Afternoon T

Taufiq Rahim is one of Canada's global citizens. He is an investor and an international problem solver. Over the last two decades and in over 20 countries, Taufiq has driven investment, convened conversations and brought together public and private partnerships addressing the most pertinent global issues - from disruptive technology to economic development to geopolitics to global health. His current focus is on shifts in the global order and how individuals and institutions can capture opportunity in a time of rising challenge. He is also building 2040 Ventures, a global platform with a strong belief in the transformative power of the technology of decentralization. This was inspired by the venture syndicate he founded with two partners, YVRDXB to help put a global spotlight on Vancouver's tech start-ups.   Taufiq is a senior fellow in the International Security Program at New America and a fellow at the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government. He has previously worked with McKinsey & Company, the Aga Khan Foundation, and the United Nations, and was the founder of Globesight, a global development firm. 

Jen Lee Koss is an entrepreneur and investor, passionate about supporting, uplifting, and changing the lives of entrepreneurs and working families. She is a founding partner of Springbank Collective, an investment fund that supports early-stage companies re-imagining work, building the care infrastructure, and developing solutions for working families. Through Springbank, Jen is actively shaping the future of work and family life, by backing startups that leverage technology and community to make life more manageable, fulfilling, and equitable. In 2012, Jen co-founded BRIKA, an innovative retail agency focused on creating curated retail experiences. BRIKA was acquired in 2022 by Salt XC and has been featured in numerous publications, and has won several awards for its mission-driven approach to retail. Before BRIKA, Jen worked in management consulting, investment banking and private equity. She serves as a board member of both public and private companies in North America and Europe. In addition, she is a Juilliard-trained cellist, a mother of 4 young children and a graduate of Harvard University, Oxford University, and Harvard Business School. Join us as we learn from her wisdom, and discover what it takes to build successful and meaningful businesses in today's world.

Anthonia Ogundele is the Founder and Executive Director of the Ethos Lab Educational Society. Ethos Lab is a non-profit STEM and culture-focused Innovation Academy for youth ages 13-18 that provides access to emerging technologies, culture, and a community of innovators.  Antonia's career has been as a resilience professional. Most recently, she was with VanCity Credit Union. And has held various positions in Emergency Management within the Ontario Government and continues to consult with the World Bank. Antonia has a passion for community. In 2016, she founded the Hogan's Alley Land Trust, which evolved into the Hogan's Alley Society and was the former Chair of the Coal Harbour Residents Association. In 2016, she founded the Cheeky Proletariat gallery, an accessible and inclusive space for the free expression of all people.

In episode 80 of the Afternoon T Podcast, Chris sits down for a chat with the Consul General of Canada in San Fransisco, Rana Sarkar. Rana has also held various senior leadership positions in the public and private sectors. He served as the National Director for High Growth Markets at KPMG Canada, where he advised Canadian companies on how to expand into emerging markets. He also worked as the President and CEO of the Canada-India Business Council and had various roles in multiple great organizations in London, UK. He is a Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto and has served as an advisor to several Canadian political leaders. Rana holds a Master's degree in Government from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Queen's University.

This week TTT president and co-founder Chris Hobbs sits down with the CEO of Startup Canada, Kayla Isabelle for Episode 79 of the Afternoon "T" Podcast. With over a decade of experience in the startup ecosystem, Kayla is an expert in supporting entrepreneurs and building thriving startup communities across the country. During our conversation, we'll be discussing Kayla's insights on the challenges facing Canadian entrepreneurs, the latest trends and innovations in the startup world, and how Startup Canada is working to support entrepreneurs at all stages of their journey. As a special bonus, for a limited time, and in limited quantities listeners can use promo code SCTOUR20 for free tickets to the Startup Canada Tour

Episode 78 of the Afternoon "T" Podcast finds Chris Hobbs chatting with the founder of Lions Gate International, Maninder Dhaliwal. In addition to being the President and Co-founder of Lions Gate International Maninder is also the Managing Partner at Startup Studio - an Accelerator & Early Stage Venture Capital Fund, the Founding Chair of TiE Incubation Lab with a focus on supporting Canadian Pre-seed Startups, and serves on the steering committee for TiE Global Angels, the largest angel investor network in the world. Maninder has been recognized by several awards including: Business in Vancouver's Top 40 under 40, Diversity 50 - Canada's most diverse and eligible board candidates, and Thomson Reuters' Canada's Top 40 influencers in Finance, Innovation and Risk Management.

