StartWell

In this episode, we explored the transformative work King's Trust Canada is pursuing to improve youth employment outcomes with the organization's CEO Farah Mohammed. Our conversation traced the Trust's remarkable ~50-year evolution - including the recent transitions as Prince Charles III became the King of England, highlighting their innovative approaches to tackling youth unemployment in Canada. We delved into critical discussions about leadership transformation and organizational culture, especially in the post-COVID landscape where we all have to deal with fundamentally altered workplace dynamics and community connections. A significant portion of our conversation centered on Canadian identity and the King's direct engagement with indigenous leadership - a testament to the organization's commitment to meaningful change. The discussion included perspectives on entrepreneurship, relating tales from Startwell founder Qasim Virjee's pioneering work enabling internet connectivity in East Africa to building community spaces at StartWell over the past seven years. Throughout our exchange, despite addressing serious challenges facing Canadian youth, there remains a persistent thread of optimism about future possibilities and the power of community-driven solutions.

Companies need to focus on more understanding their customers - a great way to achieve this understanding is for sales and customer support to be integrated functions. Kyle Norton joined us for this episode of the StartWell Podcast to explain his perspective on the best way to develop revenue operations with systems and a team that is truly committed to holistically helping customers through the product/service they are selling. In his current role as CRO at Owner.com, Kyle leads sales, partnerships, onboarding, success, support, revenue operations and enablement - which has enabled him to develop tightly knit systems for optimizing value the organization and its customers. With 15 years of experience under his belt (and multiple belts at that - he used to own a mixed martial arts academy), Kyle's perspective is informed through experiences running large teams at rapidly scaling companies including League and Shopify. In this conversation, you'll learn about a systems approach to revenue operations plus Kyle's thoughts on work ethic, the Canadian context for entrepreneurship and much more! Watch the full episode as a video here: https://startwell.co/blogs/business/the-fearless-approach-to-scaling-revenue-operations-kyle-norton

70% of people in Canada don't feel like they have the skills to be successful at their job. That number is massive - and is one of the motivating factors behind Mac Gebara's work with Emma-Jean Pride at Atrium; a boutique consultancy focused on developing leaders at fast-growing companies. According to Atrium's market research, over $300B is spent annually on corporate training yet 75% of managers and leaders say they are dissatisfied with the training they receive from their company. This episode of the StartWell podcast digs into how Atrium is solving the problem of leadership development through bespoke mentorship programming. *Watch the full episode here: https://startwell.co/blogs/business/defeat-self-doubt-the-power-of-mentorship-in-leadership-development-mac-gebara

There are few people in Canada more knowledgeable about employment in Canada's tech sector than Lighthouse Labs' co-founder and CEO Jeremy Shaki. Jeremy joined us for this episode of the StartWell podcast to recap changes in tech since the pandemic - how education has shifted online and how companies are actively pursuing up-skilling and re-skilling workers to future-proof their existing workforce. This episode will be enlightening to anyone working in HR/People & Culture as well as startup founders and team leads. Lighthouse Labs is one of the country's first tech educators - now offering coding bootcamps for topics from web development to cybersecurity and data analytics. *Full episode in video here: https://startwell.co/blogs/business/the-future-of-coding-jobs-and-tech-education-jeremy-shaki-from-lighthouse-labs

For this episode of the StartWell Podcast, 5andVine founder Rahul Raj and Qasim Virjee (CEO, StartWell) engage in a thought-provoking conversation about challenging traditional views of capitalism, emphasizing the importance of caring deeply about how one wins and balancing profit with ethical considerations. They discuss the impact of social media on consumer behavior and the need for a more holistic approach to business, prioritizing the needs of people and the planet alongside profits. This engaging discussion provides insights to anyone in marketing or running their own companies in competitive markets! *Watch the full episode as video in the StartWell Magazine

Mark Evans is a Fractional CMO and advisor to scale startups. He's previously been a news reporter and launched his career as a consultant since 2008. For any online marketer, this episode will definitely be insightful and fun! *For the full video version of the interview, check out the StartWell Magazine

For over 15 years Jean has worked on Strategy and Marketing - at agencies (incl BBDO, Cheil, Taxi, VML and most recently at The Hive) and for startups. In this episode of the StartWell Podcast we hear Jean's career history (which began in fashion) and perspectives informed by her work driving strategic approaches in advertising - including anecdotes from client work; including a recent project to help the Canadian Olympic Committee connect their mission with young Canadians. *View this episode as a video in the StartWell Magazine here.

