CanInnovate

Hani Mourra is a dad, Softwareprenuer, and the creator of Repurpose.io a software designed to help content creators automate the distribution of podcasts and live videos across multiple platforms and grow their audience faster.

Hani truly believe that the less time you spend on the technical side of things, the more time you will have to create amazing content for your audience!

What makes this a Canadian Innovation or Innovative thinking?

Automation of tedious tasks so business owners and content creators can focus on delivering valuable content to they potentials while still getting maximum exposure online

RePurpose.io is designed to create content on one platform whether it is a video or a podcast to help get it out to other platforms such as Youtube, Facebook, Libsyn, iTunes, Google Play and many other immediately.

"Having your content on different platforms multiply your reach"

What excites Hani about the podcasting industry:

Podcasting is becoming mainstream because most people does not have a time to sit in front of the computer or watch videos, read and some people who are on the road or at the gym. There are all sorts of topic being discussed in the podcast industry which makes it very exciting and interesting.

Lessons Learned:

• Hani treat his customers or people as friends by making himself available for help.
• If you treat people well, words about you being helpful and careful will go around and is good for your business as well.
• Hani also consider the people he connect as friends and not as customers.
• Treat people as friends and not as a number or a dollar sign in business.

Sales and marketing tips:

• Join as many group as you can especially on Facebook about the topic that matches your business.
• Try to help your co-members solve their problems and try to hang out with them
• Listen and contribute to the group that you are in.

Resources Mentioned:

Podcast Recommendation: Startups for the rest of us podcast

Hot Spot: Starbucks

Benefits of Using RePurpose.io

• Convert Audio Podcasts To Videos and Publish To YouTube and Facebook
• Upload Facebook Live Videos To YouTube
• Push your Audio Podcast to SoundCloud
• Convert Facebook Lives to an Audio Podcast on iTunes*
• Publish Video Podcasts To YouTube
• Distribute Your Audio Podcasts and Facebook Lives to 50 TV Networks**
• Upload Facebook Live Videos to Other Facebook Groups or Pages
• Backup Audios and Videos to Google Drive and Dropbox

Connect with Hani:

Twitter: @hanimourra

LinkedIn: Hani Mourra

Facebook: Hani Mourra

Websites:

• Hani Mourra
• RePurpose.io

Thanks again for tuning in!

To help out the show:

• Please leave an iTunes review or post a comment below. Your help is greatly appreciated.
• If you know any Canadian Innovators whom you like us to feature, please feel free to email us.
• Listen to more innovators who are crushing it here.

I'm still channeling Gary Vee! Ratings and reviews are my oxygen!

Have you seen the new CanInnovate resources & tools page, that provides different offers and discounts. Who doesn't love to save money?

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Olivia Simmons is a two-time entrepreneur and holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto, with a Specialization in Applied Mathematics and Economics.

She also attended University of Waterloo Math Faculty where she grew a love for Computer Science before transferring to U of T. She is a self-taught web programmer and has been running her own tech businesses since she was 21.

"Self love - put yourself first and as much as you can take a moment to love yourself"

Episode Overview:

This week, I get to chat with Olivia Simmons, CEO and Founder of ConferenceCloud. She shared how she and her brother came up with ConferenceCloud and how they used it to connect with their clients while using their collage budget.

She also shared how easy and beneficial ConfereneCloud is for your business meeting and other conferences especially when you have a 3-5 days conference.

ConferenceCloud allows you to have a playback on the videos that you shared such as masterclass, meetings or conferences. This allows other viewers to have access on the things that they missed earlier or get the information that they needed.

Listen in to this week's episode and be amazed on how this conference tool can help and elevate your business meetings and more!

Lessons Learned:

• When it comes to startup and tech, everything is very hands-on, it's very fast and you get a lot of trial and errors.
• Other startup entrepreneurs always say "The technology is great and the technology is important and it needs to work but if nobody knows where to find your technology then your whole process will be wasted.
• The most important aspect in your business is always sales and marketing.

