About this Event
What happens when you build a tech company without following the traditional tech playbook?
Join Innovate Niagara for an inside look at how Intuitive Shipping grew from a Niagara startup into a profitable ecommerce technology company, without raising equity financing or giving up ownership.
This Tech Tour will explore the choices and realities behind that journey: building a company while raising a young family, navigating a divorce while remaining business partners, turning down investment, staying ahead as competitors entered the market, and building a local team with a living wage and four-day workweek.
Rather than a traditional presentation, this will be a candid conversation about building a company on your own terms, and what nearly a decade of doing it differently has taught Sharon and Joel.
What You Will Hear
The Beginning
- Starting Intuitive Shipping in Niagara while starting a family
- Finding a problem worth solving in ecommerce
- Becoming profitable early and choosing to stay bootstrapped
Growing on Their Own Terms
- Why they turned down outside investment and kept 100% ownership
- How they stayed ahead as competitors and copycat products entered the market
- Growing a company while navigating major life changes, including divorce
Lessons Along the Way
- The decisions that mattered more than they expected
- Balancing profitability, growth, culture, and independence
- Remaining business partners through nearly a decade of change
What Comes Next
- Where they see ecommerce and shipping technology heading
- How they continue to innovate in an increasingly competitive market
Why Attend?
This is an opportunity to hear from founders who are nearly a decade into building a company they still own 100%, and who have become increasingly intentional about what they want that company to be.
Expect a candid conversation about making decisions with conviction, knowing what you are and are not willing to compromise on, and defining success for yourself rather than following the traditional startup playbook.
You will also have the opportunity to connect with entrepreneurs, founders, business leaders, students, and ecosystem partners from across Niagara.
Light refreshments will be served.
Who Should Attend?
- Entrepreneurs and startup founders
- Business owners and leaders
- Students and emerging talent
- Technology and innovation professionals
- Aspiring entrepreneurs
- Ecosystem partners and community stakeholders
Event Details
Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Time: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Location: Intuitive Shipping
Refreshments: Light refreshments will be served.
Come for the story. Stay for the conversations.
🎟️ Free to attend. Registration required.
Reserve your spot today.
Event venue & nearby stays
Intuitive Shipping, 261 Martindale Rd, Unit 10, St Catharines, Canada
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