TechTO's Founder Series | The Untold Stories of the Founder Journey (TechTO.org)

This episode originally aired on: April 24, 2020.

Wes Barton, Managing Partner at Third Prime, and Neal Desai, Co-Founder & CEO at Kafene.

Arjun Sethi, Co-Founder & Partner at Tribe Capital; Farhan Thawar, VP Engineering at Shopify; and Eva Lau, Founding Partner at Two Small Fish Ventures. Note: This episode is in response to Alex Danco's Why the Canadian Tech Scene Doesn’t Work. 

We're going back through the TechTO Archives to feature current newsmakers and their conversations from past TechTO events. 

In this episode, we hear from James Rife of Canalyst who spoke about 'What Went Right' during the first 24 months of the companies existence. 

We are sharing this content after Canalyst's recent acquisition news this past week. 

Check out the full conversation on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/BqmDV_dOvvE

Lloyed Lobo, Co-Founder and President at Boast.AI, and Laurie Schultz, Board Director at Boast.AI & Former CEO at Galvanize.

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Laura Zizzo, Co-Founder and CEO of Manifest Climate

On this episode of the Founder's Journey, Laura joined us to discuss her journey to building Manifest Climate, her passion for climate conservation, how Manifest is taking strides to change the world and what the future holds.

Connect with Laura on LinkedIn to chat all things Manifest Climate!

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Welcome to the newest season of TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Hussein Fazal, Co-Founder and CEO of Super.

On this special live episode of the Founders Journey, Hussein joined Alex Norman to discuss the dramatic growth and impressive reputation of Super and how they grew their customer base.

Here's what you can expect:

(0:00) Intro's (01:52) What was the insight that led you to become a founder? (2:57) What was the idea behind AdParlor? (5:00) Why did you exit? (6:05) What was your biggest lesson learned as a first time founder? (7:12) How did you know it was the right time to start Super? (9:24) What was the idea behind Super? (12:27) Why did you choose to fundraise the second time around? (13:45) What is your current traction? (14:39) How did you transition from travel to fintech? (16:25) What are the benefits and challenges building for lower middle class customers? (19:42) Snap was founded in Toronto but seems to have a strong presence in SF, why? (22:27) Audience Q&A Learn more about Super: https://www.super.com/ Have any follow-up questions for Hussein or the Super team? Email alex@techto.org and we'll include them for a follow-up podcast!

Welcome to the first season of TechTOgether’s Founder’s Journey series.

In this series we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current business.

Today’s guest is Solon Angel, Founder of Mind Bridge and Managing Partner at Fresh Founders.

Today, Solon shares his unique background, story building Mind Bridge, the evolution of Fresh Founders and why it's benefiting the eco-system. He also shares a few of his best takeaways for those trying to build and scale a successful business. 

Connect with Solon online or on LinkedIn.

#FoundersJourney #InspiringStories #TechTO

Meet the companies that are taking careers to the moon!

Joining a category-defining technology start-up can accelerate your career. It does this by increasing your knowledge and skills, providing a strong network and potentially creating enough wealth to start your own company in the future.  

Historically, there has been no more than one such company in Canada (e.g. Shopify, Blackberry, Nortel) at any time. With the rapid growth of our ecosystem, there are more potential category-defining start-ups than ever before. 

The question is: Which one should you join? 

______

TechTO worked with leading venture capitalists and angels to identify the rocketship companies that have the potential to accelerate your career.

Today's episode, we are introduced to Mehdi Nayebi, CEO and Co-Founder of Flashbox. We learn more about his journey, how Flashbox is re-defining an industry, and what it's like to work there.

Check out their jobs at www.flashbox.co/career/

This episode originally aired on: July 24, 2020.

Neha Khera, Partner at 500 Startups, and Fred Melanson, Co-Founder & CEO at Bliinx.