Resources Mentioned:

Tips:

• Follow-up is key to your business
• Understanding the basics of business
• For start-outs, you gotta get out of the notion of someone is always going to be there to help you get a mark or measure at the beginning of your business.
• No one will come along and give you a million dollars because of your big idea that will make you quit your job
• You have to do a lot of leg work to show your value so that you can achieve your million dollar
• Do not be afraid to learn every single day

Tools:

• Asana
• Close.io for sales

Podcast Recommendation:

• Podcast Sales Hacker
• e-Contact

Hot spot:

• Our Aquarium at Ripley's

About ConferenceCould:

ConferenceCloud provides state-of-the-art live communications and interactivity for hybrid conferences, lectures and meetings. There are conferences held all over the world chock full of inspiring experts, content and research. But there is one main problem that all conferences share in common: and that is profitability. It doesn't matter if the conference holds 300 people, or 3000 people, held in Montreal or Madrid. The profitability for the organizers is relatively low. The current conference model is constrained by the physical venue. With on-site attendees the profit just doesn't scale. ConferenceCloud provides live video, Q&A crowdsourcing suite, live audio and native slide presentation to provide a unified virtual attendance platform for the client and the end user. The company is currently going after the conferencing ticketing sales market segment, currently valued at approximately $100 Billion dollars in the US. The company's mission is to expand the market by increasing access and decreasing cost.

Connect with Olivia Simmons:

Twitter: @confcloud

LinkedIn: ConferenceCloud LinkedIn

Thanks again for tuning in!

To help out the show:

• Please leave an iTunes review or post a comment below. Your help is greatly appreciated.
• If you know any Canadian Innovators whom you like us to feature, please feel free to email us.
• Listen to more innovators who are crushing it here.

I'm still channeling Gary Vee! Ratings and reviews are my oxygen!

Have you seen the new CanInnovate resources & tools page, that provides different offers and discounts. Who doesn't love to save money?

We are a big supporter of Unsplash.com photos. Special thanks to Headway!

Ariel Garten is a neuroscientist, innovator, mother, and entrepreneur whose driving purpose is to empower and help others overcome mental obstacles in order to live healthy, happy lives and reach their maximum potential. Ariel is the Founder of InteraXon, the makers of Muse: the brain sensing headband.

Her team's technology has been featured in over 1000 media pieces, as well as was the feature showcase at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, an installation that allowed over 7,000 people control the lights on the CN tower, Canadian parliament buildings, and Niagara Falls with their brains from across the country.

Ariel's Podcast is called Inside the Head Of where every week she get inside the head of neuroscientist, psychotherapist, the skilled and the mental arts and we learn about their cutting edge experience and their personal life.

Episode Overview:

This week I get chat with Ariel Garten of Muse where she shared the benefits of meditating using Muse headband and how it can help us improve our concentration through meditation. She also talked about what meditation really means.

She also shared what meditation really means and explained how the 30-second meditation works.

"It is important for your brain to slow down for it to speed up" - Lauren Waldman, Learning Pirate

If you are able to stay in a calmer mind you get more and more points. So, the longer you stay in this state then you will get rewards, badges and milestones. Ariel Garten also added that Muse is the mixture of technology - which is always on the cutting edge with the added soundtrack that is the sound of your mind.

Meditational down regulate your medulla which is your fight and flight response so that you end up being not so reactive to the world around you. Meditation also helps you to decrease default mode network.

"The more you muse the more you can bring your brain back"

Lessons Learned:

• Do not be afraid
• Do not be held back by the thoughts in your head that is not going to work or is not going to go right
• If you can see something that has a possibility out there, don't let anything hold you back and do it!
• Be bold and be be brave
• Your ability to sit in discomforts probably predicts your success is life
• If you are feeling afraid, just don't worry and push through until you get to the other side

Recommended Resources:

Tips:

• Quite the voice in your head that says "this is not going to work" and find ways that it will because if you have a good idea, it will.
• Make sure your customer centric and TEST, TEST, TEST
• The problem is not to deliver dollars in your pocket book but rather how to deliver value in somebody else.
• Do not be afraid to start in an online-only business.
• Just like your brain is plastic, the way you engage the world is plastic

Tools: Muse

Hot spot: Organics Farm in Markham, Ontario

About Muse:

Muse: the brain sensing headband will elevate your meditation experience. It gently guides your meditation through changing sounds of weather based on the real-time state of your brain. This allows you to obtain a deeper sense of focus and motivates you to build a highly rewarding practice.

