Startup Canada Podcast

As entrepreneurs, we’re often taught to say yes to every opportunity that comes our way. Selene Vakharia shares why she thinks there’s a key lesson in learning how to say no – and how to focus on projects that energize you!  SMRT WOMEN is an award-winning community for entrepreneurs. As a Business and Marketing Coach for more than 15 years, Selene has worked with organizations, businesses, and award-winning ad agencies across Canada. In 2014, she moved across the country to the beautiful city of Whitehorse, Yukon, where she started a marketing, design, and events agency. After running the agency for a couple of years with clients all around the world, Selene realized that what she truly loved was using her marketing, and mindset superpowers to help women entrepreneurs rock THEIR businesses. And so SMRT WOMEN was born. It offers one-to-one coaching, business advising, and longer-form courses and accelerators for women looking to start or grow their businesses. SMRT Women has gone on to produce two conferences, a sold-out female CEO speaker series, countless workshops and networking events, and two group-coaching programs. “Really at the end of the day you want to be building a business that is aligned with you and that you want to be waking up to every day, that’s really in tune with what your version of success is.” In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Ceridian, Selene discusses the importance of community in your marketing, and how to be intentional in choosing communities and projects that fulfill you. This episode was powered by Microsoft Canada – we thank them for their continued support of Startup Canada and Canada’s entrepreneurship community.The post Knowing When to Say No with Selene Vakharia – December 22, 2020 first appeared on Startup Canada.

There isn’t much Jennifer Sloan hasn’t tried – from private to public sector, Jennifer has seen it all. She shares with us why diversity is key for strengthening your business, and encourages women entrepreneurs in particular to demand change and seek out resources to help level the playing field.  Jennifer Sloan has extensive experience across all aspects of government, media and public relations, and internal and external affairs. In addition to working for Target (Canada), and Vale (Inco) Ltd., she also worked with some of Canada’s leading government and political figures and represented Canada as the Head of Political/Economic Relations & Public Affairs at the Canadian Consulate in New York. As the vice president of public policy at Mastercard Canada, Jennifer leads the development and management of the company’s public affairs and government relations programs. She is a member of Mastercard Canada’s business leadership team. Jennifer is also the vice-chair of the Board of the Canadian American Business Council (CABC) and the current and first independent chair of Music Canada’s Board of Directors. She previously served as the president of the University of Georgia’s Grady College Alumni Board and the Board of Trust, the president of the Canadian Club of Toronto, and was the chair-elect of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) Board of Directors. “You’re not alone. Access to mentorship programs and connecting with like-minded owners are means of advancing women entrepreneurs…with access to resources we can help women bring a positive impact to their communities.” In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Ceridian, Jennifer discusses practical ways to tackle inequities and fight for structural change within the business world. The post Fighting For Change with Jennifer Sloan – December 15, 2020 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Building  an engaged, happy global community in the gig economy isn’t easy, but it is possible – just ask Nicole Smith, Founder and CEO of Flytographer! Nicole’s company Flytographer is a marketplace that connects travelers with hand-picked local photographers for fun vacation photoshoots.  In six years, Nicole has grown Flytographer into a multi-million dollar business that operates in 300 cities globally and has captured over two million memories. It was ranked as one of the fastest-growing startups in Canada by Canadian Business Magazine, called the “The Future of Travel Photography” by Conde Nast Traveler, which appeared on a Netflix show, The New York Times and Oprah.com. Prior to Flytographer, Nicole spent 13 years in marketing at Microsoft. She is also a board member at The Forum for Women Entrepreneurs. “We can all dream a lot bigger. I think we artificially ceiling ourselves but there is SO much opportunity out there.”   In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Ceridian, Nicole discusses being the first to market, bootstrapping from product to market fit, and gig economy entrepreneurship.The post Shoot Your Shot: Navigating the Gig Economy with Nicole Smith – December 8, 2020 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Having an adaptable, high performing workforce behind you can help drive growth and alleviate pressures for entrepreneurs. Just ask Lisa Bull, Vice President of Talent Development at Ceridian!      Lisa Bull is the Vice-President of the Talent Development team at Ceridian. Over the past 18 years, Lisa has delivered training to thousands of clients across North America and has designed and developed training programs for a wide variety of corporate, government and not-for-profit organizations. As a member of Ceridian’s global HR team, Lisa currently has responsibility for employee and leadership learning and development, diversity, equity and inclusion, performance management and onboarding. In addition, Lisa was part of the team which created Ceridian’s charity for children and families in need, Ceridian Cares. She was a founding Board member and has served as Vice-Chair of the charity’s Board for two terms.  As a leader, Lisa has also worked in broadcast communications, organizational safety, and Employee Assistance Programs. Lisa has a Diploma in Broadcast Communications, a Bachelor of Arts degree and an M.Ed in Educational Psychology. “Your employees are essential in helping you navigate through all of this change and in helping to identify opportunities.”  In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Ceridian, Lisa discusses the importance of attracting, engaging, and retaining the right people for your team. The post Attracting and Retaining Top Talent with Lisa Bull – December 1, 2020 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Canadian companies represent 50% of all global phishing attempts. But there are ways entrepreneurs can protect their startups from cyber attacks – just ask Sukhmani Dev, the head of Digital Payments & Cybersecurity Solutions for Mastercard Canada! Sukhmani Dev (Sukh) is the head of Digital Payments & Cybersecurity Solutions for Mastercard Canada leading commercialization of Mastercard’s ecommerce payment & cybersecurity solutions. Sukh acts as a key strategic advisor to business executives and IT stakeholders. With extensive experience in technology strategy, digital product development & delivery, Sukh’s passions include building scalable B2B2C products. Prior to joining Mastercard, Sukh was at ICF Next where she was responsible for Enterprise Architecture & Cloud Consulting. Sukh graduated from the University of Waterloo with a Master of Engineering in Computer Networks & Security, and has a certificate in Strategic Management from Harvard University. “A lot of small businesses go under after one cyber attack. Think of cybersecurity as an essential part of business in a post-COVID world.”  In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Ceridian, Sukhmani discusses the rise in cybersecurity attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic and the strategies and tools we can use to protect our data. The post Cybersecurity During COVID with Sukhmani Dev – November 24, 2020 first appeared on Startup Canada.

