Hey Founders,

Sorry to interrupt your summer vacay vibes, but we got some timely news today. And it may or may not involve you sharing how you can win an award that puts you in the top 0.1% of young founders across Canada.

📰 It's July: sunburns are in, lake time is here, and everyone wishes they had better AC in their home. 91% of you are camping this weekend, you finally caught up on sleep from Collision Week and we’ve officially crossed the 6-month mark of 2024. If you’re debating where to WFH this summer maybe take a page out of Taran Ghatrora’s playbook and book a trip to the Italian Alps 🇮🇹 

Here’s some other things we’ve been cooking up since we last chatted.

📰 Latest News at LOI:

• 🔥 We partied at Collision in Toronto

• 🥁 Rob headlined our Toronto meetup

• 🧪 Labs 13 applications are open

• 🏆 We launched the 2024 YEY awards

• 🎉 We giveaway tons of swag

• 🛒 Melissa was chilling with the founder of Shopify

• 🎙We hosted an outstanding virtual AI summit with 8 speakers

Also - let’s not forget to give a warmmmm welcome to the 300+ new friends who dropped by our Collision booth. If you’re new, put your feet up and hit reply to tell us how you’re doing. We won’t ghost you, we reply 👋

So, with that — welcome (back) to “The League”, Canada’s greatest community of young entrepreneurs aka the Hogwarts for gifted founders 🪄

☀️ Summer Means Yacht Parties at Collision

It wouldn’t be summer without sunny walks to Collision and founders partying on the Goodlawyer yatch. Sadly for Rob this year, he didn’t get to have as much fun as the rest of us. 🛳

On a more work-related note, a huge thanks goes out to the Collision organizers for gifting LOI a booth this year. If you were lucky enough to visit it, you would’ve noticed our friendly vibes from a mile away.

Back in April, we secretly asked a few founders reading this newsletter to send us products to be showcased at our booth, and by golly — they sure showed up! We had:

• 🌱 Wild Mossify polls and plant accessories

• 🫧 Earthsud’s soaps that guests kept wanting to take home

• 🤖 The one and only Reusables machine

• 🍸 Benny’s energy drink to keep us energized

• 🩺 Dossier Health’s take home kit

• 👙 Leak-proof underwear from Cares 

• 🧁 Yummy cupcakes from The Dessert Artist

• 🐶 And of course, the Plufl human dog bed

Thank you to all the founders that sent their products. And to those who were lucky enough to get some free giveaways, send us a pic with your new goodies to show the founders some love 📩

And of course, it wouldn’t be a conferencing season in Toronto without an LOI meetup. Big thanks to the Annex for hosting us once again and letting Rob DJ the night away 🎵

Sad you missed out on meeting some of Canada’s coolest founders?

Not to worry, we’re hosting the YEY Awards to bring the entirety of the community together back on November 8th, 2024. Mark it in your calendars and apply to win below.

🧪 Upcoming Labs 13

Keep your eyes peeled this upcoming Fall because Kyle and Erin are brewing up something spooky. That’s right, rumor is founders are getting chills by the idea of a Friday the 13th x Labs 13 session 👻 

But fear not, this may be your chance to grow your startup in petri dishes and meet other crazy scientists young founders! Applications for the mot thrilling labs batch are open now.

🏆 Young Entrepreneur of the Year

Already planning the Fall and wanting to meet more founders? Well, we’ve got your back: LOI is hosting the second year of the YEY Awards! It’s like the grammy’s for founders.

For the newbies reading this — YEY isn’t just an awards ceremony. It’s a national celebration and recognition of the young founder’s working day in and day out to crank up Canada’s GDP (literally). And, if we’re being honest, it’s a cherry on top to also get some IRL hangs with the coolest founders in Canada.

“Am I even eligible”, you ask? Here’s the checklist amigo:

• ✅ I’m under 30

• ✅ I’m a co-founder, founder, or CEO of a startup

• ✅ My startup or customer base is located in Canada

If you answered yes to all 3, then Bob’s your Uncle. So stretch those fingers, crank up the t-swfit tunes, and apply below.

Not a founder? No sweat. You can still join in on the fun and get your tickets to YEY 2024.

Your startup bestie-boos,

💙 The LOI Fam

P.S. drop us a follow on IG. You bet your bottom dollar we follow back.

P.S.S. If this newsletter made you laugh, cry or think differently about your startup, share it w/ a friend.