What’s UpNext: Web Summit to Slush
From Web Summit to Slush, this week brings us to the final stop of the 2025 UpNext World Tour. Inside: founder stories, pitch winners, signals from the road, and a look at what is coming in 2026.
Welcome to What’s UpNext, your weekly recap from the road. We are closing out an incredible stretch across Europe, moving from the Web Summit in Lisbon to the year's final stop at Slush in Helsinki.
This issue brings together the highlights, stories, and signals we are seeing from founders, investors, and ecosystems around the world. Thanks for being part of the journey as we wrap 2025 and look toward a bigger, more global 2026.
Thank you for your time, here we goooo!
Event Recap
Web Summit (Lisbon, Portugal)
Last week in Lisbon, Web Summit brought together founders, operators, investors, students, and ecosystem leaders from around the world — all converging to explore what’s coming next in tech.
The energy this year was different—larger crowds, more intense conversations, and a genuine emphasis on community. From nonstop meetups in the Community Space to the 10-year celebration of Women in Tech, the week felt more global, more intentional, and more connected.
At the centre of it all was PITCH 2025. Out of 2,725 startups, only three reached the finals — and they delivered standout pitches that showed where the next wave of innovation is heading. Granter took the top prize, with VarsityScape and SegmentStream close behind.
We tracked the momentum across the floor, watched the finals live, and captured the founders and ideas shaping the next phase of European and global tech.
Check out our full recap and standout startup list below.
Edwin J. Frondozo
This Week
Slush (Helsinki, Finland)
Helsinki is cold, dark, and somehow buzzing with more energy than ever. Slush 2025 has officially kicked off. What began as a 250-person meetup in 2008 is now Europe’s most important gathering for early-stage founders and the investors backing them.
All year, in conversations with startup founders and ecosystem leaders across Europe, one thing kept coming up. You have to experience Slush in person. So we made the trip to see it for ourselves, and now we understand why.
This year’s crowd is the strongest yet.
6,000 startups, 3,500 investors managing more than €4 trillion, 1,700 partners and ecosystem leaders, and a volunteer force of 1,600 students and recent grads powering the entire experience.
It is the kind of environment where conversations shift careers, chance encounters lead to funding, and founders walk away with real clarity about what they want to build next.
Slush has always thrived in moments of uncertainty, and 2025 is exactly that. Markets are moving, AI is reshaping every category, and founders are navigating uncharted territory. What stands out about Slush is the intention behind it. Bring the right people into the same room and let the collisions do the work.
We are on the ground this week meeting founders, capturing stories, and tracking the ideas shaping Europe’s next wave of breakout companies. If Web Summit was the warm up, Slush is the sprint to the finish of our 2025 run.
Full UpNext highlights from Helsinki land next week.
Flashpoint POV
Founder Spotlight
Through our collaboration with Flashpoint Global, we’re diving deeper into the human side of innovation — the beliefs, tensions, and turning points that shape how founders see the world they’re creating.
Every spotlight explores a founder’s point of view — not just what they’re building, but why it matters, and how their story might redefine what comes next.
Latest Features
Dr. Paul Newton
Dr. Paul Newton
Dr. Paul Newton
What's UpNext?
Heading Home and Looking Toward 2026
This season took us farther than we expected. From Vancouver to Toronto, Dubai, Lisbon, and now Helsinki, with a few powerful stops in Toronto and Ottawa in between, the 2025 tour gave us a front-row seat to how founders and ecosystems are evolving around the world.
As we close out our final stop of the year, this moment at Slush presents an opportunity to pause, take stock, and begin shaping what comes next. The conversations, the PopUp interviews, the partner meetings, and the stories we captured across continents made one thing clear. Builders everywhere are seeking clarity, connection, and a platform that enables them to share their future with the world.
When we return home, we will reflect on everything we've learned, refine our playbooks, and map an expanded 2026 world tour. More cities, more partners, and more opportunities to spotlight the people pushing the frontier forward.
Next year we scale it, and we will not be doing it alone. If you are looking to take your founders, your ecosystem, or your company global in 2026, there is room on this tour wagon. Let’s talk.
Growth Partners
We’re proud to collaborate with Flashpoint Global, Siift.ai, LCube Studios, Allium IP, Slingshot Telecom, Empact Ventures, and Gowling WLG — organizations helping founders and ecosystems shape what’s UpNext.
Want to reach over 150,000 founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders driving global innovation?
Let's chat about partnering with UpNext →
Final Thought
The Last Stop of 2025
As we wrap the final stop of the UpNext World Tour, I keep thinking back to where this all started. In 2020, during lockdowns, I made a bold declaration to 100X my business. That promise motivated me to develop the early frameworks that continue to guide my work today.
First, it was Clarity, Courage, and Commitment. Then it became the one hundred-day philosophy and the SEA Framework: Study, Execute, Advise.
Looking back at this year, I can see how much those ideas shaped the entire tour. Before it even had a name, the early signals came through events in Vancouver, Toronto, Brampton, and Ottawa. Then came the official kickoff at Elevate, followed by Dubai, Lisbon, and now Helsinki.
SEA ended up running the whole year. Study each ecosystem. Execute in real time. Advise founders and leaders on sharpening their story in a world where AI has flattened every voice.
Now we close 2025 with clarity and momentum. Over the next few weeks, I will unpack more of the lessons, signals, and stories that shaped this year and point to what is to come.
Gratefully,
Edwin
Read more reflections like this on Future POV, my personal Substack on clarity, conviction, and building movements that last.