For episode 77 of the Afternoon "T" Podcast Chris sits down to chat with Canadian VC legend John Ruffolo. John is the founder and Managing Partner at Maverix Private Equity, as well as the former CEO of OMERS Ventures, one of the largest and most active venture capital firms in Canada. Under his leadership, OMERS Ventures invested in several successful Canadian startups, including Shopify, Xanadu, Jobber, Hootsuite,  Desire 2 Learn, Hopper,  League, and Wattpad.  John also co-founded the Council of Canadian Innovators with Jim Balsillie, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping high-growth Canadian technology firms scale globally. As an active board member, John works with many leading innovative organizations including AI Partnerships Corp., engineering.com, Ether Capital, and OneEleven. John is equally recognized for his involvement in the non-profit sector, including serving as a member on the boards of the David Suzuki Foundation, the CIBC Foundation, and the Royal Ontario Museum to name a few.

Andre Charoo is a prominent figure in the venture capital industry, known for his expertise in early-stage investments and his ability to identify promising startups. Andre Charoo began his career in finance before transitioning to the venture capital industry working with some legendary companies on the way. He was one of Uber's first 25 employees and led Hired's expansion into 16 markets across 6 countries. In 2016 he founded Maple VC where he has backed some great startups including Neo, Layer Zero, and Reno Run. On top of this, Andre is the Co-Chair of the C100 tasked with helping organize the world's most influential Canadians in tech.

Sam Gharegozlou of Axiom Zen and Dapper Labs joins Chris Hobbs to for episode 75 of the Afternoon "T" Podcast. Sam Gharegozlou is a true innovator in the tech world, and his impact on the industry has been undeniable. With his passion for technology and entrepreneurship, he has been able to turn his vision into reality, co-founding multiple successful companies that are pushing the boundaries of what is possible in their respective industries. Dapper Labs, the blockchain-based company that Sam co-founded, is best known for creating CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot, two of the most popular decentralized applications on the Ethereum blockchain. The company's mission is to make blockchain technology accessible and user-friendly, and they have become a leader in the crypto space. Axiom Zen, the tech studio co-founded by Sam, is a hotbed of innovation and creativity. The company specializes in developing cutting-edge technologies and products such as Zen Hub and Routific.

David Helliwell of Thrive health joins Chris Hobbs to launch season 6 in episode 74 of the Afternoon "T" Podcast. Join us as David discusses lessons from his time working in government, being humbled by professional windsurfers, and how there comes a time when an entrepreneur needs to "throw away the crutches" to find success.

A little bit of different feel this week in the final episode of Season 5 as Chris welcomes legendary Canadian journalist Kirk LaPointe. Join us for a thoughtful chat about his depth of experience that includes publicly breaking the law, and running for mayor of Vancouver (note: not at the same time).   We also welcome Vancouver Tech Journal Managing Editor Kate Wilson (52:00), who shares how rather than waiting for someone to die, she chose to pursue a career in journalism.

Tamer Mohamed of Aspect Biosystems joins Chris Hobbs this week for Episode 72 of the Afternoon "T" podcast. Join us while Tamer discusses how Aspect Biosystems is breaking ground in the treatment of diabetes (7:40), being humbled by the power of biology (53:00), and how "Unreasonable" (almost) tempted him to get a tattoo (50:00). We'll also hear from this week's "Startup we love" CTO Michael Sousa of SingleKey (26:40) who also chimes in with a question for Tamer about how soon we'll get to see some of Aspect Biosystems work in the world around us.

This week Steve Irvine of integrate.ai joins Chris Hobbs for Episode 71 of the Afternoon "T" podcast. Listen in as Steve discusses his time with Facebook, now Meta, and the interesting transition from small and agile to large and responsible (30:00) and how his greatest growth and learning, came from his objectively least successful startup (1:07:00). We'll also hear from this weeks "Startup we love" founder Reza Varzidehkar of OVOU (48:00), who also chimes in with a question for Steve about data in startup world.

