Kairos Society
[ OVERVIEW ]
Kairos Society is a global community and platform for entrepreneurs. I was a founding member of its Canadian chapter, built out of Waterloo and sourced from University of Waterloo, Laurier and Conestoga, and grew it by stacking partnerships: venues first, then startup and innovation hubs, then universities, then corporates, each one used as leverage to land the next.
[ PROJECT SNAPSHOT ]
[ LOGO ]
[ TYPOGRAPHY ]
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[ PALETTE ]
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[ BRAND IN USE ]
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[ THE CHALLENGE ]
"GET A FRAGMENTED FOUNDER COMMUNITY INTO THE SAME ROOM."
[ THE CONTEXT ]
Nothing existed
No Kairos presence in Canada, no chapter, no awareness of the organisation
Fragmented
Founders spread across Toronto, Kitchener and Waterloo with nowhere that brought them together
Cold start
The Laurier partnership came from cold outreach and a self-booked meeting, not an introduction
[ WHAT WE WERE UP AGAINST ]
"Building a credible entrepreneur community from zero with no budget, no venues and no institutional backing, in a region where the established players already had all three."
[ WHAT I DID ]
MOVE 01 / INSTITUTIONS
Got the universities to fund attendance
Cold outreach to Laurier, then Waterloo and Conestoga. The trade: schools subsidised student tickets and got their students into a prominent founder network, so attendance no longer depended on convincing students to pay.
MOVE 02 / VENUES
Used that to land a corporate venue
The university partnerships became the pitch to PwC, who gave the top floor of their Toronto tower, boardrooms, catering and their own staff as speakers for the chapter's flagship summit.
MOVE 03 / SPEAKERS
Used the venue to land the speakers
With PwC and the universities behind it, booking founders got easier. Michael Katchen of Wealthsimple, early stage at the time, spoke and networked with members, and Razor Suleman of Achievers sponsored and spoke.
THE breakdown.
[ THE BREAKDOWN ]
KAIROS SOCIETY FOUNDERS & EXECUTIVE NETWORK SUMMIT
KAIROS FELLOWS PRESENTATION & UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP PANEL
KEYNOTE SPEAKER & FOUNDER ROUNDTABLE WORKSHOP
COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP & FOUNDER NETWORKING
01. CHAPTER FOUNDING & COMMUNITY
Founding member of the Canadian chapter, built as the Waterloo extension of the US organization. Sourced entrepreneurs from University of Waterloo, Laurier and Conestoga, plus Kitchener and Toronto. Worked with the team on event themes, operations, attendance drivers, marketing and getting people to actually commit.
02. EVENT PROGRAMMING
Weekly and monthly cadence spanning coffee chats, social gatherings, food events and hackathons. Purpose was for like-minded entrepreneurs to meet, build on each other's ideas, potentially start companies together and network. Started at 10 to 15 per meetup and grew to a minimum of 50 to 75, rarely fewer, and outgrew several venues.
03. VENUE & LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS
Primary responsibility. Established partnerships with local restaurants, bars, social venues, and businesses to create mutually beneficial relationships for chapter meetups and events.
04. ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIPS
Partnership with Communitech including 24/7 space access, plus Velocity Garage and Residence. Two-way value: Communitech could tap the Kairos pool of entrepreneurs, and Kairos members could tap the Communitech network and events.
05. UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS
Cold outreach to Laurier, self-booked meeting with the founding executive director of the Schlegel Centre for Entrepreneurship. Pitch was mutual benefit: students get access to events they might not otherwise afford, subsidized by the school; the school gets its students into a prominent network and gets credit for developing the next generation of founders. The Schlegel Centre helped raise funding, mostly subsidizing student tickets and marketing to students, plus event space rental. Similar partnerships followed with Conestoga and University of Waterloo.
06. PWC SUMMIT & SPONSORSHIP
Leveraged university and startup partnerships to approach large corporations in downtown Toronto. Landed a partnership with PwC at their flagship Toronto Tower office, securing access to host events and the Kairos Canadian Summit. PwC provided boardrooms, catering, and their own staff as speakers for the 250+ capacity summit, establishing the chapter and opening doors for further sponsor and speaker partnerships.
[ VALIDATION ]
Proved there was real appetite for a founder community across Waterloo, Kitchener and Toronto. Weekly meetups grew from a handful of people to a room that outgrew its venues, and a flagship summit filled PwC's top floor to capacity.
[ REFLECTION ]
Too many small meetups and not enough large ones. With a committed, tight-knit group already in place, fewer and bigger events, hackathons and summits, would have done more for the community than a high frequency of small gatherings.
[ NEXT STEPS ]
The partnership skills built here carried into everything after it: framing an offer around what the other side actually values, and then using each partner as leverage to bring in the next one.