Three Comma Club is a series that follows Founders and their company stories. From inception to billion dollar valuation, we learn about how these Founders created a unicorn company, the choices they made, and the lessons they learned along the way. 

Today's episode, Alex Norman sits down with Marcelo Cortes, the CTO & Co-Founder of Faire to discuss his journey and takeaways.

This episode originally aired on: May 1, 2020.

Silagadze (Co-founder & CEO at Top Hat), and Albert Wenger (Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures), hosted by Alex Norman (Co-founder of TechTO and Canadian Partner at AngelList)

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Justin Herlick, CEO of Pine.

On this special live episode of the Founders Journey, Justin joined Alex Reilly and hundreds of other technologists, founders, and leaders to chat through his journey to founding and building Pine. He also shared his insights on the current market and how it's impacting his business.

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Three Comma Club is a series that follows Founders and their company stories. From inception to billion dollar valuation, we learn about how these Founders created a unicorn company, the choices they made, and the lessons they learned along the way. 

Today's episode, Alex Norman sits down with Mike Murchison, CEO at Ada to discuss the companies journey and the important lessons he's learned along the way.

To learn about more episodes as they drop, follow us on Spotify and subscribe to the techto newsletter at techto.org/newsletter where we drop new content every week!

Laith Shukri, Sr. Market Development Manager at Silicon Valley Bank, and Matt Roberts, Partner at ScaleUP Ventures.

Francois Lafortune, Co-founder and CEO of Diagram, and Malik Yacoubi, Co-founder and CEO of Nesto.

Yoseph West, CEO of Relay Financial, and Keri Gohman, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures.

Featuring early-stage company: Alex Cruder (CFA), CEO of Curbie Cars.

This episode originally aired on: September 18, 2020.

Tyler Willis, Founder & COO at Unsupervised, and Tyler Dikman, CEO at LoungeBuddy.

This episode originally aired on: April 17, 2020.

Eva Lau, Founding Partner at Two Small Fish Ventures, Sophie Perceval, Co-Founder at Wondeur Ai, and Olivier Berger, Co-Founder at Wondeur Ai.

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current business.

Today’s guest is Michael Garrity, CEO of Financeit

On this episode of the Founders Journey, Michael discussed everything from his early years as a Founder, the unique gap within consumer finance solutions that needed to be filled, their recent acquisition of a leading competitor, and his hopes for the future.

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Andrew Lee, Partner at Initialized Capital and Aaron Glazer, Co-founder and CEO of Taplytics.

Andre Charoo, Founder and General Partner at Maple VC and Kevin Kim, Co-Founder & CEO at Stadium Live Studios Inc.

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.
In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Nabeil Alazzam, Founder and CEO of Forma.ai

Forma.ai is the world’s first sales compensation solution driven by a collective data model. It allows organizations to design, execute, and optimize their sales compensation strategy within a single platform.

Nabeil joined us to discuss the journey and inspiration behind Forma.ai, his university years, lessons learned as a consultant, and his goals for the future of Forma.ai

Connect with Nabeil on LinkedIn and learn more about forma.ai on their website.

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Forma.ai is also hiring - apply here

#FoundersJourney #Inspiration #Tech #TechTO

This episode originally aired on: September 25, 2020.

Nikhil Basu Trivedi, Angel Investor and former Managing Director at Shasta Ventures, and Jonathan Regev, Co-founder & CEO at The Farmer's Dog.

On this episode of Founder Fridays, Alex Norman sat down with Co-Founders Spiro Papathanasakis and Simon Dermer of eSSENTIAL Accessibility, to learn the ins and outs of building a business, scaling an idea, and all the lessons they've learned along the way. 

Alex Baker, Managing Partner with Relay Ventures, and Alex Norman, Partner at N49P, TechTO co-founder, and AngelList Canadian Partner.

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.
In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Alex Rink, CEO of Rink Ventures

Alex works as a Strategic Advisor for high-growth companies and VCs/PEs.

