Canada’s Entrepreneur

An accomplished investor, advisor, and board member, Mike Ward has invested in private companies for nearly a decade. Mike has a proven track record in his ability to invest in companies and help them to scale and execute strategy, having helped companies such as Ripple, Honk, 1080 Payments, Dollar Shave Club, World First, and Elevate Growth Partners, among others.

Previously a financial industry executive, Mike has over a decade of experience driving profitability, business strategy and leadership. Mike joined World First in January 2015, as Chief Executive Officer for North America and Chief Revenue Officer of the Group. Mike was responsible for strategic commercial operations, including customer acquisition, Marketing, Partnerships, Dealing, and new products. The company has transacted with over 130,000 private clients and 60,000 companies, and last year transacted over $12bn. World First was sold to Ant Financial for $500m. Before World First, Mike previously held the post of CEO for North America and Europe at OzForex, an online foreign exchange and global payments provider. In 2013 he and the executive took the company public through a liquidity event for Macquarie Bank, Accel Partners, and The Carlyle Group. Mike has also previously held positions as a Co-Chairman at Bridgepoint Health and as a Vice President of Sales & Trading at Jameson Bank. Presently, Mike holds the title of CEO at AnthemIQ, a leading commercial real estate transaction company.

Growing up in Toronto, Mike moved to the States to attend university and indulge in his passion for playing ice hockey, while studying Finance at Liberty University. Mike currently resides in Austin, Texas.

This podcast is brought to you by Schneider Electric. Supporting Canadian businesses with innovative energy management and automation solutions. Schneider Electric...your digital partner for Sustainability and Efficiency. Click here to learn more.

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From her earliest memories of playing dress-up in her mother’s closet, Courtney Watkins has always loved fashion and finding creative ways to showcase her style for less. She got her start in fashion pursuing a degree in Merchandise Marketing in Los Angeles. From working as a celeb stylist to a trend forecaster, she ran and scaled a Saw Mill to start her entrepreneurial journey. She then went on to create a company that values sustainability, interpersonal relationships and luxury fashion. Watkins has nearly a decade of experience running Canada's fastest-growing luxury e-commerce + retail resale boutique, Mine & Yours, based in Vancouver BC.

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Dr. Jim Feng is a mission-driven serial entrepreneur located out of Markham, Ontario. In 2009, Dr. Feng founded Form & Function: Health which has transformed into one of the first truly integrated health models. Not only does Form & function host a repertoire of integrated health care services, it also created a business model that has been paying high dividends to its investors and franchisees year after year. This insight into healthcare and his love for technology-based companies has incubated several start-ups in disruptive healthcare technologies, content aggregation and real-time language translation. Seeing pain points in the physical injury and insurance industry, Dr. Feng has recently founded Phyxable Inc. Phyxable is an end-to-end virtual pain and prevention platform that uses machine learning, augmented reality and gamification to coach people out of pain, while empowering them with better human performance. Alongside his Chiropractic degree, Dr. Feng is also a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and Medical Acupuncturist, and has directed medical teams for world championships, professional and Olympic Level sporting events in the MMA and Wrestling. On a personal level, Dr. Feng enjoys high-performance individual sports, extreme adventures, diving deep into health-tech & lifespan solutions, Aquascaping, and giving back to what matters.

The Silicon Valley Bank team in Canada can help you take your next step. Find out more about the bank that has nearly 40 years of global experience supporting venture-backed tech and life science companies and their investors. We’re in Canada to help leading innovators reach the next stage, faster. Visit www.svb.com/canada/connect. Silicon Valley bank, helping you move your bold ideas forward, fast.

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Edwin Frondozo is Co-founder & CEO of Slingshot VoIP. He is a fellow podcaster and social buzzer, who has built an awesome company on his 100 x goals. He shares his audacious goal of 100xing his tech business within 100 days. Something, he publicly declared on Sept 22, 2020, during a global pandemic. Before the pandemic hit, he was already questioning his decision, whether he should leave his tech business and pursue a life around impact and purpose. Like many entrepreneurs, he started to look for collaborations, partnerships and projects. The buzzword in the community was pivoting. Don't stay still; look for opportunities. He ended up joining different startups, initiatives and partnerships. Almost all failed, which brought him to a dark place, looking within to find out who he was. Realizing that was the answer, he faced fear and took the plunge to make an audacious goal publicly. In this podcast we share why he did it, what happened, and some of the tools and frameworks he developed on his journey to 100x. As an award-winning podcaster, Edwin gives some key takeaways for us.

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Suivre ses passions, écouter son intuition et saisir les opportunités, voilà quelques unes des pistes de réflexion abordées avec Dominic Goulet lors de ce podcast.

Programmeur de formation. Entrepreneur par passion. Éternel optimiste en recherche constante de solutions innovantes. Dominic Goulet est un fier représentant de la communauté numérique du Québec.

L'équipe de la Banque Silicon Valley au Canada peut vous aider à faire avancer vos idées audacieuses – rapidement.

En apportant une expertise mondiale aux fondateurs, investisseurs et innovateurs.

