Podcasts about founderfuel

Today I'm thrilled to have a pair of guests on the show to talk about the larger Canadian startup ecosystem and, specifically, FounderFuel. FounderFuel is a four month accelerator program that partners founders with insightful mentors, intensive networking and expert coaching, culminating in Canada's biggest Demo Day, taking place this year on July 11th. At the heart of FounderFuel is the expertise offered by Real Ventures, Canada's leading early-stage VC firm dedicated to serving entrepreneurs and nurturing the communities where we thrive. Here to discuss both are Real Ventures Partner and FounderFuel General Manager Katy Yam as well as Real Ventures' Director of Marketing and People and FounderFuel's Program Manager Lisa Séguin!Check out this blog to learn more about the 2023 FounderFuel cohort.Boast AI accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

On this week's show, we spoke with Isaac Souweine, Partner @ Pender Ventures Isaac joined Pender Ventures in 2022 to help build the firm's presence in Eastern Canada. Previously, he was a partner at Real Ventures, where he led a Quebec-focused, pre-seed investment strategy while also serving as General Manager of FounderFuel, the firm's accelerator. Prior to joining Real, Isaac spent more than a decade as a product management leader in New York, Singapore and Montreal, including stints at Sonder, Frank and Oak, Yahoo and Scholastic. In addition to his work with startups, Isaac is passionate about building communities.    He is a co-founder of Product Tank Montreal, a longstanding meetup and APM Montreal, a community-based training program. He is also a founding board member of Front Row Ventures, Canada's only student-run venture capital firm. Isaac is also an active mentor with several accelerators and incubators. He has a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from INSEAD.   On the show, we spoke about:  Why Isaac joined Pender Ventures The history of Pender Fund The investment thesis and focusing on profitable growth What does resilience mean for a startup  Isaac's thoughts on Generative AI   Subscribe | iTunes | Google Play |Spotify | YouTube | Stitcher | 

"There is a special place in hell for investors who intentionally screw over their founders with no empathy for the journey or the challenges that they are going through." Panache Ventures partner Chris Neumann joins to answer listener questions about his blog writing, the state of Canadian accelerators, and what VCs are talking about. Sponsored by Invest Ottawa.

Alex Norman and Alexandra Reilly breakdown the latest chatter and news from around the Canadian Tech Ecosystem, sharing their perspectives and featuring the shared stories of others from across the industry. You can share your takes with us for future episodes at: alex@techto.org. Subscribe to our 3x weekly newsletter to get these episodes, and more right to your inbox: www.techto.org/newsletter *DON'T FORGET TO LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE WHEREVER YOU ARE LISTENING* Today the team breaks down: FounderFuels return and what that means, the CIC launches in Canada, more raises from across the ecosystem and Alex Norman makes a prediction for 2023. **AS MENTIONED ON THE SHOW: FounderFuel is currently accepting applications for their next cohort. Applications close on March 12, 2023 >> APPLY HERE: https://founderfuel.com/apply/