He has over 20 years of experience as a SaaS/DaaS CEO/co-founder and executive and most recently lead an M&A and merger integration for a Vista Equity Partners portfolio company.

Alex joined us to discuss the journey and inspiration behind Rink Ventures, the value of his own Founder experience, and how is supporting many companies now as an investor and advisor.

Connect with Alex on LinkedIn

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Dileep Thazhmon, CEO & Founder at Jeeves (YC S20).

Welcome to the first season of TechTOgether’s Founder’s Journey series. 

In this series we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current business.

Today’s guests are Mike Wood and Mehrsa Raeiszadeh the Co-Founder’s of MintList. MintList was founded in 2020 to improve the used car sell’s process by better connecting consumers selling and buying used vehicles to dealerships.

Today we will go through Mike’s and Mehrsa’s backgrounds, the insight that led to the creation of MintList, how they decided to co-found the company, the journey so far and what the future holds.

To learn more about MintList and their current opportunities visit: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mintlist/

You can also check out this fun and informative video to learn more about how it all works (it's received over 130,000 views on YouTube): https://youtu.be/9W1lFmRrGiI

On this episode of Founders & Funding, we are joined by Jane Podbelskaya of Information Venture Partners and Nic Beique, Founder at Helcim.

Nic and Jane chat with us about the raising process, how they built a relationship and the necessary steps for both a Founder and VC to find success. 

Helcim provides Canadian & American businesses an opportunity to accept credit card payments at affordable &transparent rates. A wide range of online, ecommerce, cloud-based, mobile & retail payment platforms allowsHelcim to offer a total payments solution. 

Information Venture Partners is a Toronto-based team of experienced venture capital investors focused on supporting the next generation of leaders transforming financial services. Current investments include: Arteria AI, BigID, Cinchy, Coconut Software, Empyrean Solutions, Flybits, FX HedgePool, Helcim, Influitive, Jirav, LendingFront, Lydia.ai, Nue.io, Procurify, Q4 Inc., Strike Graph, and ThoughtExchange. For more information, please visit www.informationvp.com 

Benedict Evans, Venture Partner at Entrepreneur First, and Matt Clifford, Co-Founder and CEO at Entrepreneur First.

This episode originally aired on: August 7, 2020.

Bill Wilson, Co-Founder & CEO at SalesRight, and Stefanie Corbett, Associate & Director of Operations at Island Capital Partners.

Welcome to the first season of TechTOgether’s Founder’s Journey series. In this series we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current business. Today’s guest is Malik Yacoubi, Co-Founder and CEO at nesto.

Today, Malik shares his inspiring story building nesto, the lessons he learned throughout his career and his most inspirational lessons for Founders today.

Connect with Malik online or on LinkedIn and learn more about nesto on their website.

#FoundersJourney #InspiringStories #TechTO

This episode originally aired on: June 12, 2020.

Alex Norman, Partner at N49P, and Saeid Fard, Founder at Dimensional.

Michael Bignold, Founder & CEO at CostCertified, and Brendan Wales, Founding Partner at FUSE.

This episode originally aired on: June 19, 2020.

Christian Lassonde, Founder & Managing Partner at Impression Ventures, and Rasha Katabi, Founder & CEO of Brim Financial.

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.
In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups and learn about their journey to building their current business.

Today’s guest is Kevin Collins, Founder and CEO of Charli AI

On this episode of the Founders Journey, Kevin discussed everything from his early years as an entrepreneur, founding multiple businesses, the unique inspiration behind Charli AI, and the future of AI and where we are headed.

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Welcome to the first season of TechTOgether’s Founder’s Journey series. 

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current businesses. 

Today’s guest is Lloyed Lobo, Founder of Boast.AI and Traction. 

Today, Lloyed shares his unique tips for Founders, how to build communities to empower your business and brand, and all the important lessons young Founders should take into account when launching their business.

