Prairie Fire: How Startup TNT Ignited Alberta's Investment Scene

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Today I'm sitting down with Zack Storms and Adrian Mitchell from Startup TNT. Zack is co-founder and Adrian is the Calgary lead.

StartupTNT transformed their weekly happy hour meetups into becoming Canada's most active angel investment network, connecting founders with funders and reshaping prairie entrepreneurship one community at a time.

• Zack launched Startup TNT in Edmonton in 2019 with weekly happy hours to build better angel investor networks.
• Adrian joined in 2023.
• Now Canada's number one pre-seed investor by deal count, deploying millions across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and beyond.
• Startup TNT lowers barriers to angel investing with $5,000 minimum investments instead of traditional $25,000-$50,000 cheques.
• Network effect enables 20-40% of local investments to come from outside each community.
• Alberta's startup ecosystem has grown from $200M annual investment to $600-$800M since TNT's founding.
• Regular Thursday happy hours (6-9pm) in each city create consistent community gathering spaces.
• Expanding nationally with specialized summits like their agri-food investment focus.
• Team partnering with Inventures 2024 for pitch showcase featuring Alberta's most promising startups.
• Newly hired executive director, CK Dhaliwal will allow founding team to focus on scaling across North America.

Visit InventuresCanada.com to get your ticket for Inventures and StartupTNT.com to learn more about their upcoming happy hours, investment summits, and how to participate as an entrepreneur or investor.

Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.