L'essentiel des nouvelles économiques, technologiques et financières[texte ni révisé ni corrigé à des fins de publication]L'inflation ralentit très légèrement aux États-UnisLe taux d'inflation sur 12 mois a très peu diminué de décembre à janvier: il est passé de 6,5% à 6,4%. Sur une base mensuelle, les prix ont augmenté de 0,5%, en grande partie à cause de la hausse du coût du logement.Selon plusieurs analystes, ces statistiques moins encourageantes que prévu pourraient pousser la Réserve fédérale américaine à hausser les taux d'intérêt plus rapidement dans un proche avenir.Ottawa demande au CRTC de protéger davantage les consommateursLe Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes a reçu du gouvernement fédéral de nouvelles instructions qui vont dans une direction: augmenter la concurrence dans le secteur des télécommunications.Le gouvernement demande au CRTC d'aider les petits fournisseurs à pouvoir utiliser les réseaux des plus grands joueurs.Le principal objectif est de permettre à ces petits fournisseurs de télécommunications de mieux concurrencer les grands, afin de faire baisser les prix des connexions à Internet et de la téléphonie mobile.L'épargne pandémique est restée dans les poches des mieux nantisSelon une analyse de la RBC, l'épargne totale des Canadiens a plus que doublé depuis le début de la pandémie: elle est passée d'un peu moins de 150 milliards $ en décembre 2019 à plus de 300 milliards $ en octobre 2022.Mais ce sont les ménages à revenus élevés ont contribué à la majeure partie de cette augmentation, ce qui a creusé l'écart de richesse par rapport aux ménages à faibles revenus.Selon un sondage mené par Statistique Canada en octobre dernier, 26% des Canadiens disent que leur ménage n'aurait pas les ressources financières nécessaires pour assumer une dépense imprévue de 500 $.Les 35 à 44 ans sont ceux auxquels une telle dépense poserait le plus de problèmes: 35% d'entre eux disent que leur ménage n'aurait pas la capacité de l'assumer.Le concours pour startup FounderFuel est de retourFounderFuel est un programme montréalais d'accompagnement qui s'adresse aux jeunes pousses technos en phase de démarrage. Ce programme est de retour cette année après 2 ans d'absence. Il offrira cette année de l'accompagnement et des bourses à 8 entreprises canadiennes.Les entreprises qui veulent s'inscrire ont jusqu'au 12 mars pour le faire. Vous trouverez le lien a InfoBref.com.---Pour des détails sur ces nouvelles et d'autres nouvelles: https://infobref.com.Pour vous abonner aux infolettres gratuites d'InfoBref: https://infobref.com/infolettres_Pour les balados d'InfoBref et des liens pour les trouver: https://infobref.com/audio_[Découvrez Actualités InfoBref, un balado quotidien des principales nouvelles générales, parfaitement complémentaire d'InfoBref Affaires]Pour voir notre épisode hebdo «à retenir cette semaine»: https://www.youtube.com/@infobrefPour commentaires et suggestions à l'animateur Patrick Pierra, ou pour commanditer InfoBref Affaires: editeur@infobref.com Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

On this week's show, we spoke with Gabriel Sundaram, COO & Co-Founder @ Mission.  Currently, Gabriel is leading ops and growth at Mission. They're building the best market network for software engineers to work as independents. Supporting them with a platform to help teams build more effectively, opportunities to work on meaningful long-term missions, and a community of like-minded peers. Previously Gabriel was COO at Bus.com, overseeing growth and product. He helped navigate the company through a rebrand, major product pivot, and multiple rounds of growth capital. Prior to Bus.com Gabriel was part of the founding investment team at Real Ventures where he invested in over 200 early stage startups through the fund and their accelerator program FounderFuel. He also led the development of the firm's own internal software and initial platform to support portfolio companies. Having left and come back to his hometown Montreal, Gabriel has become a key instigator in the growing local startup scene. Launching several community initiatives including tech blog MTLinTECH, Startup Drinks Montreal, Startup Open House, and Notman House.   On the show, we spoke about:  Importance of the software engineer Genesis of Mission and its model Building the best online environment for independent engineers and product builders to work. The concept of marketplace 3.0  The importance of culture and learning in attracting elite level engineers  Building the Canadian tech community    Subscribe | iTunes | Google Play |Spotify | YouTube | Stitcher | 

