May was one of the busiest months Vancouver’s tech scene has seen yet.

• Vancouver Startup Week 2025 drew 5,000+ attendees with 60+ grassroots events, including panels, workshops, pitch sessions and networking events focused on connecting entrepreneurs. 
• Web Summit welcomed 15,727 attendees from 117 countries. With hundreds of keynotes, industry panels, startup show cases, meetups, Web Summit cemented the city as an international tech hub. 

We were there from day one at both events—hosting a panel at Vancouver Startup Week, hitting the convention floor at Web Summit, and running events across the city. Here are some takeaways from our conversations and gatherings at both events.

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Everyone’s building with AI, but who’s actually shipping products IRL?

At Van Startup Week, Invoke hosted a founder panel on Product Pivots & Evolutions, moderated by our Managing Director Dominic Wong, to discuss what it really takes to Go-To-Market. Today, we’re seeing a sprint to be fastest to market, with many product teams chasing efficiency through AI.

Enter our speaker panel: 

• Bryan Statham Founder/CEO of LifeBooster Inc
• Caty Tedman,Co-Founder/CEO of Sipply
• Jason Lindstrom, CEO of Bucketlist Rewards and Recognition
• Olivia Bell, CEO of CHUNKS

All of whom cut through the AI hype. They shared their unfiltered lessons on the reality of building and evolving products that bring true value, while keeping up with the relentless pace of the industry. 

Some topics we unpacked:

• Pivoting is hard—investors need managing, too
• Experimentation is the only way to find the right audience
• Immersion and pressure-testing matter, especially in early AI
• Everyone’s chased vanity metrics at some point

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Showcasing ideas that challenge the status quo

At Web Summit, we partnered with our friends at Telemetry, to design a kiosk experience demonstrating their scalable edge application management platform. Telemetry makes it easy for their clients to build, update and manage smart device applications like digital signs and kiosks from one platform.

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Not all insights come from analytics

Web Summit marked a key milestone for Chunks, our AI-powered tool for generating short video clips from a single prompt. Think DALL·E, but for large video libraries that creators normally spend hours editing by hand.

What worked:

• Our headline hit the mark. Our messaging was clear, direct, and problem-focused. People either instantly got what Chunks does, or were curious enough to ask.
• The name “Chunks” sparked reactions. Whether it made people laugh or raised questions, it broke the ice and drew people in.
• Our 27" monitor paid off. The laptop handled deeper demos, but the display was what stopped foot traffic.
• The booth gave us a central hub. No more chasing folks through the crowd or missing follow-ups – it made scheduling demos and reconnecting with leads way easier.
• Bringing our team made a difference. Our attendees had direct access to the people behind Chunks and our team a rare chance to hear honest, in-the-moment feedback from real users.

We also hosted a Lee’s Donuts meetup (with custom CHUNKS-themed donuts: pink icing, blue sprinkles, ume glaze) and met creators, builders, and curious passersby. Many of them became product testers on the spot. We were able to validate that it’s not enough to launch a product online. You need to bring it where real conversations happen. Meeting your audience face-to-face lets you see what clicks – and what confuses. These are insights you can’t uncover from metrics alone. 

Be sure to try Chunks for free!

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Thank you!

For those of you who found us in the crowd during the busy week, thank you for introducing yourself and for the conversations! We appreciate everyone who came out to our community meetups. Our team left Van Start Up week and Web Summit feeling invigorated and excited for all the connections made.

If you’re ever curious about what we're working on or what's on our minds, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Want to see more of what we’ve been up to?
No matter the size of the idea or time in the market, we're ready to incubate new ideas and optimize for your next move. If you're interested in how we're utilizing AI/ML in our solutions, let's chat!