Join host Chris Hobbs for Episode 70 of the Afternoon "T" podcast, with guest Harold Dumur of OVA.   Join us as Harold discusses putting Elton John's "this train don't stop there anymore" to the top of the Musique Plus charts as a teenager (1:00:00), how a shared passion for the metaverse him kept him focused through challenging early days (9:30), and what his current choice is for the best VR hardware (17:00).   We'll also hear from Vancouver Startup Week co-chairs Vivian Chan and Katty Wang (26:30), who also chime in with a question for Harold about the tech startup scene in Quebec.

In Episode 69 of the Afternoon "T" podcast Chris Neumann joins host Chris hobbs for a chat. Have a listen while Chris Neumann discusses how venture capitalists need to have the qualities of both a hunter and a farmer (4:20), how vastly different the investment environment in Silicon Valley is from the rest of the world (23:00), and offers his thoughts for tech founders seeking investment in this changing economic landscape (33:00). We'll also learn a little about this week's "Startup we love" Wavy courtesy of co-founder Shawn Hewat (26:30), who joins us with a question for Chris Neumann.

Listen in for Episode 68 of the AfternoonT Podcast as Chris is joined by Wattpad co-founder Allen Lau. Join Chris as Allen discusses why as a founder, you have to be your first and best customer (9:00), how a blog provided the perfect timing for pitching to investors (10:30), and how a global mindset is Canada's competitive advantage in todays tech landscape (59:00). We'll also hear a little about this weeks "Startup we love" ShopThing from co-founder Maggie Adhami-Boynton (38:30) - who has a question for Allen, and actually knows both Allen and his wife Eva - in her words - "we love the Laus!"

Join us for Episode 67 of the AfternoonT Podcast as Chris is joined by Michael Stephens a leading information technology partner at Fasken law firm. Hear Michael's thoughts on the strategic vs marketed merger and acquisition process (19:00), the three areas young startups tend to stumble over as they go through M & A (34:00), and how the role of a lawyer goes beyond the contracts, but how they can help the acquirer run the company after they buy it (42:00). Christina Cai also joins us briefly to introduce to Toronto based startup Lydia.AI, and to ask a Michael question on behalf of startup founders everywhere (27:00).

In episode 66 Chris sits down for a chat with BlackTech Capital founder and Enliten CEO Bryan Duarte. Listen in as Bryan discusses Canada's place in the global Clean Tech industry (13:00), the unique challenges faced by underrepresented entrepreneurs (47:00), and the critically important lessons he learned from his time in the pipeline business with Enbridge (50:00). We also get a peek at Charitable Impact, one of this season's Startups we Love, courtesy of founder John Bromley (25:00), who also has a question for Bryan about the importance of core values in evaluating investment opportunities.

In episode 65, Chris sits down with Brenda Bailey, elected MLA for Vancouver-False Creek in 2020 and now serving as the Parliamentary Secretary for Technology and Innovation.    Join Chris while Brenda discusses what she's learned about the world of government from the inside (6:00), and what priorities have driven her life in politics since she arrived (13:00).   How she learned that sometimes the biggest mistake can be doing exactly what you want (35:00), and what insights into leadership she's gained from her kindergarten report card (51:00).    We also get a peek at Couply, one of this season's Startups we love, courtesy of Co-founder Tim Johnson (32:00), who also has a question for Brenda about her journey through entrepreneurship and politics.

In episode 64, Chris sits down with Grammarly co-founder Max Lytvyn, who has made it his mission to help people communicate clearly. Tackling such a complex language problem requires an exceptional team.  Join Chris while Max discusses the values that have helped guide scaling Grammarly to address such a challenge (15:30), and how being an immigrant himself informed his understanding of the superficial judgments immigrants are often subject to, including how they use language when working together (35:00).  While people often differ in their perception of the importance of luck and role models in success, whatever your view, Max suggests how you can affect your chances of success a thousandfold (50:00), and how you can learn important lessons from everyone around you (54:00).  We also get a peek at Makeship, the first of this season's Startups we love segment, courtesy of Co-founder Rakan Al-Shawaf (30:00), who also has a question for Max about the early days of Grammarly.

