Michael Litt will be lighting the BetaKit main stage at SAAS NORTH 2025.
Vidyard CEO Michael Litt will be in town next week. SAAS NORTH with the message: “SaaS is dead.”
Litt's keynote address is one of many must-attend sessions It's happening on the BetaKit Main Stage at SAAS NORTH 2025, November 5-6 at the Rogers Center in Ottawa.
“Canadian leaders have advantages, we need to build on them and be more aggressive in getting things done.”
Michael Litt, Vidyard
The address, titled “The Death of SaaS and the Rise of RaaS,” will outline Litt's belief that founders must tie their products to measurable outcomes, evaluate their decisions based on customer profits, and use “the full suite of AI.”
“We are entering a new era of software,” Litt told BetaKit. “Adapt and Thrive.”
Within five years, BetaKit Keynote Stage It was a time when Canadian tech leaders like Litt were going off script and talking about the hard parts of building companies. This year, his program will focus on one question: how to build a SaaS company that will survive when AI changes everything?
“BetaKit has become a cornerstone of SAAS NORTH's core program over the past five years,” said David Tyldesley, co-founder and producer of SAAS NORTH. “We are proud to continue to partner with BetaKit and facilitate discussions that move Canadian SaaS forward.”
The conference's opening session, “SaaS Explosion: Artificial Intelligence, Adoption, and the Next Frontier of Growth,” sets the tone for the conference early on. Swish Goswami, Head of Growth and Marketing at Boardy, will look at how artificial intelligence and leaner operations are pushing companies to grow with greater precision and less waste.
This topic segues into the AI-Native vs. AI-Adaptive conversation moderated by Radical Ventures partner Sanjana Basu. This is one of the most direct conversations at the conference about the gap between startups built on AI from day one and those learning to adapt legacy systems on the fly. Another session, called Work Rewired, shifts the conversation to “tiny teams,” a strategy that is becoming increasingly common among companies navigating the age of artificial intelligence.
The BetaKit Keynote Stage will also feature several fights and standout moments. The Masked Investor calls on an unnamed venture capitalist to talk openly about how deals actually happen, what founders often misunderstand, and where the next SaaS investment cycle is heading.
The stage will also feature the announcement of the winners of this year's SheBoot competition, which will honor graduates of the program for women entrepreneurs.
On Gateway stageninth annual PitchFest The Finale Throwdown will close out SAAS NORTH 2025, where 25 of Canada's hottest SaaS and AI startups will pitch to investors and the Canadian SaaS ecosystem for the chance to win $10,000 plus in-kind prizes.
The event will also feature a new regional trade show, SAAS NORTH, showcasing new startups from across Canada. SAAS NORTH has partnered with TechTO, MaRS, Innovate BC and Startup Atlantic to highlight Canada's eastern, western, central and Atlantic tech ecosystems.
Organizers of SAAS NORTH said this year's conference aims to reinvigorate the conversation about Canadian software. It's an opportunity Litt is seizing, and he says he plans to encourage his audience to act with urgency.
“The data doesn’t lie—technology in Canada hasn’t delivered what it could have done over the last decade,” he said. “Canadian leaders have advantages, we need to build on them and be more aggressive in getting things done.”
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Get 20 percent off your SAAS NORTH 2025 pass using code. BETAKIT20 when placing an order. See you there!
Photos courtesy of SAAS NORTH.
