Startup Canada Podcast

Reena Khullar Sharma is the Founder and CEO of Agilis Executive Consulting, a management consulting firm that offers HR partnerships and executive coaching to organizations across the globe. With a background in leadership strategy and professional development, Reena has specialized in developing and implementing business strategies unique to an organization’s corporate culture, providing a competitive advantage for its people, business and strategic success.  In 2020 and during the midst of the pandemic, Reena launched her firm in Calgary and in just under one year, she led the firm to success across 6 continents and 10 countries through a storytelling series about executives which we will learn more about today. Reena has been featured in Forbes through the Forbes Council to share her professional journey spanning 20 years, and how Calgary has been foundational to her entrepreneurial success.  “People and workplace cultures really interested me. Specifically, how we can design an environment and culture for folks to succeed.”  In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Scotiabank, we dive into the traits that make an effective leader, executive coaching, and building a strong culture and workplace.The post What Makes an Effective Leader? with Reena Khullar Sharma first appeared on Startup Canada.

Brianna Blaney believes money is a leading barrier to innovation and entrepreneurship, especially for women and equity-seeking groups. As an experienced founder, Brianna has lived this pain. Brianna co-founded Pocketed to level the playing field, helping Canadian businesses easily access over $5.9B annually in free government money including grants, tax credits, and other business incentives. To date, more than 8,000 companies have used Pocketed to apply for over $80M in government funding. Together with her team, Brianna is on a mission to eliminate barriers for businesses. Brianna is recognized as an Emerging Leader by The Peak and 30 Under 30 by BC Business. Aria Hahn is passionate about data and believes that combined with intelligent statistical and computational technologies, data hold the answers to many burgeoning questions facing multiple industries today. Aria has built tech to solve technical challenges for multiple industries and is now helping to scale technology for Pocketed, a company focused on democratizing access to over $5.9B annually in grant funding in Canada. Since 2021, Pocketed has been named a 2021 ‘Emerging Rocket (ICT)’, featured in The Globe & Mail, interviewed by CBC Radio, and recognized as a Fast Growing BC Business by The Peak.  Hundreds of entrepreneurs said “it’s hard to find the right grant funding program and it’s even more painful to apply”. This is what inspired Brianna and Aria to start Pocketed. In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Scotiabank, we dive into grant funding, co-founder relationships, and navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship.   The post Get Funded with Brianna Blaney and Aria Hahn first appeared on Startup Canada.

Explore cybersecurity 101 with Joel Boyd from Fortinet on the importance of data protection and understanding your target audience. Learn about Fortinet's mission to protect data, affordable prices, and performance. Discover how small businesses can access quality cybersecurity solutions affordably with integration, automation, and creating a security fabric for effective protection and performance.

“We are all about changing the narrative, and we do that by talking, and talking and educating.” Dr. Laurie L.J. Samuel is a criminologist, an author, a former professor, and an entrepreneur.  Dr. Samuel is the Founder and Executive Director of Cupid’s Sting, a non-profit organization that looks to mitigate interpersonal violence towards women. Cupid’s Sting’s mission is to teach women life-saving skills by spreading awareness and facilitating safety training through different workshops. In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Scotiabank, Dr. Laurie Samuel, talks about how she’s combating domestic violence through education and self defense training.The post Changing the Conversation with Laurie Samuel first appeared on Startup Canada.

“The best part of this job is helping entrepreneurs win with technology. In Canada, we are a large SMB community, and that’s what motivates me the most.” Wade McFarland is the Vice President for Distribution Sales business at Dell Technologies. Previously, he served as the Vice President for Sales Execution business in North America. Prior to that he served as the National Sales Director for the DELL Large VAR business in North America. Anthony Martiniello joined Dell Technologies in 2013 and was named the Channel Sales Leader for Canada over 2 years ago. Prior, he was responsible for the National partners across Canada and the US.  Anthony has a current mandate to grow distribution together as one. In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Scotiabank, Dell distribution leaders Wade McFarland and Anthony Martiniello, dive into how Dell is providing entrepreneurs and SMBs with winning technology to transform their markets.The post Empowering Entrepreneurs to Digitally Transform with Anthony Martiniello and Wade McFarland first appeared on Startup Canada.

