My Pitch - How about Creating a Canadian Startup Pitch Roadshow? Let's Keep Our Brightest Minds at Home!

Canada’s startup brain drain is real—but what if we turned the tide with a coast-to-coast National Pitch Tour?

We have to break the "you have to leave to succeed' mindset!!

There’s a quiet heartbreak behind every goodbye. Especially when it’s a brilliant Canadian founder, taught at one of our world class universities, suitcase in hand, bound for Silicon Valley. Not chasing dreams, but chasing validation. 

✈️ The Border Crossing That Hurts

You’ve probably seen it. A sharp, curious student aces their degree at UBC or Waterloo, or U of C, builds something dazzling in a campus accelerator, maybe even wins a pitch competition or two. Then poof—gone. Recruited, relocated, and swallowed up by the gravitational pull of the US and its funding ecosystem. 

And here’s the thing that breaks my heart: we trained them. We mentored them, supported them, believed in them. And then—just when it’s getting good—the story shifts to a different stage, in a different country.

It’s like planting a tree, only to watch it bloom in someone else’s garden.

(ok, and as a mother of two young men soon to graduate out of the Canadian university system, it hits home big time. I don't want to see this generation leave for what they perceive as greener pastures.)

Here's an Idea ... What about a National Pitch Tour? 

Ok, so in addition to my pitch development coaching work, I'm also a theatre writer. 

AND I WANT TO CHANGE THE NARRATIVE. 

Let's bring a little theatre to the mix. Picture it like a touring show. A theatre troupe from 'back in the day'. A national startup pitch tour, rolling from coast to coast—not with costumes, but with code and courage. A Canada First National Pitch Tour.

Major branded pitch events in key cities in every province and territory. Investors, pitch coaches, media, and supporters. Dozens of founders. Stages packed with investors, lights bright with opportunity, and the national spotlight trained on talent that’s ours. 

Accelerators working together. Not just another summit. A focus on pitching. A challenge and call for funders to look at home-grown Canadian companies. 

This isn’t a sideshow. It’s the main event. And it accompishes two things - prove—unmistakably—to our emerging founders that the best place to build a startup might be right here at home, and we show the world that Canada is a place to build global tech giants.

🧠 A Psychological Reset

At the recent Web Summit Vancouver, the sentiment was clear: Canadian founders are ready to push back against U.S. dependence. A panel titled “Canada First? How to navigate the new world order” echoed a rising conviction that Canada can fuel its own unicorns, with Clio’s Jack Newton stating that companies are waking up to the prospect of building without relying on the United States 

That’s a mindset shift. We’re not just missing resources—we’re missing confidence. The story that “you’ve got to cross the border to make it big” lives in people’s heads. And this tour is a direct challenge to that story. Marketing must be bold. Not a plea to stay—but a rallying cry: “Why would you want to leave?”

This is a psychological game and I say, let's play it. Challenge it head-on. 

🧭 What Shifts When We Show Up for Founders

There’s power in making someone feel seen. In telling a founder: we value your ambition (and we are willing to fund it) here. Not hypothetically. Not someday. Now.

And in doing so, we begin to chip away at the quiet narrative that tells Canadian entrepreneurs they have to leave to be taken seriously.

That story was never quite true. But it stuck. And unless we replace it with something louder, prouder, and backed by capital and community, it’ll keep pulling talent away.

Louder, prouder, backed - the Canada First National Pitch Tour. 

🎓 What I Can’t Stop Thinking About

Am I being too sentimental? Maybe. But I love this country and I love the entrepreneurial spirit of people who want to build a better world. I really do. 

And every time another sharp, mission-driven grad packs up for San Francisco, it hits the same nerve.

It feels like watching the future walk away. And not just any future—the one we helped shape. The one we poured late nights, public dollars, and deep belief into.

The one that could’ve changed Canada, if we’d found the right way to say: stay. If we changed the story they (and we) are telling ourselves. 

🔧 Let’s Spark a National Sense of Startup Pride

The Canada First Pitch Tour is one idea. But it’s a vivid one. A rolling celebration of what’s possible. A series of moments that say, “Look what we’re building here.” 

And maybe, just maybe, it becomes the spark that lights something bigger—a national sense of startup pride that runs deep, grows fast, and sticks.

Anyone interested in doing this? Funding it? Running with it?

Because I want to see it happen. 

I want the story to change and I want Canadian entreprenuers to thrive right here at home. 

It's time to build the story we want. 

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About Startup Pitch Coach

A pitch doesn't begin with the first slide you create. It begins with how you think, how you listen, how you frame the problem and invite others into the solution. That’s the work we do—quietly, deliberately—with founders who are ready to lead. 

Curious what that kind of support feels like? Want to be part of building this movement? 

Download the Pitch Deck Slide Prompt Library or book a Pitch Review Session today.