Visitez svb.com/fr/canada pour en savoir plus.

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Dr. Robyn Bourgeois (Laughing Otter Caring Woman) is a mixed-race nêhiyaw iskwew whose Cree family comes from Treaty 8 territory (Lesser Slave Lake). She is an associate professor in the Centre for Women’s and Gender studies at Brock University, but is currently serving as the university’s acting Vice-Provost, Indigenous Engagement. As a survivor of multiple forms of violence, Dr. Bourgeois’ research examines violence against Indigenous women and girls, but also Indigenous women’s anti-violence leadership. In addition to speaking and publishing nationally and internationally, Dr. Bourgeois testified as an experiential and expert witness at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in October 2018. Along with being an academic, Robyn is an activist, artist, and proud mom to three kids.

Learn about the Niagara Leadership Summit for Women at www.niagaralsw.ca

The Silicon Valley Bank team in Canada can help you take your next step. Find out more about the bank that has nearly 40 years of global experience supporting venture-backed tech and life science companies and their investors. We’re in Canada to help leading innovators reach the next stage, faster. Visit www.svb.com/canada/connect. Silicon Valley bank, helping you move your bold ideas forward, fast.

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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With over 20 years of qualified experience in the health and fitness industry, Curtis Christopherson is the Founder & CEO of WRKOUT, the first connected fitness brand to deliver live, face-to-face personal training optimized for the virtual experience. He is also the owner of Innovative Fitness, North America's largest network of premium personal training studios.

Based out of Vancouver, Curtis leads over 300 virtual and in-person trainers and was recognized as "Canada’s Top Trainer" in 2020 by Impact Magazine. He has also been featured in notable publications such as Forbes, The Globe and Mail, and SGB Magazine – and was also a former Ernst and Young Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year finalist!

While leading the businesses, Curtis has completed extreme adventures and some incredible physical feats. As examples, Curtis has competed in a 100km Del Sahara desert run, several Half Ironmans, over 15 marathons, been on the podium for multiple adventures, and knocked off some international hikes such as the West Coast Trail (in 21 hrs), Machu Picchu, and Kilimanjaro. He has also been a part of a team that cycled across Canada (which set a Guinness Book of World Records) and Australia to raise over a million dollars for Juvenile Diabetes.

Beyond his years, Curtis will undoubtedly leave an indelible mark on the health and fitness industry and he has no qualms about bringing others along for the journey.

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Nick Findler is an accomplished entrepreneur, angel investor, and venture capitalist.

Mr. Findler is the CEO and Founder of GoPublic.AI, a fin-tech, go-public investment bank that unites world-changing businesses with $1M-$50M of growth capital, shell vehicles, and know-how to go public both in Canada and on major stock exchanges around the world.

Over the past decade, Nick has advised and helped raise over $58M+ for growth companies and has been involved in structuring 20+ IPOs/RTOs in the public markets (primarily the TSX & CSE) and multiple private exits.

Nick also sits on the board of Plantable Health Inc. Plantable is the first plant-based program that is clinically proven to transform human health easily, sustainably, and enjoyably – all in 28 days. Plantable is currently active in 4 clinical trials at Memorial Sloan Kettering, Johns Hopkins, and Weill Cornell to prove its effectiveness in reducing chronic diseases by lowering inflammation, cholesterol, blood sugar, and altering gene expression.

He is also the President and Co-Founder of Grantus.ca, a company that enables Canadian entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, and not-for-profits to access government funding. The company has now helped Canadians receive over $10M in grant funding.

Deepening relationships, connecting with new people, and helping more strangers become friends is deeply important to Nick and a lens through which he sees the world. This passion and curiosity led him to study the neuroscience of human connection in 2021.

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Russell Korus is a blockchain visionary and cryptocurrency evangelist. His recent move into the NFT world is something we can all learn from.

Russell is Co-Founder & CEO for of EZ365 a digital ecosystem that combines the best aspects of NFTs, online gaming, digital asset trading and blockchain education. In this podcast you can meet Russell Korus and learn from a Crypto visionary some of the insider knowledge of bitcoin - like how in 2017 it went from $1000 in January to just under $20,000 in December of that year. His recent move into the NFT world is something we can all learn from. Russell is Co-Founder & CEO for of EZ365 a digital ecosystem that combines the best aspects of NFTs, online gaming, digital asset trading and blockchain education.

This podcast is brought to you by Schneider Electric. Supporting Canadian businesses with innovative energy management and automation solutions. Schneider Electric...your digital partner for Sustainability and Efficiency. Click here to learn more.

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter

Entheon Biomedical CEO Timothy Ko and John Lem, the founder of Lobo Genetics are singular in their mission to research genetic driven approaches to developing personalized tools for use in psychedelic-assisted therapeutic treatments for substance use disorders.

With firsthand knowledge of the shortcomings of the current treatment system, Ko, and Lem, the developer behind a direct-to-consumer platform being used in HaluGen’s Psychedelic Genetics test kit, the two are working together to find the right solutions for patients faster and improve outcomes.

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter