Cultivator recently hosted its annual 24 Hour Startup—an event packed with innovation, collaboration, networking, and much more. Participants from all over Saskatchewan came together to spend 24 hours brainstorming and building tech solutions. The event culminated at our Community Night, where winners were announced and had the chance to participate in a Q&A, sharing the challenges they faced, the successes they achieved, and the lessons they learned during the intense 24 hours.
- 36 participants
- 6 teams
- 36 mentorship sessions
- 200+ attendees at the Community Night
2025: 24 Hour Startup Companies
- Persona
- Brainwire
- Ambrobite
- String
- Shop Local
- Scave
This year, we made some changes to the 24 Hour Startup, focusing more on having fun while building a startup rather than perfecting the pitch. We also adjusted the judging process, with teams being evaluated before Community Night, which led to the removal of the pitch competition. Instead, awards were given for Best Tech, Best Business, and Overall Winner. As part of the overall winning prize, Innovation Saskatchewan offered a 3-month membership to the Collider space, giving the winning team a place to continue working on their startup and see where it can go from here.
Here is a look at the WINNING innovative solutions that were developed by the teams during the event…
Our team would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to all of our mentors and judges. Your time and expertise were instrumental in guiding and supporting our participants throughout the event.
Mentors: “experienced and trusted advisers”
- Hannah Tait, Project Coordinator – GATE Centre, University of Regina
- Kalen Leflar, Program Coordinator – Cultivator
- Matthew Hamilton, Software Development Lead – MemoryKPR
- Harrison Lars Hansen, Analyst – Conexus Venture Capital
- David Schenk, Lead Instructor – Saskatchewan Polytechnic
- Annie Quangtakoune, Lawyer – McKercher LLP
Technical Judges
- Gabriel Martinez, Managing Partner – Open Path Partners
- Mike Lenzen, Managing Partner – Open Path Partners
Business Judges
- Bruce Anderson, Academic Lead – GATE Centre/University of Regina
- Matt Brennan, Program Manager – Cultivator
Pulling the formal program together, we first want to send a huge shoutout to Kyle Smyth, co-founder of Offstreet, for being an incredible emcee – his energy, humour and enthusiasm made the night both engaging and unforgettable!
We were thrilled to feature a Founder Panel at our Community Night! Andrew Gottselig (Founder, Citrus), Kayla Baum (Founder, Twello), Tayab Soomro (Founder, PathoScan) shared their insights on resilience and the realities of growing a startup. Their stories sparked conversation and provided an inside look at what it takes to succeed in the tech space.
To top it all off, we proudly announced our bold 5-year strategic goal – growing 250 startups to $1M in annual recurring revenue by 2050!
This event was a powerful opportunity to unite Saskatchewan’s tech ecosystem and rally support for cultivating more startups across the province. From the energy of the students bringing fresh ideas to life during our 24 Hour Startup, to the insights shared by experienced founders on our Founder Panel, the event showcased the strength and potential of the startup community! A massive thank you as well to our event partners – Innovation Saskatchewan, McKercher LLP and Tandem X Visuals – for their support in making this event possible! We’re excited to keep the momentum going and work together, with our community, to build the next wave of high-growth companies!
To read more about our ambitious goals, click HERE!