Noura Sakkijha is the co-founder and CEO of Mejuri, a fine jewelry brand that introduces handcrafted, everyday jewelry without the traditional retail markups. Looking from the outside in, entering the jewelry market can seem like a daunting endeavor. Not only is it seemingly saturated, but it's also exceptionally expensive. Growing up in Jordan as a third-generation jeweler, Noura noticed that traditional high-end jewelry brands always targeted men, encouraging them to buy luxe jewelry for women. In 2015, Noura started Mejuri to change this narrative: A woman doesn't need a man to buy jewelry for her. She can buy it yourself. Noura was able to successfully raise over $40 million for her jewelry brand and shine in a competitive market. Noura's products have been worn by A-list celebrities like Selena Gomez, Lizzo, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Oprah, and more.We'll talk to Noura about the difficult lessons she learned early in the business, why self-care and therapy have been game-changing for her in both her personal and professional life, and what it takes to build a high-growth brand & sell over 1.8 million pieces of jewelry since inception. In this episode, we'll talk to Noura about:* How Noura's upbringing in Jordan impacted the woman she is today. [3:29]* Noura recounts a very busy time in her life when she moved to Canada to be a consultant while simultaneously earning an MBA. [5:30]* How Noura started Mejuri with her husband and what prompted her to pursue it [6:45]* What gave Nourra the confidence to enter a market like fine jewelry production. [08:33]* Noura's decision to join FounderFuel and 500 Startups, two top accelerators, and what she learned from the experience. [10:33]* How Noura changed her mindset around failure and learned from the tech world's view on failure as a data point. [15:41]* How Noura gained traction during the early days of her company. [17:33]* Attracting in-house creatives without the resources of a larger, more established company. [20:21]* How she managed her mental health during a burnout period while building Mejuri. [21:44]* Advice Noura's mother gave her that has helped her honor self-care. [23:35]* Noura's experience with the demands that come with motherhood [24:31]* How she raised funds for her business while in the later stages of pregnancy. [27:29]* Managing her optimism and resilience during the difficult, early days of fundraising. [30:00]* Insights into ensuring the foundation of your business in the early stages. [31:10]* The time it took to find product fit and transition to the PR stage of their business. [32:45]* How Noura's family reacted to her starting Mejuri. [33:57]* One of the surprising things that Nourra is most proud of. [35:14]* What wealth means to Nourra at this point in her life. [37:07]* What it's been like for her and her husband to be co-founders and business partners. [37:45]This episode is brought to you by beeya: * If you or anyone you know have been struggling with hormonal imbalances and bad periods, go to https://beeyawellness.com/free to download the free guide to tackling hormonal imbalances and to learn more about beeya's seed cycling bundle. * Plus, get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIREFollow Noura:* Mejuri Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mejuri/ * Mejuri Empowerment Fund: https://mejuri.com/info/ourcommitment * Website: https://mejuri.com/ Follow Yasmin:* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/* Stay updated & subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.behindherempire.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today's show, we discuss why adopting AI is critical to the future of your company. Guillaume Herve, co-founder and CEO of Zetane Systems, is a serial corporate entrepreneur who brings 25 years of leadership experience from technology-driven industries, including aerospace, healthcare, defense and modeling and simulation. He was President and CEO of Presagis, Founder and CEO of CAE Healthcare, held various senior leadership roles at CAE Inc., is a highly sought-after consultant in strategic planning and innovation, and successfully published Winning at Intrapreneurship. Guillaume has also been very active mentoring founders of technology start-ups at FounderFuel, Techstars, Concordia District 3, and CTS Health and is Chairman of the Board of CTS Health and CMLabs. Key Takeaways: What is AI?Wide field that has been around for a long time. Started with basic statistics. Evolved into machine learning and deep learning. Massive models ingesting data to identifying patterns to predict outcomes. No independent thought. Can only do what it is trained to do, not react to unexpected input. In the customer service space, how well does AI work at determining tone?Culture is a big piece. The AI will have to be trained in differences in geographical regions. That is very difficult and limited in scope.Three important things to consider in the early stages of deciding to use AI in your company:Clear use case. Have a clear situation that you are trying to solve. Is AI the right tool for this, or is there a better solution?Proof of concept. Start with a small dataset and see if AI will give the expected outcome.Risk analysis. The decision makers that understand the real world consequences of AI failure need to be involved in the process and feel secure at deployment that all of the risks have been addressed when developing the AI solution.Should AI be an internal or external process?There is a lot of open source material available, providing companies better access to get started. There are models developed by researchers available for free that can be used as a great starting point. However, you will need employees that understand how to use them. A company could choose to:Build its own AI teams internallyDecide on the use case, and then outsource the AI solution buildingHave a combination of a small AI team internally that will work with an external teamWhat are some key failure points?Explainability - Risky use cases for AI need better explanation. Unlike software development, we can't go to lines of code to explain behavior. We need to be able to explain its decision making to those in charge of the task it will do.Robustness - We have to understand that AI is not perfect. It needs to be as good or better than a human at a particular task, while being faster and cheaper. Executives need to understand when it will work and when it will fail. Top 3 takeaways for businesses regarding AI:Move quickly. Get informed and understand what it can and cannot do.Be cautious about how to implement in your company.Don't make the mistake of letting your team or consultants develop in a vacuum. Involve the decision makers in the process and get the buy-in along the way. 80-85% of AI projects are never deployed, mainly because of lack of buy-in. Connect with Guillaume HerveCompany website: https://zetane.comEmail: guillaume@zetane.com