In the post-pandemic era, marketing faces challenges such as declining efficacy and escalating costs. Brands must take calculated risks and create spectacles to capture attention. Differentiation and establishing an identity are crucial, as is prioritizing customer needs. For this episode of the StartWell Podcast, we sat down with Saul Colt of the Idea Integration Company - and discussed the challenges of creating a distinct brand personality in the digital age, navigating tensions between identity and expression. You'll hear shared insights on leading a creative agency, including the importance of hiring trustworthy employees and striking a balance between creative and strategic expertise. There are also nuggets of wisdom offered on the challenges of managing client scope and the significance of thorough planning and preparation in content creation. *Watch the video recording of this session here.

Dan Park has had a colourful career so far - 20 years ago he was at McGill with Qasim, StartWell's founder/CEO, and since then has worked in investment banking and venture capital before taking the helm at Uber to define their UberEats business across Canada. Through his experience at Uber, Dan learned a lot about transportation and when he was approached to further develop Canada's first online retailer for used cars, he jumped at the opportunity - and has since grown it into the largest operator in segment. This is a fun and insightful conversation for anyone interested in the Canadian business landscape - from startups to scaleups, and comprises the 60th episode of the StartWell Podcast. *Explore more via The StartWell Magazine: https://startwell.co/pages/magazine & the full show page for this episode here: https://startwell.co/blogs/business/from-venture-capital-to-running-ubereats-and-building-canadas-premier-online-car-store-dan-park

Roy Pereira's history in tech started in the 1990s - he saw the first boom-bust cycle and has since founded and exited a few startups. For this, the 59th episode of the StartWell (https://startwell.co/) Podcast, Roy shares his experiences and perspectives as a startup founder, tech innovator, investor and Torontonian. His current occupation is as a cofounder of https://unified.to/ - a simple way for companies to unify data between multiple SaaS applications. *View a full film of this episode in the StartWell Magazine here.

Dr Anish Kaushal is an interesting guy – he worked hard to become a doctor but an administrative hiccup led to discovering a career path in VC which he found more interesting that simply practicing medicine. Now a Venture Capital associate at Amplitude Ventures, Anish invests in companies providing innovative solutions to the industry he almost worked in. In addition to investing in startups, Anish is also an author – he's written a ‘ niche guide to navigating career transitions' as well as a book of poems (one of white he reads for us at the end of this podcast.) LINKS Anish's Website: https://www.anichexperience.com/ Anish on LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anish-kaushal-md/ Amplitude: https://amplitudevc.com/ – Amplitude Ventures is a Canadian healthcare VC firm launched by BDC departing partners Dion Madsen and Jean-François Pariseau. The Firm's geographic focus is on Canada and has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. The Fund invests across all segments of Precision Medicine, including therapeutics, medical technologies or other emerging areas including Artificial Intelligence enabling Precision Medicine, Healthcare IT and Services.

At this roundtable we feature the perspectives of three guests who work within the Canadian cannabis industry - including a grower and two gentlemen who have previously owned a production/processing facility and now help new brands enter the market working with Wellcann - the only cannabis gum manufacturer in Ontario. Startwell Podcast Episode 57 is hosted by Qasim Virjee as always - this time with guests Michael Lanzalone, Rahul Rajan & Darryl Rosalin

Cato Pastoll is the co-founder and CEO of a Toronto based fintech startup called Loop. Loop bills itself as Canada's #1 bank for entrepreneurs - with a cross border banking platform that includes corporate cards, payments, FX, capital and more in multiple currencies. Founded about a decade ago as Lending Loop - the company launched as a platform for equity crowdfunding, before pivoting to focus on how their customers used money in addition to providing ways for them to source it. In this episode, Cato: - Tells us about the history of his company - Relates the evolving need for financial services from agile young companies who operate internationally - Explains his passion for technology and finance as a youth and how that has led to founding this company - Compares Canada to other countries in the world who have greater flexibility and lower barriers to entry for the banking sector - like the UK - Much more...

Andrew Ingham has had an interesting career - he started working in his youth in plumbing and then spent years building markets for beer companies before becoming an alcohol buyer for large grocery chains and hospitality companies around the world. Recently, his conscience weighed on him and he decided to roll up his sleeves - reducing the wine industry's massive carbon footprint became his goal and a new type of wine company was born called Interpunkt. Interpunkt Wines makes simple wines with an easy taste profile packaged in eco-sensitive, recyclable and biodegradable packaging in the shape of a conventional bottle and the company is based in Toronto at StartWell.

