When 14-year-old Alex Gafiuk and 15-year-old Oliver Dudek walked into Edmonton Unlimited on Monday morning, they weren’t on the program for the kickoff of Edmonton Startup Week.
They had finished their first pitch deck only two hours before doors opened, and asked if they could speak before the official Launch Party Showcase began.
Organizers said yes.
The two stood side by side at the podium, passing the microphone between them as they introduced their fledgling company. They weren’t there to win anything. They wanted feedback, mentorship, and a chance to learn. It was direct and earnest, exactly the kind of initiative Startup Week is designed to surface.
With teachers in Alberta on strike, Edmonton Unlimited set up a space for students to take part while their parents (or students themselves) attend sessions.
Gafiuk and Dudek chose to pitch instead of stay home and play video games.
Edmonton Startup Week runs citywide from Oct. 6 -10 (Digital Journal is an official media partner along with Taproot), bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, students, and community partners for 79 events across Edmonton. Hosted by Edmonton Unlimited, which produces 38 of those events, the week is designed to make innovation visible across the city.
“This week is for the community, by the community,” said Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard, executive producer of Edmonton Startup Week. “We wanted to build off the momentum from last year and make it easier for people to connect earlier so they’re not fighting so hard to find each other.”
The conversation this year focuses on participation and progress that can be measured in. Edmonton Unlimited CEO Tom Viinikka said the organization’s strategy depends on increasing the number of people who try entrepreneurship and tracking how participation grows over time.
“This week is about taking another step,” he said. “Every pitch is a story and what they need. The challenge is what the community does next.”
Access by design, not accident
Edmonton’s startup community is shifting from gatherings that inspire to systems that connect.
The design of Edmonton Startup Week shows how that shift is being put into practice. It reflects how the city’s innovation strategy is taking shape through participation and structure.
Viinikka said the goal is to strengthen entrepreneurial activity by focusing on what can be seen and counted, creating the conditions for those steps to multiply.
Earlier this year, Viinikka told Digital Journal that Edmonton Unlimited’s strategy depends on increasing the number of people who try entrepreneurship.
“Critical mass will be the result of an increase in entrepreneurial activity,” he told us back in February. “There’s only two ways to increase entrepreneurial activity. One of them is to increase the number of entrepreneurs, and then the second is to increase the number of attempts those entrepreneurs make.”
The approach focuses on measuring participation and visibility, using Startup Week to see whether more people are choosing to build something new.
Gillis-Paulgaard said her team structured the week around those critical steps, aligning events with how participation and collaboration can be observed across the community.
“If someone walks in here and meets the person who helps them build their business, that’s success,” she said.
The opening day reflected that intent.
The morning began with a pancake breakfast hosted by Edmonton Unlimited, followed by a “studentpreneur” showcase ignited and the Launch Party Showcase presentations featuring the top 10 startups. Students, early founders, and investors shared the same space, and many stayed to talk between sessions.
For Edmonton, that’s the work of turning a network into a functioning system, not just a series of events.
What the companies make visible
This year’s Startup Week theme, Step In, Step Up, Step Forward, shaped the programming and the tone of the day.
Organizers used it to describe how people at every stage of entrepreneurship could take part. “Step in” spoke to newcomers entering the ecosystem, “step up” to founders growing their ventures, and “step forward” to those ready to scale or give back.
That framework came into focus at the Launch Party Showcase, where 10 startups were introduced as Edmonton’s top companies to watch this year. Viinikka said the founders on stage reflected what the theme was meant to encourage.
“These founders are proof of what can happen when you take a chance, you step into the opportunity and move forward with your business,” he said. “Every pitch that you’re about to hear is a story about something that someone is building, a problem that they’re solving, and what they need. Sometimes it’s a customer, sometimes it’s capital, sometimes it’s something as simple as just one connection.”
The 10 companies demonstrated that range of ideas and ambition.
- CARM&A Health uses AI to support collaborative primary care.
- Deeleeo builds delivery tools for local businesses.
- FluidInsight brings sensor chemistry and machine learning to industrial data.
- FireSafe AI develops early wildfire detection systems with sensors, drones, and predictive modelling.
- PulseMedica advances imaging and laser treatment for eye disease.
- Recon Intelligence captures and analyses drilling data for safety and efficiency.
- ReFi.Trading builds AI-powered trading infrastructure with transparency features.
- RL Core applies reinforcement learning to optimize industrial operations.
- SketchDeck.ai automates steel estimation for construction firms.
- Space Copy develops 3D printing for remote and extreme environments.
Viinikka said the growing number of people taking part in events like this signals a shift in activity across Edmonton’s startup community.
“We’re seeing more people getting engaged, right down to high school kids,” he said.
Gillis-Paulgaard said the showcase was built to connect that participation to Edmonton Unlimited’s broader strategy.
“We talk about critical steps and being able to help and measure those critical steps and see the growth about where people are going,” she said. “When we were trying to build out what five days of programming could look like, it was how do we line it up to that.”
“This is for the community, by the community,” she said. “It just happens to be led by Edmonton Unlimited.”
The opening day tied Edmonton’s progress to action as founders shared what they are building, what they need next, and how others can contribute.
The moment reflected a community learning to measure its growth by what people are willing to build together.
Earlier this year, Digital Journal reported on Edmonton Unlimited’s plan to create measurable momentum through a flywheel of participation and visibility. The model tracks progress at every stage, from a first pitch or meeting to a company’s first customer, showing how each step adds activity that strengthens the system.
Startup Week brings that model into public view.
Digital Journal is an official media partner of Edmonton Startup Week