Meditation has been scientifically shown to reduce symptoms associated with stress, depression and anxiety as well as improve focus, performance and quality of life.

• Learn the essentials of focussed attention meditation
• Soundscapes include Beach, Rainforest, Desert and others*
• Milestones and rewards to keep you motivated
• Create multiple accounts and share with family and friends
• End of session results and graphs help measure progress
• Exercises contributed by meditation experts to help you learn

Muse / Interaxon, based in Toronto, Canada is a developer of engaging experiences using brainwave-sensing technology designed to help you free yourself from physical, emotional and mental obstacles so you get more out of every moment.

Our mission is to enable you to live a happier, healthier and more connected life with leading brainwave technologies and experiences. Our flagship product, launched in 2014, is Muse: the brain sensing headband.

When accompanied with an app available for both iOS and Android devices the Muse headband is a sensory device that is designed to help with meditation by providing real-time EEG based audio and visual feedback.

Connect with Ariel:

Website: Muse | The Brain Sensing Headband

Social Media:

• LinkedIn: Ariel Garten on LinkedIn
• Twitter: @ariel_garten and @ChooseMuse
• Facebook: Muse on Facebook

Instagram: @Choosemuse @ariels musings

Thanks again for tuning in!

To help out the show:

• Please leave an iTunes review or post a comment below. Your help is greatly appreciated.
• If you know any Canadian Innovators whom you like us to feature, please feel free to email us.
• Listen to more innovators who are crushing it here.

I'm still channeling Gary Vee! Ratings and reviews are my oxygen!

Have you seen the new CanInnovate resources & tools page, that provides different offers and discounts. Who doesn't love to save money?

We are a big supporter of Unsplash.com photos. Special thanks to Jared Rice!

Jeff Wiener is a serial entrepreneur, real estate investor and now a best selling author. He has just published the The Kick Ass Entrepreneur Guide to Investing that hit #1 in Amazon business book and he is now helping entrepreneurs reach their potential and helping them to create wealth with other entrepreneurs sharing his 30+ years of experience.

"I want to help entrepreneurs but I wasn't really sure what capacity that I want to help them"

How do you market your book?

The idea concept behind it is, you have to take a section of your big book and use that as a reader magnet and market the small section of your book. Capture as many emails as you can and build a base, do podcast, do interviews and build a brand and platform for yourself and and once you got that, you are in a big position to market your big book.

When you are dealing with entrepreneurs you got to think of it differently. The cash that they have to invest, you have to put consideration the different things that you would in your traditional investor who does not own a business

THREE SIMPLE STEPS TO BUILD MASSIVE WEALTH WITH YOUR BUSINESS'S PROFITS

The concept behind Jeff's 3-Bucket Investments

You need to consider the value of your business as part of your overall equity.

• Real-Estate - this bucket-list refers to a multi-unit resident that you can consider as an investment property where you are generating cash flow.
• Cash - When the market tanks, you want to take advantage of buying real-estate, buying a competitor or doing other things with your cash investing and expanding with your business.
• Equity - Maintain your allocation; a third from each bucket investment.

"You know when to hold them, to fold them and stay alert for the best deals at the lowest price"

Lessons Learned:

• You can't just rely with any one vendor
• In whatever industry you are in, you can't solely rely on one product
• Getting constant feedbacks from people is what makes you better in your life
• If you want to help your clients then you need to start thinking like an entrepreneur

Marketing Tips:

• What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
• It makes it difficult to take advantage of opportunity as they arise.
• You got to get your name out there in the world of social media
• You need to build the right channels and marketing automation tools to help expand the business
• You need to study what's working and what's not and constantly understand the return on investment from every dollar spent both in time and dollars invested in marketing.

Sales Tips:

• Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross
• It's now how many phone calls you make, it's how you get in touch with the prospects strategically

About The Kickass Entrepreneur

The Kickass entrepreneur is a simple step-by-step approach to help you achieve three BIG AUDACIOUS goals, and help you develop a kickass mindset. Download Jeff's FREE E-book The Kissass Entrepreneur: Guide to Investing

Connect with Jeff:

Website: The Kickass Entrepreneur

LinkedIn: Jeff Weiner

Facebook: The Kissass Entrepreneur

Thanks again for tuning in!

