This event is a part of Victoria Tech Week, which runs Sept 21-25, 2026. The full calendar can be seen at victoriatechweek.ca
Four Gen Z founders on how their generation is actually using AI to build companies. What they actually have running, what it took to get working, and what still needs a person. Alongside creator partnerships and what building young in this city looks like from the inside. Not a keynote. Not a pitch. Everyone on this panel is building with AI in their own work, from different directions: a $45,000 federally funded Mitacs research project at UVic asking whether a product business can be run mostly autonomously, an AI voice agent product shipped at a healthcare company, creator programs run for major tech brands as more of them become AI companies, and one of the city's highest rated service brands built from nothing at 20.
Tuesday, Sept 22During Victoria Tech Week.
6:00-8:00pmPanel, questions, then time to talk.
Frontier1021 Government St, Victoria BC. Free, no ticket.
Sold out. Tuesday, Sept 22, 6:00-8:00pm, Frontier.
Can a product business run itself?
Olivia Wein
Founder, Isla Lune
Sole Convocation Honoree for UVic BCom 2025, and went straight into building this. Her $45k Mitacs research project at UVic asks whether a product business can be run mostly autonomously, and Isla Lune is what she is testing it on. Runs its entire marketing operation on AI agents she built herself, with no engineering background, out of a playground she built for them in Claude Code. Underneath is the Brain, a shared memory of 7,000+ facts and 1,000+ people and companies that every agent reads before it acts, with around 90 services on top, all on Google for Startups credits. One of them is a Threads auto-poster that writes, learns from its own results and posts autonomously with one final check from her, which pulled a thousand followers and 350,000 views in a week. League of Innovators Accelerator alum, approved for the Google for Startups Cloud Program, and one of 500 founders worldwide in HyperAgent’s Founding 500, the $10m programme run by Airtable cofounder Howie Liu for people building agent-first companies. Also built and shipped an iOS app on her own. Sold out her first drop in 10 days. $62k in non-dilutive funding. Nominated for Douglas Magazine’s Victoria 10 to Watch 2026.
Getting a real company to adopt AI
Muhammad Aarij
President, UVic Entrepreneurship Club
At CareCloud, a Nasdaq listed healthcare company serving 45,000+ providers, he was handed a blank page and asked what an AI voice agent should be. He ran the competitor analysis, designed the data flow, mapped the conversation logic, and sat with sales, marketing, dev and leadership until everyone agreed what was being built and why. He named it Stratus. It is now their flagship AI product, live in production, handling 80% of inbound patient calls at the practices using it. He did not write the code. Before Canada he built IXB Cafe in Karachi out of 3D renders on a laptop: IceAge, a portable coffee and soda concept, and Burnout, whose Hustler wrap went viral on packaging and marketing alone. It crossed a million rupees in its first month, and he sold it rather than run it remotely once his masters place came through. IBA graduate, Dean’s List, formerly a data intern at Toyota Indus Motors. TEDx speaker on Shifting Perspective, the youngest on that stage, where he talked about leaving rather than about achievement. Now finishing a Master of Applied Data Science at UVic, president of its Entrepreneurship Club, top 10 at UVic Hacks.
Creators and the AI brands hiring them
Tara Crymble
Account Manager, Creatorbuzz
Account Manager at Creatorbuzz, one of the leading B2B influencer marketing agencies, running creator programs for some of the biggest names in B2B tech. One of the creators LinkedIn picked for its Next Gen Voices programme, which she is documenting week by week while she goes through it. Writes about the creator economy to 5,500+ there, and her breakdowns of Canva and of LinkedIn’s own product changes each passed 1,600 reactions. Runs social for TEDxVictoria 2026, after growing that account 44.9% in five weeks as its coordinator and reaching 37,975 people. Before that, Account Executive at PONY Communications across cybersecurity, energy, architecture, legal and AI clients, where she grew one energy tech company’s LinkedIn by 2,522 followers in two quarters and 164,000+ organic impressions. Founder of Intros, which introduced Victoria’s creators to its businesses. The first night sent a creator home with a paid gig. Grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, now on the island. Spin instructor, and dachshund mother to Baguette.
Building young in Victoria
Samuel Games
Founder, Canine Car Care + Victoria Builds
Twenty, and running two things at once. Canine Car Care is Victoria’s highest rated mobile detailing company, built since 2023 on 220+ five star reviews and Meta ads. Victoria Builds is the free club where the city’s young founders meet, started in June 2025, run with Andan Liss, and now expanding to Vancouver. Entry has one rule: you have to actually be building something. The dinners run 35 to 40 people, most of them under 30, and they are where a lot of this city’s founders met each other. Hosts the Reject Mediocrity podcast on YouTube, Spotify and Apple, where he has sat down with Andrew Wilkinson, and with Rob Fraser, who took Outway from $1,000 of student loans to over $60m in sales with no investors and no ads on the first million in revenue. He is in a room of young Victoria founders every month, which makes him the person on this panel who can say what they are actually starting, what is actually working, and what quietly is not.