Today's guest on the show is Simon Wahl, startup mentor and the Head of Marketing at Flinks. He's a Multi-disciplinary marketing leader whose career focus is to help hyper-growth companies build and structure their marketing teams and practices. Simon has advised 30+ startups through various incubators, including FounderFuel, Desjardins' Startup en Résidence, Fintech Cadence, and more. He is all about driving business through authenticity, genuine passion, and data. Today, Simon and I talk about common sense marketing, the evolution of marketing, and successful strategies in marketing. Connect with Simon on LinkedIn Watch interview video

Noura Sakkijha is the co-founder and CEO of Mejuri, a fine jewelry brand that introduces handcrafted, everyday jewelry without the traditional retail markups. Looking from the outside in, entering the jewelry market can seem like a daunting endeavor. Not only is it seemingly saturated, but it's also exceptionally expensive. Growing up in Jordan as a third-generation jeweler, Noura noticed that traditional high-end jewelry brands always targeted men, encouraging them to buy luxe jewelry for women. In 2015, Noura started Mejuri to change this narrative: A woman doesn't need a man to buy jewelry for her. She can buy it yourself. Noura was able to successfully raise over $40 million for her jewelry brand and shine in a competitive market. Noura's products have been worn by A-list celebrities like Selena Gomez, Lizzo, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Oprah, and more.We'll talk to Noura about the difficult lessons she learned early in the business, why self-care and therapy have been game-changing for her in both her personal and professional life, and what it takes to build a high-growth brand & sell over 1.8 million pieces of jewelry since inception. In this episode, we'll talk to Noura about:* How Noura's upbringing in Jordan impacted the woman she is today. [3:29]* Noura recounts a very busy time in her life when she moved to Canada to be a consultant while simultaneously earning an MBA. [5:30]* How Noura started Mejuri with her husband and what prompted her to pursue it [6:45]* What gave Nourra the confidence to enter a market like fine jewelry production. [08:33]* Noura's decision to join FounderFuel and 500 Startups, two top accelerators, and what she learned from the experience. [10:33]* How Noura changed her mindset around failure and learned from the tech world's view on failure as a data point. [15:41]* How Noura gained traction during the early days of her company. [17:33]* Attracting in-house creatives without the resources of a larger, more established company. [20:21]* How she managed her mental health during a burnout period while building Mejuri. [21:44]* Advice Noura's mother gave her that has helped her honor self-care. [23:35]* Noura's experience with the demands that come with motherhood [24:31]* How she raised funds for her business while in the later stages of pregnancy. [27:29]* Managing her optimism and resilience during the difficult, early days of fundraising. [30:00]* Insights into ensuring the foundation of your business in the early stages. [31:10]* The time it took to find product fit and transition to the PR stage of their business. [32:45]* How Noura's family reacted to her starting Mejuri. [33:57]* One of the surprising things that Nourra is most proud of. [35:14]* What wealth means to Nourra at this point in her life. [37:07]* What it's been like for her and her husband to be co-founders and business partners. [37:45]This episode is brought to you by beeya: * If you or anyone you know have been struggling with hormonal imbalances and bad periods, go to https://beeyawellness.com/free to download the free guide to tackling hormonal imbalances and to learn more about beeya's seed cycling bundle. * Plus, get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIREFollow Noura:* Mejuri Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mejuri/ * Mejuri Empowerment Fund: https://mejuri.com/info/ourcommitment * Website: https://mejuri.com/ Follow Yasmin:* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/* Stay updated & subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.behindherempire.com/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Katy Yam is a human power pack who has impacted industries from AI to white bread, to casinos and startups. She’s giving out the pandemic-proof goods on how you can unlock your superpowers or those of your team.