Jasmine Daya developed a successful injury law practice in downtown Toronto leading up to the pandemic - in the down-time when courts were closed and business was slow, her entrepreneurial spirit saw opportunity in hospitality. Today, Jasmine still practices the law but has reduced her hours on cases to focus on her nightlife establishments, and she's actively developing new projects in real estate. This interesting conversation has a lot of insight for professionals considering leaving their professions to pursue entrepreneurialism and forms episode 54 of the StartWell Podcast.

Nick DenBoer is a film and music video director based in Toronto who has worked with a wide array of high profile clients - including ad agencies like Wieden+Kennedy, media personalities like Conan O'Brien and artists like deadmau5, The Neptunes and even Tommy Lee. His creative style remixes aesthetic elements to craft new narratives and on this episode of the StartWell podcast, filmed at our Event Studio, we dig into his experiences discovering whats possible with a career and review some of his work together.

Alan Smithson co-invented the world's first touchscreen DJ system called 'Emulator'  - an award winning piece of performance kit used by some of the top DJs on the global dance music circuit. In a twist of fate, the company was taken from him the night his pitch on Dragon's Den for it aired. Since Emulator, Alan has built a company to make XR experiences more easily available to anyone, anywhere in the world. MetaVRse is a proprietary, code-optional web platform that makes it easy to create and share interactive 3D experiences instantly. In this episode of the StartWell Podcast, you'll hear from Alan's career history and get a sneak peak into the world's largest virtual shopping mall which his company built using their web platform that already has some interesting tenants like Starburst's Juicyverse space.

For the 51st episode of StartWell's Podcast, we sat down with Lisa Mattam - the Toronto based founder of Sahajan. This unique clean skincare company develops Ayurveda based products with the rigor of scientific testing to ensure best in class performance from plant based ingredients. Inspired when her daughter covered herself in makeup one day, Lisa's entrepreneurial journey has seen the foundation of a category-leading brand that has taken immense commitment and effort to take to market. In this conversation, you'll hear these amazing things, and much more: - Some of the career background she had before embracing her path as an entrepreneur - How Lisa was inspired to use her cultural heritage in creating a line of clean skincare products - How she was accepted into Sephora's first accelerator program - The effort involved in getting her products onto shelves and into homes of her customers - including personally convincing retailers to carry Sahajan to going live on television to convince shoppers to take a chance on a new brand - How Oprah's wellness editor discovered Sahajan during the pandemic through their Turmeric mask and took to using it every Sunday as a ritual, calling it out as a recommended Canadian company with a founder of Indian heritage - Some news about Sahajan's products now being available at luxury hotels

As with most pharmaceutical drugs, Adderall comes with side-effects which make it undesirable for a lot of people - including addictiveness, something which inspired the team behind Gwella, a Toronto based company to launch vegan non-prescription edibles that boost energy levels, focus, mental clarity and positivity. Founded in the pandemic, Gwella is a remote-first company with 3 co-founders. We sat down in studio with Stefany Nieto, the company's COO and one of its founders for this, the 50th episode of our StartWell Podcast. In this episode of the StartWell Podcast you'll a wealth of information which relates a unique foundation story valuable for anyone interested in Consumer Packaged Goods or startups in general - including: The company's foundation story How Gwella is positioned to take advantage of legalisation when it eventually happens for psychedelics Why MOJO had to reposition its brand early on, and how it has found a groove which is allowing it to sell globally Why selling product through Amazon was initially difficult and how Stefany's team changed things to acquire a great product review rating and ensure better supply management. Why the company has high value for content and community.

Originally a written series of interviews with male celebrities and athletes published online through a website called Gents Post, Gents Talk was launched in 2022 as a video podcast to better articulate the depth of experiences interviewees were expressing to Samir Mourani. Now joined by podcast cohost Matthew Chapman, Gents Talk is shot at StartWell and published weekly - featuring well known men sharing intimate perspectives and experiences which aim to express their definition of masculinity in the modern age. For this episode of StartWell's own podcast, we invited the Gents Talk hosts to share their experiences behind the mic and catch us up on how they are distributing their content. Recently they began showing the first season of their series on Air Canada's in-flight entertainment system globally and are already receiving great feedback from passengers. So far Gents Talk has featured guests that include the 'King of Bay Street' Wes Hall, professional athletes Jonathan Osorio and Dan Dearing, actor Nick Bateman, director Justin Wong, artist Diego Snow and many many more.

