What 300,000 people have taught us about Calgary’s next stage

Jennifer Lussier is Interim CEO at Platform Calgary. – Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal

Jennifer Lussier is Interim CEO at Platform Calgary, and a thought leader in Digital Journal’s Insight Forum (become a member).

When 300,000 people walk through the doors of a single building within a few years, it sends a clear message about a city’s direction.

At Platform Calgary, people arrive with different goals. Some come with early ideas. Others arrive with products ready for customer conversations. Many are looking for a place to start in a tech city that’s booming. Each visit adds to a larger picture of a community searching for opportunity, guidance, and connection.

Calgary has been changing for years, and it’s easy to see. The pace of company formation, talent attraction, and economic diversification shows that people recognize possibility here. Of the more than 830 companies that are members of Platform Calgary, just under half of them didn’t exist before 2022. Starting something new has never been a more attractive opportunity. 

What matters now is whether our city can build the systems that help companies grow beyond their early traction. 

From my vantage point, the next decade will be shaped by how effectively Calgary links founders to customers, how well industry engages with local innovators, and how consistently our civic infrastructure supports the people building new ideas. 

The emergence of AI also creates an opportunity for transformational change. We are seeing a massive increase in entrepreneurs building new AI tools to meet this moment. 

By engaging with these growing companies, both the private and public sectors have the opportunity to improve their productivity and be on the cutting edge of game-changing technologies. 

Understanding what founders need next

Early support in Calgary is strong. People can access mentorship, programming, workspaces, and community. What they need next is a clear path to customers. Many of the companies that come through Platform achieve early validation here, but we often hear stories about their first enterprise customers being in other cities.

This pattern limits growth.

Calgary is a city that has been built by pragmatic risk-takers. The attitude that helped build this city now needs to be applied to how we grow our tech sector.  

When founders look outside the province to find their first buyers, they face longer sales cycles and less direct access to the industries they hope to serve. Yet many founders still pursue customers elsewhere because those pathways often open more quickly, and that is exactly the dynamic Calgary needs to shift. Calgary has a chance to change this trajectory by connecting its legacy sectors with the innovators who want to support their transitions and operations.

In the conversations we have with founders at Platform Calgary, we see three consistent barriers: 

1. Procurement processes in large organizations (both government and private) can feel difficult to navigate. 
2. Early conversations with industry often stall because of unclear timelines or changing priorities. 
3. Founders need more clarity around technical expectations such as data requirements, integration pathways, and security standards. 

None of these challenges are unique to Calgary, but historic culture should suggest that we can tackle these barriers head-on.

Platform Calgary works with companies at many stages, and we see these patterns across all sectors. 

When companies receive guidance on procurement, understand the decision-making landscape inside large enterprises, and meet industry partners through structured introductions, they are able to move forward with a clearer sense of direction.

Deepening the connection between industry and innovation

A short walk from the Platform Innovation Centre sits a cluster of nine downtown blocks that hold much of Calgary’s economic influence. These blocks represent the city’s long-established strengths. Companies in energy, construction, logistics, engineering, real estate, and agriculture have shaped the region for generations. 

Their future will continue to shape Calgary’s future, and this makes their engagement with local innovators essential.

Calgary continues to attract highly skilled talent and remains one of the fastest-growing tech economies in North America. Many of the city’s largest companies are exploring new technologies to improve efficiency, support decarbonization goals, manage infrastructure, and strengthen competitiveness. 

These priorities align closely with the solutions we see local founders building, and we need to throw everything we’ve got at connecting these dots.

The next wave of tech growth in Calgary depends on alignment between larger corporates, startups, and the technology community. The solutions to many of the problems facing some of Calgary’s largest and most profitable companies might be incubating right here in Calgary.

In recent years, Platform Calgary has supported more structured engagement between sectors and startups. Industry showcases have brought founders and executives together to discuss operational challenges. Technical events and hackathons have encouraged problem-solving across disciplines. Proof-of-customer sessions have given companies a chance to test assumptions and understand real needs.

For this work to create lasting results, founders and industry partners need more structured opportunities to meet, test ideas, and advance conversations. 

Industry partners need clear ways to share their priorities and explore potential solutions. And founders need detail and prep that helps them meet those expectations. When both sides have structure and visibility, progress is easier and partnerships form more quickly.

This opportunity is significant. 

When a Calgary company gains its first customers here, the effect is immediate. Revenue stays local. Teams grow. Talent remains in the city. Other companies see a path forward. 

Over time, these outcomes create a stronger and more resilient economy.

Bringing it all together

Platform Calgary has an important role to play in what comes next. 

Through the Platform Innovation Centre, we provide a front door that is wide open and welcoming to Calgary’s innovation community. This is a place where anyone can walk through that front door and receive the support they need to build something great. At the same time, it’s a place where industry leaders can access a pipeline of companies that are building solutions that can solve some of their most pressing challenges. At Platform Calgary, our role is to bring it all together.  

To support this work I believe this ecosystem, including founders, investors, government, and industry, need to focus on three priorities —

First, we need to continue to strengthen our relevance to the industries that have shaped and continue to shape Alberta’s economy. We have lots to celebrate already, but we need deeper listening, clearer engagement pathways, and a shared understanding of how technology can support operational and strategic goals. Because when industry knows where to turn and founders know what is expected, progress becomes easier for everyone.

Second, we need to expand structured commercialization pathways. These include initiatives such as challenge cycles, pilot frameworks, procurement preparation, and consistent opportunities for founders and industry partners to meet and collaborate.

Growing companies need more than introductions. They need test environments, practical feedback from operational teams, and a clear sense of what it takes to move from a first meeting to a signed agreement. Calgary has the industry depth to offer this, but we need to make the process easier to navigate. 

Third, we need to support the entire ecosystem across the city and the region by tightening how information, programs, and opportunities connect to one another. Platform Calgary has a foundational role within the trailblazing work of Calgary’s Innovation Strategy led by our core partners at Calgary Economic Development.

This means coordinating program calendars so founders can easily navigate supports, sharing insight about where companies are getting stuck, and building common intake and referral points to a deep and connected resource base so people don’t have to restart their journey every time they reach a new stage. 

A more integrated system allows founders to progress with fewer blind spots, gives partners, investors, talent and corporates a clearer understanding of one another’s roles, and strengthens the overall capacity of the city to support company growth.

Calgary has reached a point where enthusiasm and activity are matched by ambition. 

The people who walk through Platform Calgary’s doors every day are already acting on that ambition. Our job over the next decade will be to build the structures that make it easier for them to stay, grow, and keep choosing Calgary.