On this week’s show, we spoke with Matthew He, Director of Investments @ Front Row Ventures. Matthew He is the Director of Investments of Quebec at Front Row Ventures, Canada’s first student run venture capital fund, with a growing portfolio of 12 of the most promising student ventures in Quebec, including CHK PLZ, Grad4, Rokulo, and Gallea.   Before joining FRV, Matt co-founded and scaled an educational non-profit from a team of 3 to 30, working with both the Government and industry leaders to bring Blockchain education to universities. Previously, he has worked as a Summer Analyst for White Star Capital and the Business Development Associate for FounderFuel ‘19. Matt is currently finishing his Bachelor of Sciences at McGill University, studying Microbiology & Immunology and Computer Sciences.   On the show, we spoke about: His love of water Getting into venture capital Advice for people starting out in their career The importance of diversity Front Row Ventures and their investments   Matthew is wise beyond his years. I really enjoyed my conversation and Matthew shared great insights for entrepreneurs young and old.   Let us know what you think. What types of guests would like to see on the show? What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at nectar@thepnr.com   Subscribe | iTunes | Google Play |Spotify | YouTube | Stitcher | Breaker

On this week’s show, we spoke with Katy Yam, FounderFuel General Manager @ Real Ventures. Katy is a natural connector of people and ideas in service of helping good people succeed. As General Manager of FounderFuel, her ambition is to create an environment that helps founders level up quickly by filling knowledge and experience gaps with pairings from Real’s rich mentor ecosystem. She believes deep personal accountability and a #givefirst mindset will enrich every startup and accelerate their traction at FounderFuel and beyond. Prior to joining Real, Katy spent 3 years at Element AI, scaling up from pre-Series A to its current global footprint as Canada’s largest AI company. She is a multilingual executive with a 20-year history of managing high-performing product, business intelligence and marketing teams across various public and private industries including telco, CPG, gambling and AI. In her spare time, Katy leads TEDxMontréal, a non-profit dedicated to elevating Montreal-born ideas onto the global TED stage. A guest lecturer, board member, public speaker and triathlete, she adores reading fiction of all sorts and riding/running on Zwift to unwind.   On the show, we spoke about: The importance of adaptability and ambiguity Pushing your limits How good ideas shift your mindset Helping Founderfuel to become digital first The value of conscious leadership The concept of community realization and helping others   Katy was an absolute pleasure to speak with. She was incredibly open and shared so many great insights. I hope that you enjoy the conversation!   Let us know what you think. What types of guests would like to see on the show? What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at nectar@thepnr.com   Subscribe | iTunes | Google Play |Spotify | YouTube | Stitcher | Breaker

Harley Finkelstein is a Canadian businessperson, entrepreneur and public speaker. He is best known as the Chief Operating Officer of Shopify. He is a board member of CBC, and an advisor to both OMERS Ventures and Felicis Ventures. He is also a Dragon on CBC Dragons' Den, Next Gen Den. After completing his JD and MBA, Finkelstein worked at a law firm in Toronto for a year. In 2009, Finkelstein met with Tobias Lütke, the co-founder and CEO of Shopify, to discuss opportunities for the company. Finkelstein was hired soon after and was named Shopify's Chief Platform Officer. In December 2014, Finkelstein was appointed a member of the C100 board. The C100 is an organization that supports the Canadian technology community and is a bridge between Canada and Silicon Valley. Finkelstein serves as a mentor and advisor to various organizations and incubators including Felicis Ventures, FounderFuel, Invest Ottawa and CIPPIC. In January 2016, Finkelstein was named COO of Shopify. That same year, he was inducted into the Order of Ottawa by Mayor Jim Watson. Follow Harley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harley/?hl=en Learn more about Shopify today: https://www.shopify.com/

