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- He built a $1.4B unicorn. Now he's back in.
He built a $1.4B unicorn. Now he's back in.
Four founders. One stage. The parts of the story they don't put on LinkedIn.
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Rob Imbeault went into massive credit card debt out of school to prove he could build something better than his boss. That turned into Assent - a billion-dollar Canadian SaaS unicorn, built from Ottawa with over 1,000 people on payroll.
He walked away on his own terms. Spent years backing other founders. Wrote a book about something most people in tech never talk about publicly. Then the AI wave hit and he saw an infrastructure gap nobody was closing.
Now he's building again. And has a take on where AI is headed that we haven't heard anyone else say out loud.
Backboard.io. 17,000+ LLMs. Persistent memory built in. Highest publicly validated score on the LoCoMo memory benchmark.
When you ask him what his superpower is, he doesn't hedge.
"I'm informal, I'm brutally honest, and the nicest asshole boss you can have."
On May 4, Rob sits down with Alex Norman at Together Toronto for a fireside. What he learned building a unicorn, why he left, what brought him back, and what he thinks every founder building right now is getting wrong.
But he's not the only reason to be in the room.
Mark Hlady built a company and sold it to Roblox. JJ Tang grew Rootly (S21) 400% year over year. Jocelyne Murphy closed a $1.6M pre-seed backed by Shopify's CEO. Four founders on one stage - not the polished keynote version of their stories. The version they'd tell you at the bar after the event. Except this time, they're saying it on the record.
If you could ask Rob one question on stage, what would it be? Hit reply - we’ll try to work it in.
APPLYING TO YC S26? HERE'S WHAT YOU'RE UP AGAINST.
The YC Summer 2026 (S26) deadline is May 4 at 8pm PT. Same day as our Together Toronto.
Last summer's acceptance rate hit 0.6% - the lowest in YC history. The Winter 2026 batch funded 196 companies. Zero were headquartered in Canada.
Earlier this year, YC reversed its decision and added Canada back to it’s list of Accepted Countries of Incorporation.
Already submitted your S26 application? You can still edit your application right up until the deadline closes. At 5pm ET on May 4, we're running an application prep session with YC alumni. Small room. Real feedback on your application. Not a webinar.
“I ended up applying but got rejected (top 10%). I was able to use the materials to raise a pre-seed round however! My startup is now hiring for a few roles!”
THIS WEEK IN THE TECHTO ECOSYSTEM
TODAY: Commerce Toronto: Tuesday, April 21 @ 5:30pm │ Rotman School of Management
200+ founders, operators, and brand builders in one room. Leila Keshavjee took Happy Pops to 1,500+ stores. Julia Kirouac launched Wild Ones Organics nationally at Walmart. Josh Guttman steered a $200M exit. Ian Slipacoff turned family butchery into DTC. Plus a curated CPG marketplace on the floor. The people who find their next distribution deal or partnership at events like this are the ones who show up.
TOMORROW: Sales Toronto: Wednesday April 22 @ 6pm │ Northeastern University Toronto Campus
One stage. The whole revenue team. A 3x CMO who ran Super Bowl campaigns at Anheuser-Busch. A founder running GTM at Khosla-backed Astrus. A revenue operator from Qualtrics and Microsoft. A CS leader who built through an Atlassian acquisition. Candy Lee, Bobby Green, Miru Gunarajah, and Jason Myers have all hit the same revenue wall, and built their way through it. Tomorrow night they're telling you how. Hosted by Justin Hudon from Vasco.
Scale & Secure: Thursday April 23 @ 6pm │ Approval required
A private dinner for CIOs, CTOs, and CFOs at high-growth companies. Bob Kish - vCIO at Thrive - at the table as a practitioner, not a vendor. Limited seats. Approval required. One question anchors the evening: how do you scale without scaling your risk?
🗓️ Together Toronto: Monday, May 4 @ 6:00pm - GET TICKETS
Pre-Event: Session for Y Combinator S26 Applicants @ 5:00pm - REQUIRE APPROVAL
🗓️ YC Canada Spring Social: Wednesday, May 6 @ 6:00PM - REQUEST TO JOIN
🗓️ TechTO x Althra Hackathon: Vancouver: Sunday, May 10 @ 9:00am PT - SUPER EARLY BIRD TICKETS
🗓️ Vancouver Rocketships & Web Summit Social : Monday, May 11 @ 4:00pm PT - REQUEST TO JOIN
🗓️ TechTO Hackathon: Sunday, May 24 @ 9:00am - WAITLIST
🗓️ TiEQuest Summit 2026: Monday, May 25 @ 8:30am - GET TICKETS
🗓️ Beyond the Bubble: An Intimate Chat with Will Hsu and Alex Norman: Wednesday, May 27 @ 4:00pm - REQUEST TO JOIN
🗓️ TechTO Summer Social: Wednesday, May 27 @ 6:00pm - GET TICKETS
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