Nevin Buconjic is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, author, strategic advisor, and Startup Sault Ste. Marie Community leader with degrees in marketing, computer science and an MBA.  Nevin has over 25 years of experience in business, entrepreneurship, finance, marketing and economic development. He has started eight companies since the age of 12 — including retail, web design, computer training, e-commerce and consulting, and has counselled hundreds of entrepreneurs and small businesses. Nevin is the author of two books for entrepreneurs and dozens of business articles and is currently writing his third book about business ideas for kids and teens. Chiara Toselli is the Chief of Staff and Head of Marketing at Pavestep, a B2B SaaS solution that helps organizations develop and align their people with continuous feedback, goal management, and flexible reviews – all in one place. Chiara is also a co-founder of Broke app, a marketing solution for the food service industry. She is currently the co-community leader of Startup Vancouver. “We are slowly showing that there is this supportive network, for anyone – entrepreneurs, innovators, anyone trying to advance their ideas.” In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Scotiabank, Startup Canada community leaders, Chiara Toselli and Nevin Buconjic, dive into the highlights and challenges behind building start-up ecosystems in their respective cities and how they’re providing the tools, network, and resources for entrepreneurs to succeed.The post Building Canada’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem with Chiara Toselli & Nevin Buconjic first appeared on Startup Canada.

Jonathan Friedman is the President of The Journal That Talks Back, an accessible, affordable and unlimited journaling and coaching app that connects young professionals and post-secondary students with a certified coach so they can manage their mental health, relationships, career aspirations, personal and professional challenges and more. After 8 years as a Child and Youth Counsellor, he has seen firsthand how important it is for young adults to have access to support and guidance. Jonathan is a mental health advocate and is passionate about journaling, coaching, metal and coffee. “Every single day when I think about what this will be, I believe in this with every bone in my body.”  In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Scotiabank, we spoke with Jonathan Friedman on his journey of building The Journal that Talks Back, how he identified a problem to be solved, and his transition from child and youth care to entrepreneurship.The post Let’s Talk Mental Health with Jonathan Friedman first appeared on Startup Canada.

Julie MacDonell is the Co-Founder and CEO of Haloo Inc.  With more than twelve years of trademark prosecution experience and a registered trademark agent, Julie is a sought-after senior-level Intellectual Property lawyer. Julie is frequently quoted and has been featured in publications such as the Globe & Mail, the Toronto Star, Forbes, CBC, Global TV and more.  “We want every business to start with Haloo. We want every business to own and protect their brand.”  In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Scotiabank, we dive into trademarks, the importance of protecting your brand, and what to watch out for to ensure you’re not infringing on someone else’s trademark. The post Understanding Trademarks with Julie MacDonell first appeared on Startup Canada.

Mike is CEO and co-founder of Fundica.com, an award-winning online funding tool, that evolved from his work supporting tech entrepreneurs with government and private sector funding. He previously worked in the mergers and acquisitions group at BCE, as well as in the strategy group at KPMG Consulting and with technology companies as an engineer. He has also helped secure over $300 M in government funding for entrepreneurs over the last 15 years. Mike holds a B.A.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Waterloo, an MBA from the University of British Columbia and the CFA designation. He was selected as one of 25 emerging entrepreneurs by the Bronfman Foundation, Entrepreneur of the Year by CFO Canada, and co-winner for Quebec of the Startup Canada award for entrepreneurship promotion. “At the end of the day, we are helping people. There are businesses and there are people behind the businesses. Helping them to find funding, is a way to help them.”  In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Scotiabank, Mike Lee, CEO and co-founder of Fundica dives into how he’s democratizing access to funding by enabling small businesses to find and apply for government funding. The post Democratizing Access to Funding with Mike Lee first appeared on Startup Canada.

An experienced, values-driven leader, Chris has diverse experiences ranging from international aid work to energy consulting for fortune 500 organizations. Early in his career, Chris recognized the broad and lasting impacts that engineers have on the built environment.  Noting that commercial buildings represent more than 1/5 of all carbon emissions worldwide, he chose to focus on mitigating this impact through his professional activities. Now the CEO of a growing startup, Audette, he leads a team of scientists and engineers towards building data-driven carbon reduction plans for some of the world’s largest organizations.    “We see the market is motivated, and now all we need to do is show them the pathway to reduce their carbon footprints.” In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Scotiabank, we dive into carbon reduction, the role the startup ecosystem will play in this, and navigating through the process of testing and validating your idea. The post Data-driven Climate Change with Chris Naismith first appeared on Startup Canada.