At Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Stephen Curry surely wanted a worldwide audience to see the hat he was wearing while on his walk into Oracle Arena and surrounded by cameras.



The Warriors would lose to the Raptors, and in fact it was a Toronto technology startup, SnapTravel, that had its logo and hat occupy the prominent place on Curry’s head at the postgame press conference. Six months earlier, the company that seeks to disrupt the travel industry with an artificial intelligence-based, hotel-booking assistant had announced an investment from Curry.



Randy Osei, an experienced NBA player manager who founded his own Toronto-based creative branding and marketing agency, drew inspiration from Curry’s investment. He wanted to organize an event where NBA players and tech companies could get connected.



Curry, his then-Warriors teammates Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala, along with the Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown are among the NBA players who have...