Connect with Lloyed online or on LinkedIn. 

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content thats dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

#FoundersJourney #InspiringStories #TechTO

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Michael Millar, Founder and CEO of Verto Health

On this episode of the Founder's Journey, Michael discussed his long journey of building Verto, his unique background in healthcare, how Verto played a pivotal role in the vaccine roll out, and the future of healthcare and Verto.

Connect with Michael on LinkedIn ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ to chat all things Verto!

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Share this podcast with a friend, and leave us a review. Who should we speak to next time? Let us know on social!

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.
In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Raymond Chik, Co-Founder of Untether AI

Untether is helping companies run AI workloads to help operate neural networks faster, cooler, and more cost-effectively using app memory computing. 

Raymond joined us to discuss the journey and inspiration behind Untether AI, his previous Founder experience, the most important takeaways for the future of AI, why he Angel invests, and more!

Connect with Raymond on LinkedIn or via email at rchik@untether.ai

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Meet the companies that are taking careers to the moon! Joining a category-defining technology start-up can accelerate your career. It does this by increasing your knowledge and skills, providing a strong network and potentially creating enough wealth to start your own company in the future.

Historically, there has been no more than one such company in Canada (e.g. Shopify, Blackberry, Nortel) at any time. With the rapid growth of our ecosystem, there are more potential category-defining start-ups than ever before.

The question is: Which one should you join?

TechTO worked with leading venture capitalists and angels to identify the rocketship companies that have the potential to accelerate your career. Today's episode, we are introduced to Adam and Jessie of Aux Mode. We learn more about their journey, how Aux Mode is innovating, and what it's like to work there. Check out their jobs at www.auxmode.com/careers/

Let's learn about the Alberta Ecosystem and why tech in Alberta is thriving right now.

CEO of Alberta Innovates joins the TechTO team to discuss the future of tech in Canada and the continued journey for innovation.

Learn more about their work and everything they have coming up here: https://albertainnovates.ca

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Darren Huston, a well-known leader in tech and the current Founder and CEO at BlackPines Capital Partners.

On this episode of the Founder's Journey, Darren joined us to chat through his unique beginnings and early years at Starbucks and Microsoft. He also shared some inspiring leadership advice from his years of CEO experience and shared more insight from his time at places like Booking.com and Priceline Group.

He might be the most interesting man in tech. And he is opening up to our audience about his career and sharing valuable takeaways for everyone.

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Share this episode with a friend and don't forget to leave us a rating and let us know who we should interview next!

Shawn Abbott, Founder of Inovia Capital, and Andrew McLeod, CEO of Certn.

This episode originally aired on: May 15, 2020. 

Jordan Jacobs, Managing Partner & Co-Founder of Radical Ventures, and Rishi Nayyar, Co-Founder and CEO of PocketHealth.

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series. In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Rishi Nayyar, Co-Founder and CEO of PocketHealth. Today, Rishi shares more about PocketHealth, what inspired him to start the business, the future of healthcare in Canada, and the important lessons he learned while scaling his business.

Connect with Rishi on LinkedIn and learn more about PocketHealth and their open roles on their careers page

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Jonah Midanik, Managing Director, General Partner at Acceleprise and Kathleen Chan, Founder & CEO at Calico.

This episode originally aired on: July 3, 2020.

Jenny Yang, Partner at Panda Angel Partners, and Annalea Krebs, Founder & CEO at Social Nature.

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Tate Hackert, President and Founder of ZayZoon. ZayZoon is helping companies win with employees by improving their financial well-being. Tate discusses his Founders journey, how he built ZayZoon, and tips for beating imposter syndrome as a Founder.

In this episode, we also chat about:

- Tate’s Background and Early Entrepreneurial Experience

- Tips for Dealing with Imposter Syndrome

- Formation of ZayZoon

- Early Business Ideation

- Connecting with Mentors

- Balancing Analysis and Action

- Employee Wellness at ZayZoon

- Go-to-Market Strategy for ZayZoon

- Learning from Metrics and Adjustments

- The Importance of Ongoing Fine-Tuning and Product Optimization

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Share this episode with a friend and don't forget to leave us a rating and let us know who we should interview next!

