Name: Tech & Toast:Managing Corporate Structure & Finance During Global Expansion
Start: 2026-03-31T09:30:00-07:00
End: 2026-03-31T10:30:00-07:00
Location: (12th Floor Kitchen) SFU VentureLabs

Tech & Toast:Managing Corporate Structure & Finance During Global Expansion

This session will help you identify global expansion risks early and understand what needs attention before they become critical.
About this Event

🥐☕️ Join us for a morning of learning. Light refreshments will be provided.

Deeptech, hardware, and life sciences operate in a global market. Expanding beyond Canada introduces corporate structure, governance, and financing issues that many early-stage founders don’t see coming until they are about to impact.

Join Michael Waters, a partner in the Vancouver office of BLG, for a practical, founder-focused morning discussion. This session will highlight the real-world legal issues that emerge in cross-border partnerships, early commercialization efforts, and financing—and how to avoid common missteps.

We'll start with a concise briefing focused on the kinds of situations scaling startups often face, followed by a Q&A

What you’ll learn:

How to understand corporate-commercial legal issues when operating outside Canada.

Common gaps that see early-stage companies entering global markets stumble when it comes to financing and capital raising, corporate structure and governance, or M&A opportunities and considerations.

Identity and manage risks associated with deferring decisions or preparing the groundwork to limit problems in the future.

For deeptech, hardware, and life sciences firms that look to grow outside of Canada or have already started doing so, this session will help you identify risks early and understand what needs attention before they become critical.

Michael Waters Bio

Michael Waters is a partner in the Vancouver office of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. He practises corporate and securities law with emphasis on corporate finance, mergers, acquisitions, investment fund management, and corporate governance. Michael is one of the founders of BLG’s Startup & Grow TM Initiative, offering legal solutions tailored to entrepreneurs, startups and early-stage companies. Michael has considerable expertise advising venture capital investors and early-stage companies in connection with founder governance, corporate structuring and corporate financing matters. Michael is recognized in The Best Lawyers® in Canada and in The Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory, and was recognized as the 2023 ‘Lawyer of the Year’ (Venture Capital Law) in Vancouver by The Best Lawyers® in Canada.