To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to trust yourself and radically embrace uncertainty, just ask Janice Tsao, Co-Founder of Crying Out Loud.     Janice Tsao is a co-founder of Crying Out Loud. Her personal journey of mental wellness truly began with the sudden death of her partner in 2017, and the hail storm that immediately followed of becoming a young widow and single mom to her 2-year-old son.  Janice comes from a professional background in branding and marketing and is most excited about building an open, authentic, and powerful community of shared experiences and the healing it can provide. She weaves into her grief process exploration of self-awareness and relationships, mental illness and substance use, and what it means (and takes) to love someone struggling with an addiction.  “Everyone can do a better job at trusting their gut and taking that leap.” In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Ceridian, Janice discusses her entrepreneurial journey and the importance of embracing uncertainty through hard times and personal loss.The post Having Trust in Yourself with Janice Tsao – November 17, 2020 first appeared on Startup Canada.

When it comes to your business, the leveraging of open-source intelligence could help to ensure that security is as tight as possible. Just ask Mary Jane Leslie, Chief Growth Officer at LifeRaft Inc. in Halifax, Nova Scotia. MJ specializes in identifying how to leverage open-source intelligence for security programs from enterprise clients to investigative firms. Her career has been focused on the education and implementation of SaaS-based products and services, targeted in the security industry. With a background in technology and communications, MJ understands the unique needs of clients and how to identify solutions for the ever-changing security landscape. “The application is very broad, depending on the industry, but it’s all surrounded by security.” In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Ceridian, Mary Jane discusses how her successes through failures made her into who she is today. The post Navigating the LifeRaft with Mary Jane Leslie – November 10, 2020 first appeared on Startup Canada.

