Backstage Pass, by Front Row Ventures

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So, you’ve grabbed a seat at the Front Row, and now we’re taking you backstage into Canada’s tech ecosystem and its success stories. We asked Canada’s leading investors, founders, and tech minds to share their experiences. From successful Canadians doing business in Canada to expats working abroad, we deep dive into their journey to success and the stories behind it. Come in close. Brace yourselves for the real stories; because we had the same questions. So we asked them. This is Backstage Pass, the podcast by Front Row Ventures.

Front Row Ventures


    • May 15, 2023 LATEST EPISODE
    • infrequent NEW EPISODES
    • 1h 5m AVG DURATION
    • 13 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Backstage Pass, by Front Row Ventures

    Brice Scheschuk - Navigating the Tides of Entrepreneurship: From Maritime Officer to WIND Mobile Billion-Dollar Exit (S2.E4)

    Play Episode Listen Later May 15, 2023 76:43


    Navigating the Tides of Entrepreneurship: From Maritime Officer to WIND Mobile Billion-Dollar Exit (S2.E4) Welcome to Season 2, episode 4 of Backstage Pass, the podcast by Front Row Ventures taking you behind the scenes into Canada's tech ecosystem and its success stories. We'll be hosting Canada's top investors, founders, and tech minds and asking them the questions that matter to you. Today, we're super excited to have Brice Scheschuk as our guest Brice is the Managing Partner of Globalive Capital as well as the CEO of Globalive Communications. He was a co-founder and CFO of WIND Mobile, which was acquired by Shaw in 2015 for $1.6B dollars. Brice has over twenty-five years of experience building and operating companies. He obtained his CPA, CA designation at PWC and B.Comm (Hon.) Finance from Dalhousie University. In addition to ALL of that, Brice also served as a Maritime Surface Officer in the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve. He now serves on numerous boards and advisory committees and is a frequent speaker on scale-up entrepreneurship and innovation. Finally, during the pandemic, he co-founded MindFrame Connect, a not-for-profit focused on elevating the craft of mentorship and improving entrepreneurial resiliency. In this episode, we'll cover all of that and more - We deep dive into Brice's entrepreneurial journey and how he engineered one of Canada's greatest telecom acquisitions. He also cracks open how to evolve as a leader through self-awareness and the unmatched importance of psychological safety on high-performance teams. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Brice About FRV: FRV is Canada's first and largest university-focused VC firm. We invest in those leveraging cutting-edge technologies to create and redefine industries.

    Chris Arsenault - Building Canada's Largest Multi-Stage VC Firm, Inovia Capital, With Over US$2.2B AUM (S2.E3.)

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 24, 2022 57:26


    Welcome to Season 2, episode 3 of Backstage Pass, the podcast by Front Row Ventures taking you behind the scenes into Canada's tech ecosystem and its success stories. Today, we're happy to have Chris Arsenault as our guest. Chris is the co-founder, President & CEO of Inovia Capital, one of Canada's largest Venture Capital firms with now over $2.2 billion dollars under management. Chris currently serves as a director on the boards of AppDirect, Groupe Dynamite, Poka, Snapcommerce, LifeHouse; and, until recently, Lightspeed (which IPOed in 2020), and Luxury Retreats (acquired by Airbnb in 2017) Prior to Inovia, Chris co-founded and launched a number of Software, Mobile and Consumer Internet technology start-up companies, including two spin-offs of telecom giants Microcell and Teleglobe. His work in the mid-90's as co-founder and CEO of SIT provided him with the opportunity to play an important part in the initial growth of the Internet. As one of Netscape's first external partners and integrators, SIT was sold to Ubizen of Belgium in 1999 for €42 million. In this episode, we'll cover all of that and more - We deep dive into Chris' entrepreneurial journey before he became an investor. And how a guy born on the northeastern tip of Quebec, almost 10 hours from Montreal, went on to build one of Canada's largest VC firms. Without further a due, here's, Chris Arsenault.

    Kim Furlong - The role of VC and PE firms in pushing Canada's Tech Ecosystem forward (S2.E2)

    Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2022 61:38


    Welcome to Season 2, episode 2 of Backstage Pass, the podcast by Front Row Ventures taking you behind the scenes into Canada's tech ecosystem and its success stories. Today, we're happy to have Kim Furlong. Kim is the CEO of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association--the CVCA. The CVCA is an organization that represents Canada's private capital ecosystem. They speak to governments and create opportunities to voice the most pressing issues in the Canadian private capital landscape. Prior to the CVCA, she spent five years in the Canadian government and a decade at Amgen as VP of Federal Government Affairs. She graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor in American History, and from Carleton with a Master of International Trade and Finance. In this episode, we'll cover all of that and more. So, without further ado, here's Kim Furlong.