To help out the show:

• Please leave an iTunes review or post a comment below. Your help is greatly appreciated.
• If you know any Canadian Innovators whom you like us to feature, please feel free to email us.
• Listen to more innovators who are crushing it here.

I'm still channeling Gary Vee! Ratings and reviews are my oxygen!

Have you seen the new CanInnovate resources & tools page, that provides different offers and discounts. Who doesn't love to save money?

We are a big supporter of Unsplash.com photos. Special thanks to Olu Eletu!

Michael Kolm is the City of Toronto's first-ever Chief Transformation Officer. A seasoned executive with extensive experience in business transformation. Michael provides strategic leadership to help the City become more effective and efficient in its delivery of public services, now and in the future, while delivering maximum value for public dollars.

With a long and successful background in consulting with powerhouse firms such as EY and PwC, Michael worked with private and public sector clients to plan for and realize the benefits of implementing business transformation.

Leading the City's Transformation Office, Michael works closely with internal and external leaders, partners and stakeholders to lead transformational projects that will ultimately drive social, environmental and economic benefits for all those who live, work and play in Toronto.

One of Michael's current focus areas is developing a Smart City strategy which includes leading the City's submission to the Federal Smart Cities Challenge.

"Find something that you are really passionate about"

Michael's 6-Point Plan for Toronto

Michael was hired to identify, lead and drive bigger/broader transformational opportunities in the city. These are the fundamental behavioral aspects of how he work at the city that will be really important to help us keep moving forward and modernizing.

1. Planning the Transformation

We need to transform Toronto into a more resilient city. We need to get ready for the impact of climate change and that is a massive transformation that they are focusing on.

1. Operations and how they deliver their operation services

We need to figure out ways to be more efficient and use public dollars more effectively. They went through a whole a bunch of programs looking on these aspect and one example of that is real-estate. On January, they created CREATE TO as a single place where all real-estate are managed in the city of Toronto.

1. Supply-chain

We spend almost 3 Billion Dollars a year on goods and services here in Toronto buying from private company and they have to make sure that the money spent is used effectively. They also have to make sure that they make a good decision on who they partner with the delivery of goods and services and be strategic on how they spend on different things.

1. Customer Service

Michael and his team plan on having a strategic services on how they need to deliver the goods and services on different mobile platforms and reduce the burden of people lining up and taking number like the old fashioned way that you interact with your city government.

1. Smart City Transformation

Michael's main question is "are we using technology and data in a way that provides better outcome for our residence and really focusing on making life better for people that work, like and play in the city of Toronto?"

1. Cultural Transformation

Focuses on the fundamental things like how we behave or how we do our work here at the city and how we organized our work here at the city which falls under a few headings.

• Governance
• Change in management
• Be data driven and fact-base
• How to do partnerships better
• Figuring out how to embed innovation and human centered design
• Find out how to become better at experimenting and failing fast

Michael also talked about Smart Cities privacy security governance model.

If you want to know more about Smart City data, privacy and security, you can check out our episode 1 with Dr. Ann Cavokian here.

Michael's goal is not to become a surveillance-based city but rather to leverage the value of data to help us identify, diagnose and drive outcome; measure success and measure outcomes by doing it in such a way of being respectful of the privacy and entune with the security risk that are present today.

Michael shares his smart city discussion that he have been referring to:

Smart cities 1.0 discussion focuses on structure, infrastructures, vehicles and traffic management which are we need. These are also big challenges for every citizen for the city of Toronto to make it easier to get around or make the environment cleaner and safer.

Smart cities 2.0 discussion focuses on making data and technology use as an equal playing field for people who are not as advantage in society and maybe need some help in terms of food, child-care or training so that they can get into a better job.

"Our goal is to have a citizen driven human centered smart city"

Resources Mentioned:

Productivity Tool:

• Spend time with your kids and family

Book Recommendation:

• Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz

Hotspot:

• Go to craft beer brewery

About Transformation Office:

The Transformation Office develops strategies to help the City become more effective, efficient and able to adapt to future challenges. The Office works to deliver the greatest value for public dollars by transforming operations, programs and services.

With a focus on those who live, work and play in Toronto, the Office transforms public services to allocate resources in more effective and modern ways to drive social, economic and environmental benefits.

Connect with Michael:

Email: [email protected]

Thanks again for tuning in!

