By the time the program started, there was nowhere left to sit.

On Friday, March 6, over 175 leaders, founders and tech workers packed into the Tannery Event Centre for Tech x Women, Communitech’s International Women’s Day (IWD) celebration. Some were standing at the back, others in the aisles. It was, as Communitech CEO Sheldon McCormick noted from the stage, a really good problem to have.

The theme for IWD 2026 was Give to Gain, the idea that people can rise together when we share time, wisdom and support without keeping score. McCormick framed what was at stake and who stands to benefit.

"When support is shared rather than siloed, it builds a sense of trust in a community," he told the crowd. "That trust compounds and that means more risk taking and higher aspirations for the collective."

Emcee Kayli Smith is the co-founder of Friendlier, a Guelph-based startup on a mission to make single-use packaging a thing of the past, and knows the theme firsthand. 

Smith is a Fierce Founders graduate who has since secured $10 million in funding and partnerships with the likes of Coca-Cola and Farm Boy, returned to the event as emcee, herself an example of the cycle in action.

"Give to Gain reminds us that when we invest our time, our mentorship and our resources into one another, the entire ecosystem rises," she told the crowd. "It's about the power of the pay it forward model. Our individual success is amplified when we lift others as we climb."

When Communitech Executive-in-Residence Carrie MacGillivray took the stage with Janet Bannister and Carol Leaman for the event’s fireside chat, the room got quiet fast.

Bannister, Managing Partner at Staircase Ventures, and Leaman, serial CEO, investor and one of Waterloo's most recognized tech leaders, have decades of experience building, scaling and backing companies. MacGillivray didn't waste time getting to the heart of it.

"If you give unselfishly, with no expectation of anything in return, you will be amazed by what comes back,” Bannister told the crowd.

Where Bannister focused on what giving has brought her, Leaman framed the theme as something even more personal. Throughout her career Leaman said she found ways to give back so others don't have to struggle alone the way she did.

“Back when I started, there was nobody like me. And I look around now and go holy mackerel—it's just so amazing,” Leaman said. “I've always had a focus on making it so there can be more people like me. I just gained so much out of that.”

Sometimes that spirit of giving shows up when you least expect it. In a conversation you weren't part of in a room you weren't in. Bannister remembered the moment clearly. She had just successfully launched Kijiji in Canada for eBay when a friend in Silicon Valley made a call on her behalf.

“A friend in Silicon Valley called me up and said, ‘I talked to Jacob and told him that if he doesn't promote you to run classifieds internationally for eBay, he's making a crazy mistake.’,” Bannister said. “Sure enough, the next day I got a call from Jacob who told me I was getting promoted. I wasn't in the room, but my friend had known me for years and advocated for me.”

Leaman nodded. For her, giving back isn't about capital or connections, but about being the person someone can call when they're sitting at their desk with their head in their hands.

"We are all wiffle balls," Leaman said. "We float along, we go under, but we always pop back up. Don't be afraid and don't let yourself drown. Those are the moments where reaching out to somebody—just to get that one little boost of confidence—can make all the difference in the world."

MacGillivray didn't let them off easy. She turned to both women with a question the room had probably been waiting for: what did your mistakes cost you, and what did you learn?

Leaman didn't hesitate. Taking the wrong investor, she said, literally cost her millions.

"Being mansplained over and over again by taking the wrong money made my life hellish," she said.

Bannister's lesson was more about alignment. She described taking roles early in her career because they looked good on paper rather than because she genuinely cared about the work.

"Whenever I do things because I think it'll be good for my career, it never really works out," Bannister said. "But when I do things because I'm really excited about them, those things tend to work out a lot better. When you do something you really care about, you bring your whole self there."

Both women framed their mistakes not as failures but as data. They are hard-won lessons now passed on freely. 

So where do you turn when you're the one with your head in your hands?

Both Bannister and Leaman were candid that even at their level, nobody figures it out alone. Bannister leans on a close group of friends. Leaman named her Axonify co-founder Christine Tutssel as her go-to. Leaman added that Tutssel is someone with an almost opposite personality who holds her accountable and whips her into shape when she needs it most.

But it was MacGillivray who made it personal. As a working mom who traveled constantly, she admitted she spent years too busy to build a female network and deeply regrets it.

"It was only in the last six or seven years that I finally made time to find my people," MacGillivray said. "They catch me before I fall. I wasted so much time where I could have had all of this."

Her message to the younger founders and leaders in the room was to not wait. 

"Make time to find your people now," she said. "Because they're the ones who give you the objective perspective and they're the ones who lift you up."

Finding your people helps. But so does finding your footing.

The paths that led them both to confidence couldn't have been more different. But when MacGillivray asked for the one piece of advice that shaped them, Bannister and Leaman arrived at the same place: confidence isn't something you wait to feel. It's something you practice.

For Bannister, it started at home. Her father told her repeatedly throughout her childhood that she could be anything she wanted. Those words carried her through challenge after challenge.

"You can do anything you want. There are no limitations," Bannister said. "I just absorbed that, and when things got hard, I'd tell myself, ‘everybody else figured it out. If they can do it, you can do it. Now get on with it.’"

Leaman's version was a reframe she discovered when she was first asked to become a CEO. Instead of asking why me, she started asking something different.

"Why not me? If a million men can do it, why not me?" Leaman said. "There's nothing special about me. I just decided why not me? And here I am at the tail end of my career. I did it."

It was the kind of answer that silenced the room for a moment. Not because it was complicated, but because it was so simple.

The people that gathered at the Tannery on Friday were proof that the ecosystem is listening.

Give to Gain isn't about transactions. It's a belief that when we share our time, wisdom and support without keeping score we level up the entire ecosystem.

Janet Bannister and Carol Leaman have both been on the receiving end of that generosity. Now they're on the giving end, showing up in rooms, making introductions, talking founders off ledges and saying you got this to people who aren't sure they do yet.

The question they leave with all of us is simple: who gave to you? And who could benefit from you to giving to them?

If you're ready to be part of that cycle, Fierce Founders is a good place to start.