule.
Meetups, hackathons, and sessions across the network. If you want the fastest path into the ecosystem, this is the queue.
Format
Monthly city events for demos and conversation.
Periodic build sprints and partner-backed hackathons.
Operator sessions for founders moving toward product-market fit.
AGIV on Luma
[Builder signals]
Field notes from the people shipping.
Interviews, operator lessons, and community stories from teams building AI companies across Canada.
04 posts
02 tracks
Latest Jan 12, 2026
[Stories]
From Ottawa to YC: How My Friends Turned a $5K Gamble Into a Y Combinator Acceptance
I watched Josh and Leo grind for months with nothing working. Then they took their last $5,000 and flew to San Francisco. Here's what happened next.
Hai Nghiem
Why it matters
The journal exists to make ecosystem knowledge portable: how founders got into rooms, what changed their momentum, and which decisions mattered.
[Interviews]
My Biggest Takeaways from Lee Robinson
Key lessons from Cursor's Lee Robinson on building a tech career from anywhere, what skills matter in the AI era, and why the best engineers obsess over design.
[Interviews]
Startups Work by Providing Value to Bigger Companies
Most startup advice focuses on the wrong things. The simpler truth is that startups work by providing value to bigger companies.
[General]
From Bootstrap to Venture-Backed: Lessons from a Two-Time Founder Who Started at 47
Chris Bartholomew built and sold Kesque, survived COVID, endured a painful acquisition, and started again with Vectorize.io. Here's what he learned about bootstrapping vs venture capital, life after acquisition, and why the real risk of entrepreneurship isn't failure.
Our sponsors
[Sponsor programs]
Sponsor the rooms where builders actually show up.
Choose a single program or take the full package. The goal is simple: put your brand where ambitious technical people are already paying attention.
Full package
One partner, full ecosystem coverage.
Annual sponsorship across events, hackathons, media, and founder programming, plus priority placement and custom partnership options.
[Meetups]
Meetups
Monthly AI Tinkerers meetups with 150+ builders. Strongest fit for brand presence, talent visibility, and community pull.
[Hackathons]
Hackathons
48-hour build weekends where teams test APIs and tools under real pressure, with prizes and sponsor support on the line.
[Newsletter]
Newsletter
Monthly distribution to 10K+ subscribers for launches, sponsor stories, and product signals that reach active builders.
[Video series]
Video series
Founder conversations and ecosystem interviews that compound into long-tail awareness instead of one-off impressions.
[Founder sessions]
Founder sessions
Support founders with smaller operator sessions, sharper feedback loops, and practical product conversations.
[Hacker house]
Hacker house
Reach founders where they work every day through residency support, hosted sessions, and highly contextual partnerships.
[Get involved]
Plug into the ecosystem.
Whether you are building, sponsoring, hiring, or just trying to find the right room, there is a clear entry point.
Choose your lane
[Photo proof]
What the rooms actually feel like.
Hacker house sessions, crowded meetups, and the kind of in-person energy that turns online loose ties into real builder momentum.