Accomplished Toronto Chef Jagger Gordon joined us in studio to share the inspiration behind his philanthropic endeavours to battle food insecurity and reduce food waste. In this engaging conversation you'll hear about a new app which lets people share extra food with people in need as well as how Jagger made his way to the Ukraine through Poland recently and fed citizen soldiers fighting Russian forces; with José Andrés World Central Kitchen and then his own exploration of the interior. *About Chef Jagger Gordon's Charity, Feed it Forward Feed It Forward is a Toronto based Canadian not for profit organisation with two main goals; to feed Canadians that are food insecure and to reduce food waste. Our mission is to make a difference in the lives of our fellow Canadians who are in need of assistance in securing nutritious food and a regular balanced diet. Feed It Forward donated over 1.7 million meals during the course of the pandemic helping to provide food security for people throughout Ontario. In this uncertain time, he went mobile with his new Food Truck program bringing thousands of hot and frozen meals to communities around Ontario, including Humber College, U Of T, George Brown College and Ryerson University. He believes a hungry stomach is a hungry mind and no student or person should worry about where their next meal is coming from. Feed It Forward.ca has a new free food sharing app created by Chef Gordon that gives everyone the opportunity to help eliminate food waste and reroute it onto tables all around the world while helping people be socially responsible.

Entrepreneurs come from all backgrounds - so it was refreshing this time around to take a break from high tech startups and hear the story of this award winning Toronto based makeup and hair artist. Elizabeth Taylor, works for personal and commercial clients under the company name 'Faces by Pureness.'

Purposeful Intent is a series of curated in-person Corporate Real Estate and Workplace events to have open discussions and thought leadership around the future of work. For this episode of the StartWell Podcast we sat down with Simon Davis to learn about his impetus for founding the series, experiences hosting it through 2022 across North America and expectations for the year ahead.

With people buying things increasingly online the back end logistics required for not only shipping product out to consumers but then receiving back returns can be a nightmare for SMBs - that's where ReturnBear comes in. This Canadian company helps sellers manage their product returns; with central product drop depots in shopping malls and much more - including product sorting and re-packacking to speed up the path to resale. For this, the 45th episode of StartWell's podcast, Qasim Virjee sits down with Robert Domagala - the Head Of Business Development & Marketing at ReturnBear.

Camille Moore joins us in studio on campus at StartWell to relate her founder story and share perspective on Third Eye Insights‘ approach to enabling professional services through branding. The conversation is fun and far reaching – touching on some of StartWell founder Qasim Virjee’s own experiences as one of the first people online in […]

For this session of the StartWell Podcast we sat down with the co-founders of Syzl – Adrian Savin and Azrah Manji. This husband and wife team have brought their combined experiences working in digital marketing and shared spaces to help food professionals, entertainers and hobbyists find and use professional kitchens on demand.

In this interview we sit down at StartWell’s downtown Toronto broadcast studio to hear from the CEO and co-founder of the Future of Film Showcase – a unique not-for-profit arts organisation presenting short films from Canadian Filmmakers aged 40 and younger. Eric tells us about how the Showcase got going as a grassroots solution to […]

Carbon6‘s community empowers eCommerce sellers, removing the barriers to selling online. Focused on the global Amazon seller community, this innovative StartWell member company has just come out of stealth mode and is rapidly scaling their team and software solutions. For this session of the StartWell podcast we sit down with 2 of the company’s cofounders, […]

For this, the 40th episode of the StartWell Podcast we sit down with Jason Goldlist (co-founder), Laura Backman (Insiders Manager) and Alexandra Reilly (Growth Marketing Manager) to talk about TechTO – the largest startup focused community organisation in Toronto. The session was recorded during our first TechTO-StartWell coworking day, launching monthly drop-in coworking for the […]

For this, the 39th episode of the StartWell Podcast we sat down with the founder of Top Drone – a Toronto based film production company that exclusively works with Drone technology on projects for entertainment and commercial purpose. In the conversation, Michaelangelo tells us how he got started with drones and what sets his company […]

Ryan Bolton is a Toronto based photographer who has won awards and travelled the world capturing stunning images of people and places. His client roster includes Apple, Red Bull, Spotify, Gucci, SickKids and many other category leading institutions and commercial brands. Journalism originally led Ryan to photography as a career and in this session we […]

Leveraging technology originally developed at the University of Guelph for NASA to test the ability to grow life on Mars, Elevate Farms is building some of the worlds most cutting edge vertical farms. We invited the company’s CEO and Founder Amin Jadavji to StartWell for this conversation that recounts the company’s history and technology plus […]

In this session we hear from the founder of Fresh City Farms – a multi-brand grocer/baker/butcher operating 8 locations across Toronto which sprouted from humble beginnings about a decade ago as an urban farming experiment in Downsview Park. Learn more about Ran’s company: https://www.freshcityfarms.com/

