Fourteen Things We Can Improve in 2026 — Reflections for Angel Investors and Innovation Entrepreneurs in Ontario

Introduction: A Year That Demanded Honesty 

2025 was one of those years that forced honesty on Ontario’s innovation ecosystem. 

After attending dozens of angel meetings, pitch events, incubator demos, accelerator showcases, policy roundtables, and investor forums — one thing became clear: the angel and innovation ecosystems are working hard, but there is always room for improvement, and setbacks only serve to show us opportunities to formulate constructive solutions. 

There is no shortage of energy, talent, or good intent in Ontario. What we lack — too often — is alignment, discipline, and clarity about what actually creates investable companies and long-term value.  We need to reduce the friction in the ecosystem as entrepreneurs leave the incubators and accelerators and have a mismatch of expectations when they meet angel investors for the first time.  

As we head into 2026, angels and entrepreneurs alike have an opportunity to reset expectations, sharpen execution, and refocus on outcomes rather than optics.  More collaboration vs competition. 

As Executive Chair of Angel Investors Ontario, an umbrella organization convening 18 NFP organized Angel groups in Ontario with over 1800 investors, I am very proud of our $800 million in funding that our individual investors have made over the 18 years AIO has existed.    In 2025, we have worked hard with various Federal and Provincial governments to educate them on the collective benefits of renewing funding that we have received in the past to cover operating costs of our organization.   That effort continues.   

What follows are 14 things that the ecosystem can do even better with in 2026 — not as criticism, but as guidance for a stronger, more credible angel and innovation ecosystem in Ontario. 

14 Things That We, The Ecosystem, Can Improve Upon In 2026 

• Prioritize Fewer, Market-Ready, Higher-Quality Deals: Volume is not success. In 2026, We will spend more time on fewer companies with clear customer demand, credible founders, and realistic capital paths — and provide timely and actionable feedback to those that don’t currently meet our screening criteria. 

• We Will Push for Earlier Commercial Proof: Slides don’t validate businesses — customers do. Founders who demonstrate paid pilots, repeat usage, or revenue traction will receive additional traction in 2026. 

• We Can Encourage Angels to Invest Where They Can Add Value: Capital alone is rarely the differentiator. Angels who bring sector expertise, customer access, regulatory insight, or hiring networks will matter more than cheque size. 

• We Should Be More Honest with Founders Earlier: False optimism is expensive. In 2026, founders will hear clearer feedback sooner — especially around readiness, valuation expectations, and capital strategy.   We are thinking a check list of feedback after screening, pitching, or due diligence can be done efficiently by investors and will be immensely useful for entrepreneurs. 

• Focus More on Founder Coachability: The best founders evolve quickly and provide complete answers to screening and deep dive due diligence, highlighting both strengths, current gaps, and lessons learned.    Entrepreneurs don’t benefit from holding back information, just because an investor did not ask the precise question. In 2026, coachability — the ability to absorb feedback and adjust — will be a leading indicator of investment interest.   Angels are risking capital plus their time and will move quickly to other opportunities if early discussions do not build a measure of trust. 

• Education to Support Angels in Becoming Better Investors: Angel investing is learned, not innate. AIO will continue to professionalize angel education around portfolio construction, follow-on risk, and exits.  AIO is creating more virtual angel groups where interested investors can enhance their knowledge of the subtle differences between different timelines in different sectors.  This will create further confidence for investors to proceed.   We have announced a Defence Innovation Group, followed by Life Sciences/health tech, clean tech and Ag/food technology.   

• Ongoing enhancements for Collaboration amongst Angel Groups to Improve Deal Syndication and Reduce Competition in Ecosystem: Ontario doesn’t need more isolated cheques — it needs even more syndicates. In 2026, we will emphasize shared diligence, aligned terms, and cross-group collaboration.  Already many groups only accept a startup for pitching if they already have a term sheet from an investor, and in some cases only when the raise is already half complete. 

• Emphasizing Capital Efficiency Over Hype: Big visions must still respect burn rates.   Reasoned and defendable bottom-up marketing strategies illustrates to investors the mindset of the entrepreneurs, and a set of assumptions to justify the size of a raise, and how long will the cash last.    Angels don’t want to be part of a raise that underfunds the effort needed to achieve demonstrable milestones. These milestones, when achieved, drive the valuations required to attract new capital.   Founders who show disciplined spending and realistic milestones will stand out. 

• Diversification of Investments in an Angel’s Portfolio is Prudent, but that still enables and encourages Sector Focus: Generalism dilutes insight. In 2026, both angels and groups will benefit from deeper sector focus — life sciences, medtech, defence tech, cleantech, Agtech, but not necessarily “everything tech.”   We are of the belief that AI will be used in all sectors, and only in a small percentage of companies should say up front they are an AI company.   We prefer a life sciences tech company saying they use AI within their business strategy.  

• We Should Always Advocate for Better Metrics: If we can’t measure it, we can’t improve it. AIO will continue pushing for standardized data on deal flow, follow-on capital, job creation, and exits. 

• Promote Realistic Time Horizons: Early-stage investing takes time. In 2026, we will remind both angels and founders that meaningful outcomes are measured in half years, not demo days. 

• Many Angels See Success in Spending More Time on Post-Investment Support: The cheque is the beginning, not the end. Angels who actively mentor to support governance, hiring, and strategy dramatically improve outcomes. 

• Current Geopolitics Encourage Founders to Think Globally Earlier: Ontario startups cannot rely on local or adjacent markets in isolation. In 2026, go-to-market strategies will be evaluated through an international lens earlier.   AIO will be providing additional support and bring global investor audiences to meet our innovation entrepreneurs. 

• Opportunities to Align Better With VC and Growth Capital in the Private Markets: Angels and VCs, and private market capital firms are not competitors — they are sequential partners. AIO will strengthen bridges to later-stage capital through a more collaborative relationship with the Private Capital Market Association (PCMA) and Canadian Venture Capital Association (CVCA). 

Conclusion: A More Disciplined Optimism for 2026 

Ontario’s innovation ecosystem does not need more enthusiasm — we already have lots of opportunities to enhance our execution, market our talents globally, fortify our collaboration, so that we see more of our domestic innovation and entrepreneurs find sufficient success to continue it to call Ontario home as it scales up.   We do a phenomenal job at doing research at our Universities and Colleges, but we need to increase the rate of its commercialization by getting that technology procured by our health care, clean tech and defence industries, to name a few.   Reducing the buyer’s risks concerns will then help drive our country’s productivity metrics.   

As angel investors, we must invest with humility, discipline, and patience. 
As founders, entrepreneurs must build with customers, not just capital, in mind. Founders need to respect the hard effort that investors expended to be in a position to have risk capital to invest.  And as ecosystem builders, organizations like AIO will stay relentlessly focused on improving the infrastructure for investors and founders to interact more efficiently, by improving education of investors, founder investor readiness, collaboration with more research institutes, and attracting global capital sources to augment the capital invested by our domestic angel investors.   

2026 will also be about developing systems that reduce the general market uncertainty for investors by focused education to enhance the confidence level behind the great due diligence we regularly perform on our entrepreneurs.     
If we can do that — together — Ontario’s angels and entrepreneurs will enter the next decade stronger, smarter, and far more credible on the global stage.