Michelle McBane, Managing Director of StandUp Ventures and Stephany Lapierre, CEO and Founder of Tealbook

Michael Hyatt, Co-founder of Bluecat, Dragon on CBC's Next Gen Dragon's Den, and Principal at Hyatt Family Office

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Dr. Brett Belchetz, Co-Founder and CEO of Maple.

Today, Brett shares more about Maple, what inspired him to start the business, the future of healthcare in Canada, and how Maple is making a massive change in the industry across Canada.

Connect with Brett on Twitter and learn more about Maple at www.getmaple.com

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

#FoundersJourney #Inspiration #Tech #TechTO

This episode originally aired on: July 10, 2020.

Liran Belenzon, Co-founder & CEO of BenchSci, and Shervin Ghaemmaghami, Investor at F-Prime Capital.

This episode originally aired on: June 5, 2020.

Matt Roberts, Partner at ScaleUp Ventures, and Eamonn O'Rourke, CEO of RenoRun.

Welcome to the first season of TechTOgether’s Founder’s Journey series. In this series we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current business.

Today’s guest is Raj Singh, CEO of Altrio. 

Today, Raj shares his inspiring story building Altrio, the lessons he learned throughout his career and his most inspirational lessons for Founders today. 

Connect with Raj on LinkedIn and learn more about Altrio on their website.

#FoundersJourney #InspiringStories #TechTO 

Shruti Gandhi, General Partner at Array Ventures and Champ Bennett, CEO and Co-founder of Capsule.

Chris Neumann, Founder & CEO at Commonwealth Ventures and Kyle Campbell, Founder & CEO of CTO.ai.

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Kevin Kliman, CEO and Co-Founder of Humi. Humi is helping companies manage HR and the people side of their businesses, better.

In this episode, we also chat about:

- Kevin's unique beginnings

- His pivot from dentistry to entrepreneurship

- Building a team

- Understanding the dynamic needs of people

- His inspiration for creating Humi

- The future of the business and HR in general

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Share this episode with a friend and don't forget to leave us a rating and let us know who we should interview next!

This episode originally aired on: April 9, 2020.

Shayn Diamond, Partner at Whitecap Ventures, and Wilfred Valenta, CEO & Co-Founder at Silofit.

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Philippe Beaudoin, Co-Founder and CEO of Waverly.

Today, Phil shares his best advice for following through with your ideas, what makes sense for your own journey and the best lessons he has learned along the way.

In this episode, we also cover:

(0:00) Introduction to Phil and his background  

(1:00) What is a Venture Scientist, and why does Phil call himself that? 

(3:00) Phil's lessons learned at Google 

(7:29) ElementAI 

(10:00) Changing the way we view our social feeds 

(14:54) Starting Waverly and the journey 

(16:00) Meeting the Co-Founders 

(22:00) Wavlery and the effects of ChatGPT 

(25:59) The future of Waverly 

(33:00) Working with talent in Canada 

(35:50) How AI can be useful for everyone

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Welcome to the first season of TechTOgether’s Founder’s Journey series. 

In this series we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current business. 

Today’s guest is Dan Holowack, Co-Founder and CEO at CrowdRiff. 

Today, Dan shares his story building CrowdRiff, the purpose of the company, the lessons he learned throughout his career and his most inspirational lessons for Founders today. Connect with Dan online or on LinkedIn and learn more about CrowdRiff on their website. 

Want to join the team? Apply here

#FoundersJourney #InspiringStories #TechTO

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Erin Bury, Co-Founder and CEO of Willful.

Willful is an online platform that allows you to create your will as quickly and easily as possible. Willful easily guides you through the process of putting together a will online from the comfort of your own home.

