Why Founders Waste Months on the Wrong Decisions and How to Avoid It
Founders do not just lose months by building too slowly.
They lose months when they commit too early to the wrong customer, product direction, sales channel, pricing model, or scaling decision.
This working session is for early-stage founders and startup operators who are making decisions around customers, positioning, pricing, sales channels, product direction, or growth.
The goal is to help founders make clearer decisions before spending too much time, money, and energy in the wrong direction.
It is especially relevant if you are asking:
Who is the right customer?
Is this interest strong enough to become revenue?
Which sales channel should be tested first?
What should be validated before building or scaling further?
What the session will break down
Real startup examples will be used to examine patterns that often look promising at first, but create problems later:
A product feels useful, but customers still do not pay
A product works technically, but breaks down in real-world use
An audience grows, but does not turn into business value
A team keeps building, even though the biggest risk was never tested
What you will leave with
You will leave with a practical decision framework to help you identify key assumptions, separate demand, product, business model, and growth risks, and decide which assumptions should be tested first.
The session will also cover how to design simple, low-cost experiments before building, selling, or scaling too far.
Who this is for
This is not a motivational startup talk.
It is a hands-on working session for founders, pre-seed and seed-stage teams, and startup operators who want to make better decisions before wasting months in the wrong direction.
Hosted by Growth Partner AI
This session is hosted by Growth Partner AI, a Waterloo-based venture helping early-stage founders make clearer decisions around customers, positioning, pricing, validation, channels, and growth priorities.
Selected by Scale Up Canada as one of Waterloo50 2026, Growth Partner AI provides AI-powered decision support for founders navigating messy market signals, risky assumptions, and uncertainty.
Growth Partner AI has also supported two other Waterloo50 companies through founder strategy and decision work, helping founders clarify key risks, interpret early market signals, and make better growth and go-to-market decisions.
The session will be led by Vivian Wang, founder of Growth Partner AI. Vivian is a third-time founder with 9 years of experience in marketing, growth, and strategy, including direct responsibility for marketing and brand investment decisions involving over CAD 50 million in actual marketing spend.
Connect with Vivian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wangjingnan/
Toronto Tech Week
Toronto Tech Week is a citywide celebration of the people building what’s next. From May 25–29, 2026, founders, investors, and builders come together for hundreds of community-led events across Toronto, connecting tens of thousands of people around Canadian tech. TorontoTechWeek.com.