    Francois Arbour: Bootstrapping to a 32M+ acquisition, and the importance of mental health for tech founders (S2.E1.)

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 17, 2021 81:16


    Welcome to Season 2 of Backstage Pass! On this episode, we're super happy to have Francois Arbour! Francois is an active entrepreneur, mentor, and angel Investor with over 20 years of experience in technology and marketing. He founded and bootstrapped PremiumBeat to an eventual 32M+ sale to Shutterstock. Since the acquisition, he has led over 50+ investments in early-stage start-ups in Canada and globally. He's back in the game as a founder through Designstripe, a new tech startup. In this episode, we go way beyond the professional, and into the less-talked-about subjects in tech. We'll hear from Francois about mental health, and why it's such an important issue. Front Row Ventures is excited to take you backstage into Canada's tech ecosystem and its success stories. We asked Canada's leading investors, founders, and tech minds to share their experiences. From successful Canadians doing business in Canada to expats working abroad, we deep dive into their journey to success and the stories behind it. Come in close. Brace yourselves for the real stories; because we had the same questions. So we asked them.

    Iain Klugman: Building Communitech, Canada's leading tech hub (S1.E8)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2021 63:16


    Iain Klugman was the President and CEO of Communitech for the past 17 years. He grew Communitech into one of North America's leading tech hubs and into a central node in Ontario's start-up support system. To this day, Communitech has supported the growth of thousands of technology companies. Last year, he announced that he would be stepping down from his role while assuming a new role: Executive Advisor to the CEO. Prior to Communitech, Iain was the CEO of a provincial crown corporation, Executive Director of Communications at CBC, and Director of Global Branding and Advertising for Nortel. He's held various public-sector positions, and even fought forest fires for 7 years! Iain is one of the most influential people in Canada's start-up ecosystem. Stay tuned.

    Leah Lawrence: 20+ years of building Canada's cleantech ecosystem (S1.E7)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 1, 2021 69:12


    Leah Lawrence is the CEO of Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). The SDTC is Canada's premier ecosystem builder, established by the Government of Canada to invest in clean technology companies across various sectors and stages (from seed to scale-up). Across its funds, the SDTC has deployed over C$1.28B to its 450 portfolio companies. She's been in the cleantech industry for over 20 years. On this episode of Backstage Pass, Leah answers our biggest questions about cleantech. How did the movement start? From where do cleantech entrepreneurs get their ideas? How does investing in cleantech differ from investing in tech? And how will things change in the future?

    JF Pariseau: Amplifying Canada's healthcare unicorns (S1.E6.)

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 18, 2021 75:33


    This week on Backstage Pass, we spoke to Jean-François Pariseau. JF is the founding partner of Amplitude Ventures, one of Canada's most successful healthcare VC firms. Prior to Amplitude, JF led BDC's Healthcare team for 17 years, and started 2 companies out of university. In this episode, JF talks about his various investing experiences, insights on the healthcare industry, and successful exits (most recently the 1.3B acquisition of Clementia Pharma). Front Row Ventures is excited to take you backstage into Canada's tech ecosystem and its success stories. We asked Canada's leading investors, founders, and tech minds to share their experiences. From successful Canadians doing business in Canada to expats working abroad, we deep dive into their journey to success and the stories behind it. Come in close. Brace yourselves for the real stories; because we had the same questions. So we asked them.

    Chris Neumann: Building 2 successful exits to narrowing the expertise gap between Silicon Valley and the world (S1.E5.)

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2021 83:48


    Have you ever wondered what makes Silicon Valley such a successful ecosystem? Or why there's so much big data buzz? Chris was the founder of DataHero (acquired by Cloudability), and employee #1 at AsterData (acquired by Teradata for USD$263m). In this episode, we had the opportunity to talk to Chris about his experiences at the forefront of technology—from the inception of big data to Motorola's attempt at designing the iPhone. Chris also discusses the drivers behind Silicon Valley's success, and how he plans to narrow the expertise gap between Silicon Valley and the rest of the world, starting with Canada, through Commonwealth Ventures. Front Row Ventures is excited to take you backstage into Canada's tech ecosystem and its success stories. We asked Canada's leading investors, founders, and tech minds to share their experiences. From successful Canadians doing business in Canada to expats working abroad, we deep dive into their journey to success and the stories behind it. Come in close. Brace yourselves for the real stories; because we had the same questions. So we asked them.

