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What Kills Startups (Every Time)

  • University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Toronto, Canada (map)

Monday, May 25, 2026, 10:30 AM - to - 12:00 PM EDT

University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Toronto, Canada

What Kills Startups (Every Time)

Success is overhyped. Failure is patterned—and preventable.

​Everyone teaches how to win. Almost no one studies how startups actually die.

​And they don’t die randomly.

​Most failures follow the same patterns—long before the market, product, or team gets blamed. This session breaks down what actually kills startups—and how to avoid it.

​Hear from Albert Lin, Managing Partner, and a US venture capital GP, sharing lessons from the trenches on what separates companies that survive from those that don’t.

​🎯 What you’ll walk away with

  • ​The most common (and preventable) startup failure patterns

  • ​How capital structure quietly determines outcomes

  • ​Where governance breaks—and how to fix it early

  • ​What experienced investors look for beyond upside

​If you’re building or investing in a startup, this is the part no one teaches—and the part that matters most when things go wrong.

Thanks to Northview Law and ​Toronto Tech Week for the listing and graphics for this startup event.

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The Reverse Pitch: European Markets - For Canadian scale ups ready to cross the Atlantic

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May 26

From Lab to Market III: Pitch Day