David Abbey is a serial entrepreneur, founding his first business back in 2003.  After his exit in 2006 David enjoyed some time abroad while shifting into the world of tech startups, earning an enviable reputation for creating strategic partnerships, fostering growth within companies, and identifying opportunities to improve businesses.   David first dreamed up Penny, an AI-powered virtual assistant, while witnessing his wife's challenges running a successful direct sales business.  Never one to sit still with an idea, in 2018 David cofounded Penny AI with Chris Noble, together building a tool to help millions of direct sales consultants grow their business.

In 2000, Dave Wessinger co-founded PointClickCare with his brother Mike.  Together they pioneered healthcare's digital transformation and drove improved outcomes for seniors and care teams through technology. Today, PointClickCare boasts one of Canada's most admired corporate cultures with over 1,500 employees who currently serve over 26,000 care providers, establishing PointClickCare as the largest cloud-based healthcare platform in North America. Dave has earned recognition for the foresight and innovation that helps thousands reimagine the way technology can be used to communicate, collaborate, and improve care across the healthcare continuum. 

Andrew Graham is co-founder and CEO of Borrowell, a financial technology company that helps consumers make great decisions about credit. Borrowell was the first company in Canada to offer credit scores for free and has grown to be one of the country's largest fintech companies, with over 2 million users. Borrowell has won numerous awards, including being named one of the top 100 fintech companies in the world.    Earlier in his career, Andrew held senior roles in corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions. Andrew holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MA in economics from the University of Edinburgh. He is a frequent speaker on topics including innovation and fintech. Andrew served as the board chair of The Canadian Club of Toronto and co-founded Toronto Homecoming, a social enterprise.

Dan Burgar is a cheerleader and innovator who has helped Vancouver become a global powerhouse in VR/AR/Metaverse. Dan is the co-founder and CEO of the Frontier Collective, a coalition of leaders in tech, culture, and community driving forward the development and support of Web3, the metaverse, VR/AR, climate tech, AI, and eSports. Furthermore, Dan  serves as the president of the Vancouver VR/AR Association, an organization with a mission to make Vancouver/BC a world leading hub for growing and scaling VR/AR companies  Nominated as one of 2021's LinkedIn Top Voices: Technology & Innovation, BIV's Top Forty Under 40, and named as a BC500 leader, Dan has written for and offered tech insights to publications including TechCrunch, Betakit, VR Scout, DailyHive, and BC Business. Dan has curated events and spoken at venues around the globe including Web Summit, SXSW, and the TED Conference. Dan also advises and mentors many fast-growing startups and entrepreneurs with an emphasis on diversity.

Marcus New is the Managing Partner & Chief Entrepreneur of InvestX Capital. InvestX investments have included; SpaceX, Airbnb, Lyft, Impossible Foods, Pinterest, Spotify, Palantir, Dropbox, Docusign, Kraken and other global category leaders. Furthermore, through Marcus's family office, he has led more than 150 private placements into early-stage private and public companies.    Prior to InvestX, Marcus was the Founder and Chairman (and previously the CEO) of Stockhouse Publishing – one of North America's leading online financial communities and a global hub for accredited investors. Before launching Stockhouse, Marcus built Stockgroup Media, an online information company whose client base consisted of the top Canadian brokerage firms, global institutional sales desks, and hedge funds.   Marcus is an active participant in the entrepreneurial community, having served as the past President of the Vancouver Chapter and Canadian Conference Chair for the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO).

Founder & CEO of Terramera, Karn Manhas is an entrepreneur with more than 15 years of leadership experience in government, community, and business development. Karn is responsible for the vision and strategic direction of Terramera, which develops high-performance, plant-based alternatives to synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilizers, including products for agriculture, professional and consumer applications.  Prior to Terramera, Karn was elected as the youngest member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in British Columbia in 2001. He's a member of YPO, and was named one of Business in Vancouver's top Forty Under 40. Karn holds a Juris Doctor in Law from the University of British Columbia and a B.Sc. in Biology (Genetics) and Biotechnology from McGill University.