To help out the show:

• Please leave an iTunes review or post a comment below. Your help is greatly appreciated.
• If you know any Canadian Innovators whom you like us to feature, please feel free to email us.
• Listen to more innovators who are crushing it here.

I'm still channeling Gary Vee! Ratings and reviews are my oxygen!

Have you seen the new CanInnovate resources & tools page, that provides different offers and discounts. Who doesn't love to save money?

We are a big supporter of Unsplash.com photos. Special thanks to Yeshi Kangrang!

Casey Binkley is the Founder & CEO of HaulerAds, a Truck-Side Advertising Marketplace data-fueled by WI-FI / GPS performance analytics. They've launched in Canada and are expanding into the US. Casey previously built a global manufacturing business to $2.5M ARR, and was recently selected as a Canadian Delegate to the 2018 G20 Summit in Buenos Aires.

Episode Overview

In this episode, we feature Casey Binkley of HaulerAds where he drops value bombs and tips on how moving ads provide impact in your company's market exposure. He also shared their company's breakthrough with Ryerson University's summer outdoor advertising campaign.

Casey tipped us with the difference between moving ads and static ads and how these two will impact your business. In addition, moving ads can impact your business by providing uniqueness on the delivery that makes canvasses speaks to your audience.

Resources mentioned Tips:

• Do it!
• Be consistent and persistent with people
• When you have an idea, it is so important to get it out there and talk to everybody that you possibly can.
• Do not be afraid to fail.

Productivity Tool:

• Tony Robbins Podcast
• Gary Vaynerchuk Podcast
• Slack
• Trello
• Google Document

Hotspot:

• Watching Wolfpack Rugby team in Toronto

About Hauler Ads:

HaulerAds is a Toronto-base out-of-home advertiser and media provider. Its story begins in 2015 when Casey Binkley, founder and president of HaulerAds, noticed something peculiar about the mobile billboard advertising industry - no ads on trucks! His entrepreneurial instincts told him, "a commercial vehicle without creative advertising is an underutilized asset for truckers and advertisers!". Thus, concluding these facts:

Companies demand more and more outdoor brand exposure, while the supply of traditional billboards continues to shrink (due to city development and municipal restrictions).

There is a need for data analytics on this advertising platform to guide marketers.

Companies recognize that out-of-home advertising is a key ingredient in increasing their brand awareness. Access to traditional billboard advertising and other out-of-home advertising mediums are limited and present a vast number of challengers such as; the inability to track the success or failure of advertising billboard demand and supply. Even more so, HaulerAds is the ONLY mobile billboard advertiser/truck wrap supplier with unique GPS tracking and Impression Analytics Technology. With it, advertisers can track where their ads are being shown, who is seeing them, and the impressions gathered.

Connect with Casey

Website: HaulerAds.com

Twitter: @haulerads

Facebook: Hauler Ads

Instagram: @haulerads

Email: [email protected]

Thanks again for tuning in!

To help out the show:

• Please leave an iTunes review or post a comment below. Your help is greatly appreciated.
• If you know any Canadian Innovators whom you like us to feature, please feel free to email us.
• Listen to more innovators who are crushing it here.

I'm still channeling Gary Vee! Ratings and reviews are my oxygen!

Have you seen the new CanInnovate resources & tools page, that provides different offers and discounts. Who doesn't love to save money?

We are a big supporter of Unsplash.com photos. Special thanks to @explorewithjoshua!

Daryl Hemingway is an entrepreneur, rocket scientist and filmmaker. Daryl is founder and CEO of SmartTones Inc. that is connecting broadcast to mobile, at the cutting edge of the evolution of advertising and media.

Daryl found a gap in time between when people discover something they want to do and when they can take that action. So he looked for a better way on how to directly connect the audience to the entertainment media they love. The solution is to use silent sign codes in the audio track of the film, TV show, radio song or live events such as sports to connect directly to mobile phones which is where people take action today.

With this, the phone recognizes the content that you are watching and can trigger all sorts of different experiences for you to get what you want, when you want it, and enables you to participate directly in traditional media. Sports fans can predict the play and win prizes, film buffs can learn behind the scenes secrets, fans can vote for their favourite talent, shop what they see or enter contests, all in real-time and effortlessly on their mobile.

