MISS-1
Multi-Market Inter-Cultural Startup Showcase — the Foundation's flagship gathering, and the first time the whole network is in one room.
Why Vancouver, why now
Vancouver is a Pacific city where North America, Asia and Europe already live next door to one another. Founders here routinely operate across two or three cultures before breakfast. For a showcase built on crossing lines, it is the obvious first stop — and it is a place that outsiders can actually get to.
MISS-1 is deliberately the small one. One room, a curated set of companies, and enough time for the conversations to go somewhere. Editions after this will move to other markets.
Details
Exact venue and dates are confirmed to registrants first.
- EditionMISS-1
- WhenDecember 2026
- WhereVancouver, BC, Canada
- FormatOne day, single track
- Registered0 so far
Multi-Market. Inter-Cultural.
The name is the format. Every session is designed so that the people in it would not otherwise have met.
Companies present to rooms that include their next market, not just their current one.
AI-native software sits alongside manufacturing, health, logistics and family businesses.
Working sessions on how deals actually get done in different places — the parts nobody writes down.
First-time founders and thirty-year operators are seated together, deliberately.
Programme
A working outline. Times firm up closer to the date, and registrants get the final schedule first.
Where the Gaps Are
The Foundation opens with what it has actually seen this year — which introductions worked, which markets are underserved, and what the network is still missing.
AI-Native
Selected startups built around AI from day one. Short presentations, hard questions, and a room that includes people from the markets they want next.
Curated Introductions
Not speed dating. Pre-arranged, pre-briefed meetings based on the gaps everyone named when they joined the network.
Transformed & Traditional
Established businesses rebuilding around AI, and traditional companies looking for the first thing to change. The half of the economy that usually gets no stage.
Crossing the Line
Practical sessions: raising outside your home market, angel syndicates across borders, and how a term sheet reads differently in three cultures.
Who You Should Meet Before You Leave
The Foundation names the connections it thinks should happen, out loud, and then gets out of the way.
Four Kinds of People
Founders
Raising, expanding, or looking for the market they have not entered yet. AI-native and traditional both belong here.
Angels
Individuals writing their first — or fiftieth — cheque, including outside their home country.
Funds & Strategics
VCs and corporate teams with a mandate for a region or a sector, and no trusted route in.
Operators & Partners
People with twenty years in an industry, and the ecosystem builders who keep local scenes alive.
Media & Writers
The Foundation was started by a writer. Coverage of companies nobody covers is part of the point.
Anyone Curious
A limited number of community places for people who simply want to be near this and see what happens.
Be in the Room for MISS-1
Registration is free and reviewed by hand. Presenting slots go to companies in the showcase.