Edmonton Alberta Canada

See the world differently. Tell your story.

Pitch your plan or advise at our next quarterly meeting.

We welcome new presenters from any field, location or stage of development. Teams receive constructive feedback on their business plan summary and slidedeck beforehand, either a video recording of their 10 minute virtual pitch or a 20 minute in-person slot to pitch, an evaluation by expert advisors, new connections and leads for funding.

Note: We ask presenters to share their business plan summary and deck at least two weeks before the event to gain feedback on how to strengthen their pitch. Presenters should check out our Presenter Guide.

Presenters on September 13, 2022:

Presenters on May 17, 2022:

Presenters on February 15, 2022:

Previous Keynote speakers:

Sheetal-Mehta-WalshSheetal Mehta Walsh advises tech companies looking to access smart venture capital and corporate partners in order to expand globally, her positions include Chief Strategy Officer, Government of Alberta; Advisory Partner, Atara Partners; Board Member, Innovate Edmonton; President & Founder, Shanti Life; Founder, Soho Ventures; she was Board Adviser for Virtual Visions, Waterhound Futures, Luxsonic Technologies, GOAL Global; CEO, Innovative Social Ventures, and Director of Venture Capital Relations, Microsoft. MSc, London School of Economics; BA, UAlberta.

Yasmine-RoulleauYasmine Roulleau mobilizes capital for social impact and scales companies from inception to exit, her positions include CEO, Striven Consulting, Founder, SAMA impact Ventures Inc., Strategic Advisor Partner, GetFresh Ventures, Executive in Residence, Foresight Canada and Ambassador, International Dealt Gateway. As a technology co-founder, she has straddled the gaming, healthcare, and real-estate spaces; her ventures include Reta, GameSecure, V4D and DevTest, some of which she led to international joint ventures. MBA, UBC Sauder School of Business.

Keynote speaker Q&A moderated by Zach Klarenbach.

Business plan pitchers on Nov 23, 2021:

Edmonton Mayoral Candidates on Economic Growth

Hear the platforms of Edmonton's leading mayoral candidates. We asked them to discuss how we can strengthen and diversify the economy. Each candidate was given 20 minutes to address the audience and respond to questions. Kim Krushell, Cheryll Watson, Michael Oshry and Amarjeet Sohi present how they plan to support entrepreneurs and economic growth.

Federal Leaders Forum on Sustainable Growth

With an election looming in Canada and important policy differences between the parties, we invited all the major parties to present their positions and respond to questions at our Federal Leaders Forum on Sustainable Economic Growth on September 17.

Video of Adam Brown & Heather McPherson talks:

adam-brownAdam Brown, Liberal MP Candidate for Edmonton West, discusses how he aims to help diversify Alberta's economy and raise the tide for all innovators across the country. He is CEO for Nanolog Audio Inc and was Principal of Striker Metal, a Juno Award Winner and Top 40 Under 40.

heather-mcphersonHeather McPherson, NDP candidate for Edmonton Strathcona, Member of Parliament for Edmonton Strathcona discusses her platform and the issues facing Edmontonians and Canadians. She was previously Executive Director, Alberta Council for Global Cooperation, Program Officer, Canada World Youth; Volunteer Team Leader, Médecins Sans Frontières.

Video of Melanie Hoffman's presentation:

melanie-hoffman Melanie Hoffman, Green Party Candidate, Edmonton Riverbend presents the need for a circular economy. She is Program Manager, Capital Region EcoSchools; Founder, Drawdown Alberta; Owner, HoffFull Solutions - Climate Solutions Education Consulting. Previously Faculty Member/RA, King's University.

Business Plan Pitch by Ty McKinney:

You are encouraged to apply and obtain free expert advice from members of our panel of 190+ business mentors and investors. Over 240 teams have pitched at our meetings and have given us positive feedback on their experiences. Our alumni have raised >$140M in the past 3 years. New and returning presenters and advisors are welcome to register.

Our aims are to play a positive role by:

1. building trust and mutual understanding to ensure sustainable and rewarding multi-party relationships,

2. identifying major challenges that require innovative thinking,

3. mapping out precompetitive spaces for open-source collaboration,

4. developing fair and reasonable intellectual property strategies for progression and scalable funding,

5. structuring and optimizing core activities and facilities for supporting innovation, and 

6. increasing data quality, reproducibility and decisiveness while eliminating unnecessary duplication and costs.

We welcome collaborators and partners who are interested in working together to support the innovation ecosystem.

For clarity, DiscoveryLab does not recommend advisors or investors, make investments or provide funding, but can make introductions. Each person and company has the responsibility of obtaining legal advice and performing due diligence before signing contracts or taking investments.

Background on DiscoveryLab

DiscoveryLab is an open forum for academics, start-ups and SMEs to explore opportunities to commercialize new technologies and develop their plans to launch new products and services.

Michael Overduin found DiscoveryLab in 2017 based on his experience in running Science Capital as a nonprofit company in the UK since 2010. He leads NANUC and a structural biology lab at the University of Alberta. His research group studies proteins involved in Alzheimer's, cancer and prion diseases, and develops polymer-based nanoparticles and lead molecules for drug discovery.

We organize events each quarter where anyone can pitch their business plan at no cost in private to a panel of legal, business, marketing, financial and investment experts who give independent feedback. Teams are welcome to return to present as many times as they wish as they make progress and develop new needs.

Our panel of 200 advisors offers $3 billion to invest, and there is the potential to attract significant support as well as practical advice and strategic guidance.

Anyone is welcome to pitch their idea and plan to scale their discovery to make a difference to society. Our events book up, so register soon and submit your executive summary to us confirm your slot.



NANUC NMR chamber

NANUC chamber at the University of Alberta

Origins

DiscoveryLab was initiated in order to share expertise and facilities and was launched by Michael Overduin and coworkers with a grant from the John R. Evans Leaders Fund awarded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Alberta Innovates, Department of Economic Development and Trade, and the Province of Alberta, as announced at NANUC by the Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan in 2016.