Erin joined us to discuss the journey and inspiration behind Willful, her most important lessons learned, and her hopes for the future of estate planning and the education behind it for Canadians.

Connect with Erin on Social Media and learn more about Willful at www.willful.co

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

#FoundersJourney #Inspiration #Tech #TechTO

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Kirk Simpson, Co-Founder and CEO of Qui Identity.

On this special live episode of the Founders Journey, Kirk joined Alex Norman and hundreds of other technologists, founders, and leaders to chat through his journey to founding and building Qui. He also shared his unique insights on how he got here today and advice for others who want to launch their own business.

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

This episode originally aired on: April 3, 2020.

Boris Wertz, Founder & General Partner at Version One Ventures, Mike Murchison, Co-Founder & CEO at Ada Support, David Hariri, Co-founder & Head of Product at Ada Support.

In this special LIVE episode of the Founders Journey series, we sat down with Justin Bailie, Co-Founder of Rose Rocket to chat about his humbling entrepreneurship journey.

In today's episode, Justin doesn't sugar coat anything, and shares his authentic challenges and important lessons learned that every Founder or aspiring Founder can take inspiration from.

Like and subscribe to the Founders Journey so you never miss an episode as it drops.

#TechTO #FounderStories #Startups #Advice

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series. Today's episode is hosted by Alexandra Reilly, Head of Marketing at TechTO

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Emiel Bril, CEO and Co-Founder of VendorPM. In today's episode, Emiel gets honest about:

- Entrepreneurship

- The challenges of building a business

- Lessons learned from the fundraising journey

- The most important takeaways every Founder (new or established) should know

If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you are watching or listening.

You can also connect with Emiel on LinkedIn.

VendorPM is also hiring - check out their open roles here.

Three Comma Club is a series that follows Founders and their company stories. From inception to billion dollar valuation, we learn about how these Founders created a unicorn company, the choices they made, and the lessons they learned along the way.

Today's episode, Alex Norman sits down with Mike Wessinger, Co-Founder and Executive Chair of PointClickCare to discuss his journey and key takeaways.

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Avlok Kohli, CEO, AngelList Venture.

Today, Avlok shares his unique tips for Founders, what he recommends for raising in the current market, and all the important lessons he learned throughout his career that helped him launch multiple successful business'.

Connect with Avlok online or on Twitter.

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Today's episode, we discuss:

(0:00) Introduction to Avlok and his background 

(1:55) Time as a student at University of Waterloo 

(3:32) Early experience working in Canada 

(5:00) The importance of building a Founder network 

(6:54) Venture Funding 

(8:54) Being deliberate with your ideas  

(10:50) Starting Fastbite 

(11:03) Building 

(15:40) Lessons learned from Jack Dorsey 

(16:01) Working at Square 

(21:00) Real scale and what it looks like 

(22:50) Pulling together an Investment Round 

(25:00) Exiting Postmates 

(32:00) AngelList  

(35:00) The current venture market 

(37:00) The future of the market  

(40:00) Raising money in Canada

#FoundersJourney #InspiringStories #TechTO

In today's episode of the Founders Journey, we welcome CEO and Co-Founder of BenchSci, Liran Belenzon.

Liran shares wisdom and insights on joining the company 10 years ago, fundraising on a massive scale, and even his unique approach to fundraising conversations (and why it might be one you've never heard before).

Want to chat more with Liran about what he's helping to build at BenchSci? Reach out to him at liran@benchsci.com

BenchSci is also hiring! You can learn more and apply here

This episode originally aired on: May 22, 2020.

Jason Stoffer, Partner of Maveron LLC, and Jessica Rolph, Co-Founder & CEO of Lovevery.

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Mat Goldstein, Co-Founder and CRO of DealMaker.

Today, Mat shares his unique tips for Founders, what he recommends for raising in the current market, and all the important lessons young Founders should take into account when launching their business.

