​Overview 

​Join your fellow innovators, founders, and curious minds for our interactive viewing party at the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus! Come for the live viewing of the Desjardins Speaker Series: How to Build a $100B Company, Brick by Brick, featuring Databricks Co-founder Reynold Xin; stay for the great food, networking, and interactive activities.

​The celebration will continue after with the University of Toronto Lawn Party. Meet Toronto’s community of tech innovators, discover startups at the edge of innovation, and enjoy snacks offered by U of T’s startup community.

​Please note: This event, offered in partnership with U of T Entrepreneurship, is an in-person viewing party of the Speaker Series. If you are looking to view the keynote address in person at Convocation Hall, please register for the Desjardins Speaker Series event separately.

​About the Keynote 

​Reynold Xin

​Join Reynold Xin, Co-founder of Databricks, a San Francsico-based data and AI infrastructure startup valued at over $130B and one of the fastest growing tech startups in history. Reynold is a proud U of T alumnus (BASc in Engineering Science) who will share his story of a founding team that turned a research project into a business with a global footprint, over 8,000 employees and thousands of enterprise customers.

​This signature Desjardins Speakers Series celebrating Toronto Tech Week will discuss:

• ​Origin story of the company and advice for young founders

• ​Trends, opportunities, and threats in the field of big data and artificial intelligence

• ​What Canadian business leaders, innovators, investors, and government need to do to compete

• ​How to effectively commercialize research and what has changed since 2013 when Databricks was founded

• ​Lessons learned from a life spent in Silicon Valley

​Mike Murchison

​Joining Reynold on stage will be Mike Murchison, CEO of Ada – the agentic customer experience company. Mike is a serial entrepreneur and proud U of T alumnus (B. Sc. Cognitive Science, Psychology and Human Computer Interaction). A Forbes 30 Under 30 winner, Mike envisions a world where every company is managing customer-facing AI Agents that deliver a new standard of personalized experience at scale.

​Topics explored will include:

• ​Lessons learned from multiple startups created and experience working as a customer service agent

• ​How time spent at U of T informed and inspired an entrepreneurial mindset.

• ​Reflections on where agentic AI is heading and which industries it is set to have the largest and most immediate impact on

• ​How Mike uses agents personally and advice for leaders on how to walk the talk to drive AI adoption

• ​What Canada needs to do to seize the AI moment and advice for business leaders and government

​Event Details 

​Date: Tuesday, May 26 
Time: 11:30 AM – 2:00 PM 
Location: Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus

​Register 

​Join us at the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus to watch, connect, and be part of the conversation.

​Spots are limited. Register now.

​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