For many prairie business owners, global instability can feel distant. Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions and social media activism can often seem like issues for multinational corporations, not local SMEs. Grant Kook sees it differently. As Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chair of Westcap Mgt. Ltd., and now Chair of BTF Saskatoon, Grant brings a broad perspective to prairie business.

Many owners spend years building a business, only to discover late in the process that deals don’t fall apart on price alone. They unravel on terms, trust and expectations that were never fully negotiated in the first place. That reality came through clearly in our conversation with William M. Donnellan, President and CEO of IRL Group of Companies.

For many Alberta business owners, the challenge right now isn’t opportunity. It’s uncertainty.Geopolitical pressures, shifting trade relationships, labour constraints, and rising operating costs are creating decisions that feel harder to time and riskier to make. As Todd Millar, President and CEO of TEC Canada and Chair of BTF Alberta 2026, put it, owners are dealing with forces that sit well beyond tariffs alone.

When George Armoyan, Executive Chairman of G2S2 Capital, sat down with Christine Pound for a BTF keynote conversation, he spoke less about growth curves and more about judgment. It was less about timing exits and more about surviving cycles. From immigrating to Canada as a teenager to building one of the country’s largest private investment companies, George’s perspective has been shaped by volatility.

Some enduring businesses are built far from the usual centres of capital and attention. They take shape in environments where resources are constrained, execution matters and results speak louder than reputation. That perspective came through clearly during a conversation at BTF Winnipeg with Joshua Simair, Co-Founder and former CEO of SkipTheDishes.

Selling a business is often imagined as a finish line. In reality, it’s a mirror. That’s what Josh Hotsenpiller, serial entrepreneur and founder of multiple venture-backed companies, learned through years of scaling and selling. From the outside, his trajectory looks textbook: fast growth, strong valuations, multiple exits.

Some entrepreneurs plan every step before they take it. Others build the path as they go. Geoff Bell is one of the latter. From oil rigs in northern B.C. to multiple tech exits, his story proves that success rarely follows a straight line but persistence always pays off.

Every owner knows that transformation is hard. But few realize that hesitation, not competition, is what quietly erodes company value. That’s the insight Rocky Ozaki, Founder and CEO of The NoW of Work, shared when we spoke ahead of BTF Vancouver 2025.

Every founder dreams of building a business worth millions, few expect the emotional roller coaster that comes after they do. For Kevin Michaluk, better known as CrackBerry Kevin, the journey from a $15,000 bet to a $115 million exit was both exhilarating and disorienting.