Episode Overview:

A few years ago, Daryl made a documentary film about green energy and his audience wanted to know more about that topic. Yet, he found that there was not a good way to give it to them. Scrolling a URL or a hashtag on the screen and hoping they remember and go to the website later, was not very effective.

Daryl shares a bit of his journey and how he started SmartTones Inc. and discusses how broken methods of advertising trigger most users to block unwanted ads.

"The key piece of missing information for those advertisers and content producers was context."

Traditional media is one to many, digital is one to one, but now we are entering a post-digital world that puts the consumer in control of connecting to their favourite moments. Right now, ads are still delivered ad hoc based on outdated systems that lack the audience intelligence to auto-filter irrelevant messages. When you do see something you want, there is a lag and many manual steps to get it: remember, search, spell it correctly, find it in a big website, and more. SmartTones can trigger things to happen with the content that is being consumed rather than waiting for a commercial break or forcing you to watch an ad. SmartTones can also trigger the right message to the right person and at the right time. The future is ad free content that enables you to choose to engage with what you want in the moment. SmartTones is a solution that recognized and rewards hard won audiences that have been growing increasingly hostile toward ad saturation and interference with their viewing experience: preroll, popups, banner ads etc.

Daryl found out that there are lots of changes going on in the ad agencies when he talked to experts at film festivals and connected to other people within the industry. In this episode, Daryl also shares what excites him about the future of participatory entertainment. Sports is transforming into active fan engagement: Play along, score your knowledge, win points and prizes, all in a social environment with friends. Do all the things you love to do in person at the game, from anywhere, and make it all happen with one app.

Resources Mentioned: Lessons Learned:

• From NASA 'There are no limits'
• From NASA ' Do what it takes to make the mission happen!' - get out of the employee mindset

Tips:

• Change = Opportunity
• The future is predictable, if you create it
• When you're 70% sure based on your market research, trust your gut and go for it
• Dial into WII.FM Station
• Play until the GAME OVER (PacMan was the discussion)
• Pacman Analogy - 'Figure out what dots/pellets that you need to eat to get to the next level'
• Failure is not an option
• Believe in your WHY
• Do what it takes to accomplish the mission

Hotspots:

• Recroom in Toronto
• El Catrin - Mexican Food at the Distrillery District

About SmartTones Media:

SmartTones Media was founded as an entertainment technology company with one goal in mind – connecting broadcast media to mobile. They believe entertainment should excite audiences and enable them to participate. This happens when you combine context with precision targeting. Breaking down the old one directional, non-responsive broadcast model creates a new dynamic way of interacting with audiences. With a phone in hand, advertisers and content creators can reach audiences through their mobile devices. SmartTones Media is transforming passive audiences into active participants by igniting their excitement.

The SmartTones Platform provides a frictionless way to encode, create and execute smart campaigns into your current workflow. Their executive dashboard gives you front row access to capture and monitor data in real-time for first party measurement and transparency. Engage your audience and deliver context-driven calls to action. SmartTones instantly immerse people into entertaining experiences they actually want to participate in, engage with and share.

• Capture and monitor data in real-time with a comprehensive executive dashboard
• Integrates into your existing app to enhance your brand and increase users
• Privacy is always protected

Connect with Daryl:

LinkedIn: Daryl Hemingway

Twitter: @smarttonesmedia

Website: SmartTones Media

Thanks again for tuning in!

To help out the show:

• Please leave an iTunes review or post a comment below. Your help is greatly appreciated.
• If you know any Canadian Innovators whom you like us to feature, please feel free to email us.
• Listen to more innovators who are crushing it here.

I'm still channeling Gary Vee! Ratings and reviews are my oxygen!

Have you seen the new CanInnovate resources & tools page, that provides different offers and discounts. Who doesn't love to save money?

We are a big supporter of Unsplash.com photos. Special thanks to @martenbjork!

Melissa Sariffodeen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Canada Learning Code. She is a celebrated digital literacy advocate who is dedicated to ensuring that women and youth have the critical skills, confidence, and opportunities that they need to thrive in our increasingly digital world. She is a graduate of the Richard Ivey School of Business and is currently pursuing her Master's in Education Policy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. She taught herself how to build websites from scratch using HTML when she was 11 years old and has been coding ever since.