Jay Giraud is an automotive tech entrepreneur focused on launching companies that redefine mobility. Jay has built successful products and companies by marrying disruptive solutions with disruptive business models as the founder, inventor, and CEO of three automotive tech startups. These include his current company, Damon, with a mission to cause a paradigm shift for safer, smarter motorcycling. Mojio, a Scalable, secure and hardware-agnostic platform and SaaS provider to build and scale connected mobility services. And Rapid Electric Vehicles (REV) an early-mover cleantech vehicle technology company with a ready-for-market solution to help meet the challenge of becoming carbon neutral.  On top of this, Jay spent a good portion of the 90's living out all of our dreams as a competitive snowboarder.

Evgeny (Ev) Tchebotarev began photography in 2002 and since then he has spent the entirety of his professional career dedicated to the betterment of visual creativity. In 2021, He co-founded Sloika in order to build a new NFT experience for photographers. In early 2004, before Facebook and photo-sharing sites, Ev created 500 px, a community for millions of photographers to meet and share photos and information. Between his two startups, Evgeny was Skylum Software's Chief Growth Officer expanding Skylum's business in Asia and allowing Ev to work and travel all over the continent. Ev is an active photographer and has been honoured to judge many world-class photo contests, including Red Bull Illume, Photo Life, and the Sony World Photography Awards. Originally from Moscow, Ev has earned a BA in Commerce and Finance from Ryerson University in Toronto, graduating with honours in 2007.

Tanis Jorge is a serial tech entrepreneur and a leading advisor on entrepreneurship and building successful cofounder partnerships. Throughout her career in startups, spanning the last 20 years, Tanis has cofounded, scaled, and successfully exited multiple data-driven businesses with the same partner.   Her successes culminated with her most recent venture, Trulioo, which she co-founded in 2011. Between 2011 and 2015, Tanis served as Chief Operations Officer of Trulioo, working to lay the groundwork and building the foundation for the trusted, innovative, and disruptive company it has become today. In 2021, Trulioo reached unicorn status (US $1.65B valuation), solidifying its place as the world's leading identity verification company and Jorge's track record for founding successful businesses. Today, Tanis is one of the go-to voices and experts on the cofounder relationship, drawing on her experience co-founding and successfully scaling four technology businesses. Advising fast-growing start-ups and leading venture capitalists, her work focuses on how cofounders can function in an open, productive, and symbiotic way to ensure continued and long-term business success.

Marlon Thompson is an angel investor, startup founder and experienced advocate for diversity in business. Thompson founded Future Capital in 2020 to change the landscape of startup investing across North America. In addition to his role as CEO at Future Capital, Thompson serves as a member of the Board of Directors for QueerTech - a Montreal-based non-profit organisation that aims to queer the tech ecosytem, and as a Venture Partner for LOI Venture. Prior to launching Future Capital - Marlon developed and led diversity initiatives that support founders and investors for the likes of League of Innovators, and Highline Beta. In addition to his work on diversifying the tech and VC industries, Marlon is a current community representative for the Rainbow Foundation of Hope and has served as a refugee sponsor in partnership with Rainbow Refugee Foundation & the National Film Board of Canada.

Chris Albinson is the President & CEO of Communitech, Co-Founder & Managing Director of the BreakawayGrowth Fund, and visionary founder and past chairperson of the C100. Albinson has been an early investor in impactful companies, including Pinterest, Docusign, Newbridge Networks & Juniper Networks. Chris is a mentor and/or advisor for TechStars, Garage Capital, SAAS North, and the Canadian Innovation Exchange. Earlier in his career, Chris was a General Partner at JP Morgan Partners and earned an MBA from the Ivey Business School.

Toufic Boubez is a serial entrepreneur with three successful exits to his name. He was the founding CTO of Saffron Technology with a mission of building cognitive computing systems for Big Data which was acquired by Intel, Metafor Software where he developed next-generation machine learning analytics and anomaly detection for IT Ops and Security that was acquired by Splunk, and Layer 7 Technologies one of the most successful vendors in the API Management/ SOA Governance and Security space that was acquired by Computer Associates (CA)). Prior,Toufic was the Chief Architect for SOA at IBM's Software Group, and the Chief Architect for IBM's Web Services tools. He holds a BSc and a Masters of Electrical Engineering degrees from McGill University and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University. Toufic is currently the CTO and CPO at MacroHealth, helping to create Intelligent Healthcare Markets.

