Barn Ventures
Builder Dinner Series · F26 · Waterloo
Six Tuesdays. Fifteen builders. No performative networking.
A hands-on workshop at 4:30, rolling straight into dinner with a guest who's built something real. The same 15 people at the table all term, with time between sessions to build, test, and reflect. Small on purpose, so the conversations stay honest, useful, and high-trust.
F26 applications close September 8, 2026.
Builder Dinner Series · Builders Club, Waterloo
How it works
Six Tuesdays. One table.
Attendance at all six dinners is part of the commitment. If you can't make every date, there will be another term.
Who it is for
Serious builders, not polished pitches.
You don't have to be on a venture path. You do need to be serious about building and willing to engage honestly with the group.
- —Founders, builders, and operators actively working on something
- —People who value candid conversation over polished stories
- —Anyone looking for momentum, clarity, and community through the fall
- —People ready to build, test, and reflect between Tuesdays
Joining us for F26
Lessons from people who did the work.
Hosted by Jesse Rodgers. Three speakers are confirmed, with three more to come.
Clearpath Robotics · OTTO Motors · October 20
Co-founded Clearpath Robotics and OTTO Motors and stayed through every stage to OTTO's acquisition by Rockwell Automation. Joining the Things That Don't Scale week.
Convictional · November 17
Founder and former CEO of Convictional. Leading Default Dead or Alive: the gap between believing you're default alive and actually knowing it.
StandUp Ventures · November 24
Managing Director at StandUp Ventures. Closing the term with how venture capital works: ownership, power law, and what has to be true before a term sheet gets signed.
Past guests
The conversation keeps compounding.
Lumen Research Labs · Thiel Fellow
Ran a glucose-sensor company for six and a half years, Thiel Fellow, ex-investor at 1517 Fund. Now building cognitive robots at Lumen Research Labs. On egoless ambition — caring completely while holding the outcome loosely.
Clearline · YC S22
Co-founder and CEO of Clearline. Queen's alum, YC S22. Built and killed a 50,000-user LLM product, then bet the company on AI voice for car dealerships. On killing what works and selling into industries that have never bought AI.
Vidyard · Garage VC
Co-founder of Vidyard (YC '11), GP at Garage VC. On founder-market-channel fit and what 15 years of building compresses into.
Automax.ai · YC F25
Dropped out of Waterloo, moved to SF, went through YC, raised $4.5M. Building AI-native appraisal infrastructure for the mortgage industry.
Elderella · ex-Velocity
Coached 1,000+ companies through Velocity and Communitech. Now back in the founder seat — zero lines of code written by hand, concept to alpha in four months.
Automattic · ex-Beeper · ex-Pebble
Pebble's 4th employee. Co-founded Beeper, navigated the Apple fight. Now Head of Engineering at Automattic. On staying technical as you scale.
Hongwei Liu
MappedIn
15 years into building MappedIn — indoor mapping infrastructure used in malls, airports, and campuses worldwide. On staying the course when the market takes time to catch up.
Finite Robotics
Building robotics for agriculture — thinning baby apples to improve yields. On the economics of farming, hardware constraints, and why the vision has to be bigger than the product.
Jim Murphy
Boltmade · Waterloo
Sold a previous company to Google. Sold Boltmade to Shopify. Both built in Waterloo. On craft, product thinking, and what it means to build something worth acquiring.
Where founders go from here
The table is small. The outcomes aren't.
Nearly three years in. The outcomes are real.
A significant number of founders from this series have gone on to raise from some of the best investors in the ecosystem.
- —Y Combinator
- —Afore.vc
- —Garage VC
- —Companies include Datacurve.ai, Automax.ai, Voltra, and others
Supported by
Backed by the ecosystem around the table.
Osler LLP
One of Canada's leading business law firms, with deep expertise in emerging and high-growth companies across every stage.
Communitech
Waterloo Region's founder-focused tech hub, supporting companies with connections, talent, and practical help.
TD Innovation Partners
TD's dedicated team supporting high-growth companies across Canada with banking, financing, and ecosystem connections.
Apply for F26
Take a seat for the fall.
We're choosing the F26 group now. There are 15 seats, and attendance at all six Tuesdays is part of the commitment.
Applications close September 8, 2026.
Apply for F26