In a fast paced and demanding startup environment, it can sometimes be difficult to sustain your inspiration and productivity. Evita Machevin and Carol Corera of Flying Duchess Inc. believe the key to personal and entrepreneurial success is finding your intrinsic motivation. Referred to as the Mary Poppins of pet sitting, Flying Duchess is the answer to you and your pet’s prayers.  With a long list of happy clients, both two legged and four, they are Toronto’s most loved and recommended in-home pet sitting service providers.   Carol Corera is a recovering academic, with a U of T degree in Art History and Teaching.  She felt that graduate life never quite prepared her for real life. She did however love teaching, and it was her golden ticket to travel the world while doing something she loved.  During this time she never tired of watching and observing how very young children learn. They discovered things about themselves and made connections with the wider world through play and by following their own innate sense of curiosity. It was during this time that she adopted a stray kitten while teaching in the middle east. A cat that inadvertently taught her many life lessons, and is the inspiration behind Flying Duchess.  Evita Machevin is a jack of all trades and an eternal student with an MBA from EDHEC University in France and an undergrad from Schulich at York University. She is the younger sister of Carol and while Carol could be considered the Yin, Evita is the Yang. Knowing from an early age that she wanted to explore and learn from various cultures and contexts, she has used travel as her stepping stone to study and work in multiple countries including Brazil, France, and New Caledonia (an island off the coast of Australia).  When Carol brought the idea of Flying Duchess to Evita, she used her experience and business background to create the base for the Flying Duchess concept. “Adversity is the mother of invention so, really, the pandemic is the perfect time to start creating and building. Don’t give up on your passion – now is the time to grow.” In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Ceridian, Evita and Carol discuss going above and beyond for your clients and finding your intrinsic motivation.The post Finding Your Inner Motivation with Evita Machevin & Carol Corera – November 3, 2020 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Branding has the power to build or break a business, but what is branding and how do you master it? Branding is a choice that starts with strategy, just ask Jeremy Miller! Jeremy Miller is a globally recognized branding expert, and the bestselling author of Sticky Branding and Brand New Name. Jeremy’s path into branding wasn’t traditional. He fell into it out of necessity.  After watching his family’s business nearly hit rock bottom, he was forced to take a hard look at the way the company was run and at their industry as a whole. Jeremy realized it wasn’t his sales people or marketing processes that were failing, it was the brand: their customers couldn’t distinguish them from anyone else.  This insight caused him to rethink, reposition, and rebrand the business. The strategy worked, and within a year the company turned the corner and rocketed into growth mode. And in 2013 Jeremy sold his family’s business to focus exclusively on what he does today: build brands. “Branding is a choice to do something remarkable and serve your customers brilliantly.”   In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Ceridian, Jeremy discusses the power of branding and the massive role strategy plays in building a good brand. The post Building A Brand with Jeremy Miller – October 27, 2020 first appeared on Startup Canada.

COVID-19 has changed the way we work and interact with each other and has left many nervous about the future. The transition from remote work back to the office can be seamless, but only if we follow occupational health and safety legislation – just ask Stuart Ducoffe! Stuart Ducoffe is an employment and labour lawyer, as well as founder of e2r, which powers the Ceridian HR Advisory Services solution. He is also partner and co-founder of Woolgar VanWiechen Cosgriffe Ducoffe, LLP and leads the firm’s employment and labour law practice.  Prior to founding e2r and the law firm, Stuart practiced for many years with one of Canada’s largest and most prestigious Canadian law firms. Stuart is one of only a small group of employment and labour lawyers certified by HRPA as a Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL). “We often think of occupational health and safety in the contexts of manufacturing or mining. Now because of COVID-19, the average office space needs to adhere to this legislation because we need to return to work safely.”  In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Ceridian, Stuart discusses the impact COVID-19 has had on business from a labour law perspective and the factors at play as we all return to the office.The post Business After COVID-19 with Stuart Ducoffe – October 20, 2020 first appeared on Startup Canada.