In this episode, we cover:

(0:00) Intro to Mat and DealMaker 

(2:40) What does it take to plan and grow a business 

(5:00) The journey to building DealMaker 

(5:35) Choosing your Co-Founder 

(7:40) How to know when to execute your idea 

(10:20) What was the first step you took when launching DealMaker 

(12:51) Using DealMaker to raise money 

(15:49) The early challenges of building DealMaker 

(25:05) What allowed them to raise 

(27:22) How a company can be successful using DealMaker 

(32:59) What Mat is doing today, and what makes his role unique 

(40:51) Taking a backseat as a Founder

Connect with Mat online or on LinkedIn.

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

#FoundersJourney #InspiringStories #TechTO

This episode originally aired on: June 26, 2020.

Prashant Matta, Partner at Panache Ventures, and Parth Khanna, CEO at ACTO.

This episode originally aired on: March 26, 2020.

Isaac Souweine, Partner at Real Ventures and Nan Hao, Founder & CEO of Guiker.

This episode originally aired on: November 6, 2020.

Sohaib Zahid, Co-Founder & CEO at Railz.ai, and Ian Sheridan, Co-Founder & Managing Director at Vestigo Ventures.

Welcome to the first season of TechTOgether’s Founder’s Journey series.

In this series we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups, and learn about their journey to building their current business. 

Today’s guest is Ron Benegbi, Founder and CEO of Uplinq. Today, Ron shares his inspiring story as an immigrant to Canada, the lessons he learned throughout hiss career and his most inspirational lessons for Founders today.

Connect with Ron on LinkedIn and learn more about Uplinq on their website.

#FoundersJourney #InspiringStories #TechTO 

Marty Krátký-Katz, Co-Founder & CEO at Blockthrough, and Roy Pereira, Board of Directors Member, Investor & Advisor at Blockthrough.

Welcome to Founder Fridays. Each week, we sit down with Founders to learn more about their journey and what it takes to launch and grow a successful business. 

Today's episode features Christopher Barnard, Co-Founder, President and Director at Points - who chats with us about all things Points, his journey as a Co-Founder, and what it's like to work for Points. 

Julia Lipton, Founder of Awesome People Ventures, and Sam Corcos, Co-Founder and CEO of Levels.

Three Comma Club is a series that follows Founders and their company stories. From inception to billion dollar valuation, we learn about how these Founders created a unicorn company, the choices they made, and the lessons they learned along the way.

Today's episode, Alex Norman sits down with Arnaud Van de Voorde, Vice President, Global Digital Strategy at CAE to discuss the companies journey and the important lessons he's learned along the way.

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series.

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today we were joined by Prem Kalevar and Karamdeep Nijjar from Inovia Capital to chat about the newly announced Discovery Fund that was just launched.

On this special episode, we dive deeper into the inspiration behind the fund, who it will support, and what Founders need to know about Inovia and their investments.

To keep up with content like this and learn about new content that's dropping every week, subscribe to the TechTO Newsletter and get it right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter

Welcome to TechTO's Founders Journey Series. Today's episode is hosted by Alexandra Reilly, Head of Marketing at TechTO

In this series, we talk with the founders of emerging Canadian tech start-ups and learn about their journey to building their current businesses.

Today’s guest is Christian Weedbrook, CEO and Co-Founder of Xanadu. What is Xanadu you might ask? Take a listen and find out.

Aside from AI and Quantum Computing, in this episode, we also chat about:

- Coming to Toronto to build a business (and his love of the ecosystem)

- How AI (and its speed of iteration) is impacting Xanadu and their progression in the space

- Where he sees Xanadu making the biggest impact

- Raising a large fundraising round in a tough market (and what he wants other founders to know)

- The trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship (he’s not sugar coating anything)

- Finding the right team to help you scale and build

You can also connect with Christian via email at christian@xanadu.ai