Michelle Zatlyn is co-founder, President, and COO of Cloudflare, the Internet security, performance, and reliability company on a mission to help build a better Internet. Prior to co-founding Cloudflare, Michelle held positions at Google and Toshiba and launched two successful startups. Michelle currently serves on the board of directors for Atlassian and the World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders Foundation. Michelle has been named to Fortune's 40 Under 40 list and was part of Marie Claire's 7th Annual New Guard. She holds a B.S. degree, with distinction, from McGill University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was awarded the Dubilier Prize for Entrepreneurship.

William Johnson is the founder and managing editor of the Vancouver Tech Journal. With a focus on business and technology, William's writing has been featured in outlets including Maclean's, The Globe & Mail, BCBusiness, and the Daily Hive. In addition, William has been a speaker on communications and innovation at events like the #BCTECHSummit, TechVancouver, Marketing Connect, and BC AMA's Vision conference. Being an Ontario transplant, William studied political science at Carleton University and public relations at the University of Toronto.

Janet Bannister is the Managing Partner of Real Ventures, Canada's preeminent early-stage venture capital firm.  In addition to leading Real Ventures and working with her large portfolio of rapidly growing tech companies, Janet is very active in the Canadian tech ecosystem; she is on the Boards of Communitech in Waterloo and Vector Institute in Toronto. In 2004, Janet launched Kijiji.ca and grew it to become one of the most visited websites in Canada.  This year, Janet became the co-chair of the C100… which is the leading global community of Canadian tech leaders, dedicated to supporting, inspiring and connecting the most promising Canadian entrepreneurial leaders, and a group I am very proud to be a member of. Personally, I am very excited to see the direction she will take the C100 through her stewardship.

Today is a special episode of the AfternoonT as I have Sarathy Niacker and Jason Smith co-founders of Klue - an AI-powered Competitive Enablement platform designed to help product marketers collect, curate, and deliver actionable competitor insights to empower revenue teams to win more business. Sarathy is an experienced software professional with a deep background in data processing, security, and design. Prior to founding Klue, Sarathy has played an important role with local tech firms Active State and Sophos. Meanwhile, Jason Smith is the co-founder, investor or early employee of 5 start-ups including acting as the former President of Vision Critical (startup to 500+ people), VP of Electronic Arts and co-founder of web applications pioneer- the Columbus Group which was acquired by TELUS.

Sunil Sharma is the Managing Director of the Techstars Toronto Accelerator, Techstars' first accelerator program in Canada. Previously, Sunil was founder of Extreme Startups, managed a Canadian Consulate in California, and worked as a venture capitalist. Sunil has taken on the co-organizer role for one of the largest tech and startup conferences in the world, Toronto's own Collision and is the co-host of Web Summit in Lisbon where last month I witnessed him introduce some of the world's biggest movers and shakers to the stage.

Web Summit is an annual technology conference held in Lisbon, Portugal. The conference's theme centers on emerging technologies and venture capitalism. Web Summit's partners range from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, with attendees representing all levels and sectors of the global high technology industry.  Since returning to Canada, Chris has been asked questions about the event by many people and the professionals he met there. So, we decided to host a special Web Summit Edition of the Afternoon "T" podcast to discuss the success/takeaways of the event, tech trends, and the experience of our five special guests: Anastasia Pash, Bruce Reynolds, Casey Lau, Damarys Zampini, and Michael Souza.

Cybele Negris is a serial entrepreneur, seasoned board member, speaker, mentor, and columnist. In 2000, Cybele became the CEO & Co-Founder of Webnames.ca, Canada's original .CA Registrar. Cybele serves on multiple boards including Blue Shore Financial,Canadian American Business Council, Science World, BCAA, The Royal Canadian Mint, BC Small Business Roundtable, Riverview Lands Redevelopment, and Women get on Board. A Hall of Fame Inductee of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women and nine-time winner of PROFIT W100, some of Cybele's other recognitions include BC Business Most Influential Women in Business  and Business In Vancouver's Influential Women in Business and a Top 40 Under 40.   Cybele is a columnist for Business in Vancouver, Marketing News Canada and a regular contributor to Forbes Business Council. She speaks at dozens of events each year including TEDx and Level Up Conference with former Prime Ministers Harper & Chretien.  