She also won the 2017 RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur award for Social Change Award

It was originally called Ladies learning code and it started in 2011 out of self-interest for us group of 4 woman who wanted to learn more technical skillset. They wanted to create this opportunity to learn to code and that time in toronto there was not any opportunity or explicitly welcoming for women or for beginners to learn to how to code.

Episode overview:

In this episode, I get to chat with Melissa Sariffodeen of Canada Learning Code where she provided us with a thorough explanation on how important coding is to the younger generations. Here you will find that Melissa and her colleagues really feel the need to empower, educate and inspire teachers to introduce coding to their students.

Their popular course is the Intro to HTML and CSS where the workshop will allow you a day or over a day or evenings to build your own website from scratch or maybe edit a website that you already have. The other popular course is Data Analysis and Visualization where they focus on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) where the desire of people to know how to work and manipulate it visually. They also teach arts and music making things fun and engaging like creating emojis, prints and graphic designs.

For every four learners there is always one technical expert who is there to work with you the entire day for the program and to help you learn.

In this episode, you will also understand the importance of why learning how technology is built and learning coding is going to be critical for every role into the future whether you want to start your own business or whether you are working in a company and you want to jump-start your career; it provides a way of understanding (connecting the dots) of people.

How can you support Canada Learning Code:

If you are technical or run a technical team; volunteering and giving back or hosting our program to their chapters/programs running around 35 different cities around the country; they are always looking for technical mentors or spaces to host their programs because they don't have a physical space anywhere. They are also looking for innovative content on sponsorship, donations or charity.

Resources Mentioned:

Tips:

• "Get started"
• Understand how coding works and how technology works
• Launching fast, failing fast, elevating fast
• Try to serve the best
• Do not be afraid to try different things
• Progress is an achievement as well as getting things out there
• Do not be afraid to fail forward

Tools:

• Slack
• Hootsuite

Book:

• The Radical Candor by Kim Scott
• How We can Win by Anthony Lacavera

Hootspot:

GTA for food

Nelson BC for retreat

About Company:

Canada Learning Code is a national not-for-profit organization championing digital literacy education, working nation-wide and across all sectors to equip Canadians with technical skills. To date, the organization has taught over 80,000 learners through their programs, which are offered in over 30 cities across the country.

Founded as Ladies Learning Code in 2011, the organization has evolved to run programming for adults, youth and educators through programs Ladies, Girls, Kids, Teens and Teachers Learning Code. Canada Learning Code's goal is to create 10 million technology learning experiences for Canadians over the next ten years.

Technical skills are a tool of empowerment, and it is the organization's mission to ensure that all Canadians - particularly those who are currently underrepresented in the tech sector - have access to learn these critical skills and be active participants in the digital age.

Connect with Melissa:

Website: Canada Learning Code

Twitter: @learningcode @melsariffodeen

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissasariffodeen/

Instagram: @learningcode

Facebook: Canada Learning Code Facebook

Thanks again for tuning in!

To help out the show:

• Please leave an iTunes review or post a comment below. Your help is greatly appreciated.
• If you know any Canadian Innovators whom you like us to feature, please feel free to email us.
• Listen to more innovators who are crushing it here.

I'm still channeling Gary Vee! Ratings and reviews are my oxygen!

Have you seen the new CanInnovate resources & tools page, that provides different offers and discounts. Who doesn't love to save money?

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Brent Lessard is the co-founder and project manager at rLoop, a SpaceX award winning globally distributed and crowd-sourced organization with over 1300 members for more than 50 countries. Brent also serves as an advisor to the president of Durham College for the school of Science and Engineering and was recently awarded the Ontario's Premier Award for his work within his local community as well as rLoop.

rLoop is working to revolutionize the future of transportation. Through open-source and collaborative design, a prototype was designed, manufactured, and tested entirely by the crowd, capable of travel at hyper speeds, enabling people to get where they need to go, faster – much, much faster! Simultaneously, rLoop is reimaging how people can collaborate together on complex and interdependent work by leveraging blockchain technology.

In 2015, Elon Musk announced through SpaceX that they were going to host a competition open to independent and student teams where they would build and provide the facilities to test these vehicles and would allow certain number of teams to manufacture prototype vehicles to come around for testing. This competition landed Brent and his team several awards, including the Best Non-Student Design which gave them the permission to build their prototype along with 27 other teams out of 1800 submissions. They also won the best Pod Innovation Award where SpaceX acknowledged the complexity of their system and the unorthodox way in which their team come together.