DÉFI START-UP. L'accélérateur montréalais FounderFuel redémarre le 1er juin et ne sera plus jamais le même, dit la directrice générale Katy Yam. Le principal défi sera de reproduire l'esprit d'entraide entre les start-ups qui avaient l'habitude de loger au 3e étage de la Maison Notman, quartier général de l'accélérateur. Le réseautage, de même que les formations et les séances de mentorat, devront toutes se faire par visioconférence. Autre changement majeur, le «Demo Day», où les start-ups venaient présenter les résultats de leur dur labeur devant quelque 2000 personnes sera remplacé par... deux événements: un pour les investisseurs et un autre pour le grand public. À quoi doivent s'attendre les huit start-ups qui se sont qualifiées pour faire partie de l'accélérateur cet été? Pour tout savoir, c'est par ici!

EPISODE NOTESThis week, I speak to Ian Jeffrey, co-founder and CEO of Breathe Life. The Breathe Life enterprise distribution platform empowers advisors to meet consumers where they are with the products they need.Ian is an entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in Montreal and Silicon Valley and an Advisor and Angel Investor to many early-stage startups. He was formerly VP Product Marketing at PasswordBox and took on the role of General Manager after the acquisition by Intel. He co-founded FounderFuel, Canada’s leading accelerator, as well as MTLinTech, Montreal’s voice of the startup community. Ian is a father of 2 boys and is driven by having an impact in people’s lives.LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Ian on TwitterBreathe Life WebsiteBreathe Life LinkedInBreathe Life Twitter

Today we are listening to Breathe Life founders Ian Jeffrey and Arach Tchoupani. Ian has been a marketer and entrepreneur in Montreal and Silicon Valley since 2001. He co-founded FounderFuel, Canada’s leading accelerator, as well as Montreal In Technology, Montreal’s voice of the startup community. As for Arach, he started his career as a founding engineer at Outbox Technology. In 2014, Arach joined Primary.com founding CTO and helped build the brand’s platform from the ground up. The launch was a hit and the company has since raised fourty Million. Today, they are both working to redefine the insurance world with an innovative software platform and suite of modules that power the industry and empowers the consumer. Listen to their practical tips for aspiring entrepreneurs. Podcast and music production: yoann.saunier.me See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Andrew Lockhead is a serial entrepreneur exploding with passion. When a new idea comes to him, he just can’t get it out of his head. So when Andrew and his co-founder Hamed came up with the idea for Stay22, they hit the ground running. Three years later, Stay22, a FounderFuel alumni, is re-shaping the way travelers book accommodation for events using an intuitive maps.

On this week’s show, we spoke with Marc-Antoine Ross, CEO & Co-Founder @ dfuse He has a passion for building teams and is constantly evaluating those he meets to figure out how they can bring their skills to the multitude of projects that he touches. From there, he figures out what he needs to do to make their talent shine. He is a serial entrepreneur, having started his first company at 21. He has co-founded three successful companies, two of which were acquired by major tech companies and the last one was acquired by Intel. Marc-Antoine is very well known in the tech community, personally advising several startups and mentoring companies through Founder Institute and FounderFuel. He is also an ambassador for United Way and has raised significant donations from the tech community.   On the show, we spoke about: Dropping out of school to work on his business Being a co-founder of several successful companies including PasswordBox Being a first time CEO and what he’s learned so far His new startup in the blockchain space and the problem they are trying to solve   Marc-Antoine was generous with his time and was very transparent. I hope that you enjoy the conversation!   Let us know what you think. What types of guests would like to see on the show? What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at nectar@thepnr.com   Subscribe | iTunes | Google Play |Spotify | YouTube | Stitcher | Breaker  

In 2006, Ian Jeffrey left Montreal to join the startup world in Silicon Valley. Three years later, his company “Tiny Pictures” was acquired by Shutterfly. The experiences he gained in San Francisco allowed him to reshape the startup landscape in the city he grew up in. Back in Montreal, he went on to become a venture partner at Real Ventures, co-founded FounderFuel and even co-created MTLinTech. Now he’s the co-founder and CEO of Breathe Life, where they focus on providing innovative technologies to the insurance industry while building people-first company along the way.