Mike Potter is the co-founder and CEO of Rewind, a leading cloud data backup provider trusted by over 30,000 businesses to protect their data on platforms such as BigCommerce, Shopify and QuickBooks. A veteran entrepreneur,  Mike has over 25 years of experience building solutions for the software, cloud and data analytics space, including tenures at Adobe and Mozilla. He earned his MBA from the University of Ottawa and his B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering from McMaster University. Mike currently resides in Ottawa, Canada. 

Bertrand Nepveu has spent his entire career working in the field of computer vision. From a very young age, he knew that he wanted to be an entrepreneur like his grandfather and change the world. Hardcore gamer since Donkey Kong on the Coleco Vision, he became obsessed with virtual reality when he tried the PowerGlove on the NES. Bertrand founded Vrvana in 2005 in order to fulfill his dream of improving the gaming experience by bringing the user inside the game. In 2017 he sold the company and technology to Apple. Bertrand now spends his time as an advisor and investor.

Kirk Simpson is the co-founder and CEO of Toronto-based Wave. He's a serial entrepreneur, having started multiple businesses prior. Kirk has led Wave to become an internationally disruptive fintech company, building a team of more than 200 people before being acquired for $537 million. Kirk is an advisor for the Creative Destruction Lab at Rotman, an active angel investor, and has been a mentor for the Next36. He believes in paying it forward and loves to empower up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

Tobyn Sowden is the CEO of Redbrick, the parent organization to a growing portfolio of companies. Redbrick has been ranked the 5th Fastest-Growing Company in Canada and 2nd in software, by PROFIT 500. Tobyn is responsible for defining Redbrick's overall business strategy, including new product development and future business growth. His extensive professional and personal experiences have given him valuable expertise in building, launching, and growing award-winning companies, and delivering excellent operational management and technology products.

Andrew Reid is the founder of Rival Technologies, Co-founder of Rival Group Inc. and Group CEO. He also founded Vision Critical, a cloud-based customer-intelligence platform provider. An industry visionary, Andrew has long been an evangelist for change and a passionate advocate for creating a workplace culture people want to be a part of.

Matt Smith is a technology entrepreneur who has founded multiple technology startups, including Thinkific and Later, both highly successful SaaS companies that help businesses succeed online. Thinkific is an online course platform that enables entrepreneurs to create, market, sell, and deliver their own online courses. In 2020, Thinkific's 50,000 active course creators earned hundreds of millions of dollars in direct course sales. Later has helped over 4 million people from global brands to small businesses with their digital marketing. Matt is currently the Chief Strategy Officer at Thinkific, where he is responsible for setting the long-term direction of the company and shaping the path to get there.

Alison Taylor is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Jane, an online platform for healthcare practitioners that delivers a unified approach to online booking, charting, scheduling, video services, and payments. Now, Jane helps thousands of practitioners across the world with the business side of their practice, so they can focus on what they do best — helping their clients. Alison's company has gotten here by pushing the envelope and challenging tech industry norms. Jane doesn't have a sales team, in fact, Alison calls herself the antithesis of sales, and lets the product speak for itself.

Philippe Beaudoin is a venture scientist constantly looking for ideas that can improve society. In 2020, he co-founded Waverly where he and his team are building a discovery engine for our increasingly diverse social and content landscapes. Before that, in 2016, Philippe co-founded Element AI, a world leader in enterprise AI.

Kim Kaplan is the CEO of Snack, a video dating app that combines the matching algorithms of dating apps with the ability to share your life in real-time. Snack aims to disrupt the dating industry, being a video-first app that caters to Gen Z.

Maria Pacella is the Senior VP and Managing Partner at Pender Ventures, and has over 20 years of investing and operational experience in emerging growth companies, with a focus on technology businesses. She spent 11 years with one of Canada's largest venture capital firms where she invested in multiple early-stage ventures and served on a variety of boards in the areas of enterprise software and health-tech.

Ian Crosby is the co-founder and CEO of Bench, North America's largest bookkeeping service. Ian co-founded Bench Accounting, an all-in-one banking and accounting platform and service for small business owners.  Bench has raised over $100M to date and has been ranked the fastest growing company in British Columbia, according to the Deloitte Fast 50 list in multiple years. Ian has received numerous awards for leadership including Forbes 30 under 30 and Canada's Top 40 under 40.