Build OS26⎜Ship or Fall Behind
About Build OS26
(For the french version, click here)
The layers that make up a traditional startup are collapsing. AI is reshaping engineering, design, ops, and marketing into a single point of execution. For the founder with taste and direction, the distance between idea and shipped product has effectively vanished.
Build OS26 is where you crack the next level — together, under pressure, by building.
What the day looks like
The challenge is revealed at the event. From that moment, you have five hours to build a working agentic system, then pitch it, and defend every decision in front of a jury. High-calibre mentors circulating and helping startups build in real time. The best learning happens peer-to-peer, at the table next to you — an opportunity to level up your skill set by building alongside others who are doing the same.
Preliminary agenda (subject to change)
8:30 AM — Doors open
9:00 AM — Introduction. Challenge revealed.
9:20 AM — Build starts
12:00 PM — Lunch served. Building continues.
2:20 PM — Build freeze. Pitches begin.
4:30 PM — Cocktail starts
5:00 PM — Winners announced.
7:00 PM — Cocktail ends
Full agenda shared with registered participants prior to the event.
The competition
This is a startup competition. Winners receive cash and/or API credits — prizes you put to work in your startup the following week. The total prize pool is currently $25,000 (more to come). Both the technical founder and the business founder have a path to win.
Who's in the room
A curated group of startup founders from the Montreal AI ecosystem and Mila startups. Laptops open. No panels — only builders at tables.
Note: If you are a Mila Startup, check your inbox for the email invitation or contact your program lead.
Eligibility
Build OS26 is a curated competition. We're looking for founders already fluent with agentic systems — building agent workflows, multi-agent orchestration, autonomous loops. To apply, your startup must meet all of the following:
Deep-tech AI startup (see definition below).
Pre-seed or seed stage.
Headquartered in the Province of Quebec.
Already building agentic systems — not just prompting an LLM.
Shipped something with AI tools in the last 90 days, and you can describe what you're building in concrete terms.
Registering as part of a team of 1 to 3 people, all employed by the same startup.
What we mean by deep-tech AI startup
To qualify, all three must be true:
AI is core to your product, not a surface feature.
Your startup operates at the model layer or above — training, fine-tuning, retrieval architecture, evaluation systems, agent orchestration, or novel application of these — not pure product design on top of an existing API.
You have technical founders or technical leadership building the system — not outsourcing it.
Admission Process
Each member of your team applies individually — pick one person as team captain to serve as our point of contact for logistics.
Apply on this page. It takes about 10 minutes.
We review applications in batches twice a week.
You'll hear back within 5 business days — approved, waitlisted, or not a fit.
If the event is full when you apply, you go on the waitlist (first-come, first-served). We do move people off it as capacity opens.
This event is made possible by our partners.
Event partners
TELUS | BCF
Community partners
AGIV | AI Salon