In this session we hear from one of Canada’s premier experts on global licensing/merchandising and brand/franchise marketing focused on Asia. Jacqueline has spent 2 decades in the children’s entertainment space and shares some of her experiences taking the minions to China, bringing the Wiggles to Canada and much much more. Learn more about Jacqueline’s company, […]

We sat down with the cofounder of Canada’s leading publication focused on the emerging North American Cannabis industry. Jay from Business of Cannabis gives us a 101 on how the industry is structured whilst recounting fun anecdotes and an update about being acquired recently by Prohibition Partners from the UK. Links: StartWell Podcasts on the […]

In this episode we hear from the founder of Toronto’s Astrolab Studios – one of the most popular boutique studios for commercial film and photography located on the Revival Film Studios lot in the city’s downtown neighbourhood of Leslieville. Adam found his way into studio ownership from a previous career in Press Relations and has […]

Celebrating 10 years in business, Len joins us to recount the foundation story of The Depanneur. His self-described ‘interesting place where food things happen’ has become one of Toronto’s most applauded places to find unique experiences for those who love food, community and adventure. The Dep is where anyone who wants to cook for people […]

For this episode, we had the pleasure of sitting down with the cofounders of Ascari – a Toronto based hospitality group that has evolved in the past decade+ from an experimental Izakaya into a portfolio of French/Italian restaurants, bar plus new retail concept. Ascari cofounders Erik Joyal and John Sinopoli have been an innovative tour […]

For this episode of StartWell’s A New Normal series we are joined in Studio A by Neil Martin, a co-founder of the Toronto coworking brand Project Spaces. Neil relates his company’s history, community profile and we discuss the importance of the places which coworking operators provide for developing communities in our urban contexts.

Ali, one of 3 co-founders of Toronto based video startup Rally, joins StartWell’s CEO Qasim Virjee in our Hybrid Event Studio for a chat about how his company is trying to make online video more social.

Over the past 15 years David has grown what was originally a small recording studio into the world’s premiere marketplace for voice-over talent – voices.com. In this session we hear about the company’s foundation, their fundraising history and recent insights from working through lockdown.

For this session, we were joined in the studio over live video by Philippe Telio, the founder of StartupFest. StartupFest usually draws thousands of attendees to Montreal’s Old Port of a truly unique in person experience which brings together cutting edge tech companies with financiers, media outlets and more. In the wake of C19, Philippe […]

To kick things off, Qasim and Orlando discuss some topics to explore in the series which examines the Hospitality, Meetings & Events industries.

Aliya Ramji is the co-founder of MT Ventures, a program at Canadian law firm McCarthy Tétrault which is focused on helping startups scale through leveraging client and partner relationships in tandem with the firm’s wealth of legal perspective.

As foresight becomes a more important tool for corporations to guide decision making through uncertain times we thought it useful to spend some time with Nikolas Badminton – a world-renowned keynote speaker, consultant, and media producer now based in Toronto Canada and resident at StartWell. In this discussion with our CEO Qasim Virjee, Nik breaks […]

BEworks is the world’s first commercial consulting team dedicated to the application of Behavioural Economics to real-world challenges. Recently the firm developed a Work From Home Diagnostic Tool – we caught up with Kelly Peters, BEwork’s CEO and CoFounder, to hear more about what inspired the Tool’s development and how they work with clients to apply its principles. […]

In this episode of A New Normal, the three cofounders of Toronto-based firm Yenza3 join us by video-link for a conversation that touches on a few topics – including how the pandemic has accelerated the need for companies to develop remote working plans and promote a new corporate culture that understands how people come together […]

In this conversation recorded for our A New Normal series, we caught up with Shez Samji, the Managing Director of Private Equity Services at Silicon Valley Bank Canada. The discussion covers a range of topics – from how important team work in person is to giving people a sense of purpose to why this point in […]

For the 5th episode of A New Normal we called up Nav Sangha – the Founder of Ambassador, a Toronto based startup helping brick and mortar retail businesses go digital with a turn-key integrated online ordering/eCommerce and customer support chatbot offering that can plug into any website infrastructure. Nav’s rich entrepreneurial experience has seen him run Toronto’s most respected […]

Motivbase’s CEO Ujwal Arkalgud is an Author, Entrepreneur and Cultural Anthropologist who joins us to relate some consumer trends he’s seeing at the moment and offer his take on how companies might use this time as an opportunity to innovate.

Tarun Nayar is a Vancouver based music industry professional who has toured all over the world with his award winning band Delhi 2 Dublin, released music through his SnakesXLadders imprint and raised stage to all sorts of artistic performances through his 5XFest events. We dialled up Tarun for his take on changes in the music […]