    Janet Bannister: From joining Ebay, founding Kijiji Canada, to leading a full-stack VC firm at Real Ventures (S1.E4.)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2021 52:50


    Janet is the Managing Partner of Real Ventures, Canada's most active seed VC firm. Prior to Real Ventures, Janet founded Kijiji Canada, was an early-stage executive at eBay, and a management consultant at McKinsey and Company. In this episode, we had the opportunity to talk to Janet about her various experiences from growing Kijiji to become the largest classifieds sites in Canada and one of the most visited sites in the country to building a full-stack VC firm at Real Ventures. Front Row Ventures is excited to take you backstage into Canada's tech ecosystem and its success stories. We asked Canada's leading investors, founders, and tech minds to share their experiences. From successful Canadians doing business in Canada to expats working abroad, we deep dive into their journey to success and the stories behind it. Come in close. Brace yourselves for the real stories; because we had the same questions. So we asked them.

    Matt Chessco: Pursuing your passions, from engineer to artist (S1.E3.)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2021 67:28


    Matt Chessco is a full-time artist with over 2 million followers on various social platforms. He built his product and his brand by revolutionizing pop art and optimizing it for virtual platforms. Prior to becoming an artist, he was a mechanical engineer and an Investment Associate at Front Row Ventures. In this episode, we explore Matt's career transition from engineer to artist, and his process for creating viral online art. Front Row Ventures is excited to take you backstage into Canada's tech ecosystem and its success stories. We asked Canada's leading investors, founders, and tech minds to share their experiences. From successful Canadians doing business in Canada to expats working abroad, we deep dive into their journey to success and the stories behind it. Come in close. Brace yourselves for the real stories; because we had the same questions. So we asked them.

    Nicolas Synnott: Building the African tech ecosystem, and it's challenges (S1.E2.)

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 18, 2020 80:08


    Nicolas Synnott is part of East African Power, a renewable energy development company looking to bring sustainable energy to people across Africa. Previous to EAP, he co-founded Front Row Ventures, and was an integral part of Engineers Without Borders' investment arm. In this episode, we explore Nicolas' experience in Africa, and his outlook on various developments there. He also shares practical advice on culture and people. Front Row Ventures is excited to take you backstage into Canada's tech ecosystem and its success stories. We asked Canada's leading investors, founders, and tech minds to share their experiences. From successful Canadians doing business in Canada to expats working abroad, we deep dive into their journey to success and the stories behind it. Come in close. Brace yourselves for the real stories; because we had the same questions. So we asked them.

    Raphael Christian-Roy: Overcoming the challenges of starting a fund, and mountains (S1.E1.)

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2020 76:13


    Raphael Christian-Roy is the co-founder and CEO of Front Row Ventures. He's also a tech investor on Real Ventures' Early-Stage Team. In this episode, we explore Raphael's experience founding Front Row Ventures, Canada's first and largest student-run venture fund. Raphael also shares his self-improvement advice, as well as what he likes to do away from work. Front Row Ventures is excited to take you backstage into Canada's tech ecosystem and its success stories. We asked Canada's leading investors, founders, and tech minds to share their experiences. From successful Canadians doing business in Canada to expats working abroad, we deep dive into their journey to success and the stories behind it. Come in close. Brace yourselves for the real stories; because we had the same questions. So we asked them.

    Backstage Pass, by Front Row Ventures (Trailer)

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 27, 2020 1:06


    Welcome to Backstage Pass, a podcast by Front Row Ventures taking you behind the scenes into Canada's tech ecosystem and its success stories. We're your hosts Raphael Christian-Roy and Tianshi (David) Yuan, and we're super excited to be launching this podcast. We'll be hosting Canada's top investors, founders, and tech minds, and we'll be asking them the questions that matter to you. From successful Canadians doing business in Canada to expats who've gone abroad and created a meaningful impact, we'll deep dive into their journeys to success and reveal the stories behind them. So, if you're like us, and you're wondering how they made it to where they are today. What did they do before? What did they do in college? What makes them successful? Then come in close, grab a seat, and enjoy your time at the Front Row.

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