On this week’s show, we spoke with Isaac Souweine, Partner @ Real Ventures. Isaac invests in early-stage, Montreal-based companies as part of Real’s Orbit strategy. He is also GM of FounderFuel, Real’s accelerator, and is the partner lead for Front Row Ventures, Real’s student fund. Prior to joining Real, Isaac built a career as a product leader and company builder at high growth startups (Sonder, Frank and Oak) and large tech companies (Yahoo, Scholastic). He also has a long track record as a mentor, organizer, and ecosystem builder. A husband and father of two, Isaac believes Montreal is the perfect city to raise a family while building a world-class startup ecosystem.   We had an amazing conversation that covered the following topics How he transitioned from a religion/philosophy background to the world of tech startups The utility of argumentation and story telling The vocation of being a product manager How he transitioned to venture capital and what he’s learned so far What it takes to build a vibrant startup ecosystem Real Venture’s investment thesis Isaac on Twitter   The conversation was so interesting we could’ve spoken for hours. I really enjoyed Isaac’s viewpoints. I hope that you do as well.  

Montreal is home to one of Canada's largest and most dynamic startup ecosystems, and in just a few years, Isaac Souweine has gone from being a newcomer to the city (and to Canada) to being at the centre of the startup community as EIR with Real Ventures. We talk to Isaac about how he came to Montreal, how he initially got plugged into the ecosystem, working in Montreal without being fluent in French, and working with Real Ventures to help build the Montreal ecosystem, including his work as the general manager of Real's FounderFuel accelerator. Links: Real Ventures FounderFuel Isaac Souweine on LinkedIn Isaac Souweine on Twitter (@sonofsarah) Ottawa cut from short list for 'supercluster' funding The IT Factor: What Ottawa must do to brand itself as a true national tech hub

Sylvain Carle has been a Partner at RealVentures and the General Manager at FounderFuel since 2014. Prior to this, he was a Senior Developer Advocate at Twitter in Silicon Valley. Sylvain is always an open book, a really wonderful guy, and a self-described pragmatist. He chats with host Alex about the inner workings of venture capital and startup accelerators, why startups are like punk bands, and why you should care about the startup ecosystem. Links: http://realventures.com/ http://founderfuel.com/ http://notman.org/ Thank you to http://unbounce.com/ for the use of their recording studios Subscribe to their podcast Call to Action here: http://unbounce.com/call-to-action-podcast/ Edited by Steph Colbourn at http://editaud.io/ Theme music by http://www.olivieralary.com/ Find us at http://workmode.show

This is the fourth episode of Hack To Start. Your hosts, Franco Varriano (@FrancoVarriano) and Tyler Copeland (@TylerCopeland), speak with Ali Zahid(@alizhd), COO at Vanhawks (@Vanhawks) about building a complete startup (hardware + software) and how to launch your business through a crowdfunding campaign. Ali was a biomedical engineering student before he dropped out to join his co-founders at FounderFuel in Montreal. They launched their Kickstarter campaign 12 days before demo day, with the goal of raising $100,000. The target was quickly met (

This is the first episode of Hack To Start. Your hosts, Franco Varriano (@FrancoVarriano) and Tyler Copeland (@TylerCopeland), speak with Tattoo Hero (@Tattoo_Hero) CEO Brandon Waselnuk (@BrandonWaselnuk) about building a startup from idea at a Startup Weekend event, through an accelerator (FounderFuel) and all the way to seed round. Brandon previously to worked at IBM, in the Business Analytics Sector, as an Investment Lead For Business Intelligence and Predictive Analytics.

In our fourth episode we skype with David Quail, the man who wrote a controversial article on Techvibes about why startups should choose Canada over Silicon Valley. Discussed is Dave's opinion and some of the criticism he received. In the second half of the podcast I spent an evening at the home of Ian Jeffrey and I spoke to him and his wife Emma about moving from Montreal to San Francisco to run a company and Ian's return to his hometown to run the FounderFuel program.