"We dreamed of flying cars instead we got 140 characters" - Peter Theil

Episode Overview:

In this episode, Brent shares how rLoop came together from Reddit and how this small community designed their prototype for Elon Musk and SpaceX's project and competition. He also shares his AH-HA moments, realizing the processes and organization they built to develop the Hyperloop could be applied to other projects, but facilitating co-work on complex engineering systems required careful attention to engineering and management processes. They also need to focus on the human resources aspect as they continue to onboard new members, needing to bring them up to speed and able to contribute and collaborate in the best capacity that they can, as quickly as they can.

Tips Mentioned:

• We all have science fiction diets
• Connect with people who are successful or who have been in the industry
• When you're first starting out, find your legs and interact with people in the industry and it will go a long way in accelerating your understanding about your specific niche
• Find your passion and devote yourself to it entirely
• You have to be 100% devoted and passionate towards your goals
• "The day before something is a breakthrough, it's a crazy idea." - Peter Diamandis

Resources Mentioned:

Tools:

• Hacker Unit
• Google Tools
• Jira - Task Management

Book:

• The Wide Lens by Ron Adner
• Abundance by Peter Diamandis
• Bold by Peter Diamandis

Productivity Tool: Find a quiet place with good coffee and free WiFi

Hotspot: Hair of the Dog in Toronto

About Company:

rLoop is a crowdsourced and globally distributed moonshot engineering organization. They try to connect the untapped global pool of talent and resources, and drive that knowledge and expertise towards large-scale engineering projects that might have positive global impact. rLoop is also the first crowdsourced engineering team.

The Hyperloop concept goes back to 2013 when Elon Musk open sourced a paper outlining his vision for a ground-based transportation system where vehicles are levitated so there is no rolling resistance, and the vehicle is put in a tube or a tunnel where they can also control the environment and optimize it for their purposes. In this case they evacuate most of the air inside the tunnel to eliminate air friction. The vehicle can then optimize the energy that it is using and travel at an immense speed, with an estimated speed of 1200 km per hour.

rLoop uses a magnetic levitation system that is somewhat similar to mag-lev trains where they have self-contained hover engines to interact with a conductive subsurface, in this case aluminum. When these two interact it causes the vehicle to levitate off the surface. The engines can then be manipulated to induce thrust, braking, and in-flight control.

Connect with Brent:

LinkedIn: Brent Lessard

Twitter: @rLoopTeam and @MrBrentLessard

Website: rloop

Thanks again for tuning in!

To help out the show:

• Please leave an iTunes review or post a comment below. Your help is greatly appreciated.
• If you know any Canadian Innovators whom you like us to feature, please feel free to email us.
• Listen to more innovators who are crushing it here.

I'm still channeling Gary Vee! Ratings and reviews are my oxygen!

Have you seen the new CanInnovate resources & tools page, that provides different offers and discounts. Who doesn't love to save money?

We are a big supporter of Unsplash.com photos. Special thanks to Marc-Olivier Jodoin!

Salim Teja is the President, Venture Services for MaRS, where he leads the overall strategic direction of MaRS' venture services areas: Energy & Environment (Cleantech), Finance & Commerce (FinTech), Health and Work & Learning. He is an experienced entrepreneur and active early-stage technology investor, with deep industry expertise in software and digital media.

Salim joined MaRS in May 2013, providing strategic direction and leadership for MaRS' ICT venture services group, leading corporate and venture capital engagement, and overseeing MaRS' expanding international collaborations in the ICT sector.

Salim joined MaRS from Indigo Books & Music, where, as vice president of corporate development, he drove the formation of the company's Digital Innovation Lab. Prior to Indigo, Teja held the position of COO at CX Digital, a leading online ad network.

He has also held roles as COO of b5media and partner with early-stage VC firm Brightspark Ventures. He was also co-founder and vice president of sales and business development for San Francisco-based MobShop Inc.,.

Resources Mentioned:

Book Recommendation: The Hard Thing about Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

Productivity Tool:

• Email
• Slack
• Text and Messaging
• Phone Calls
• Entrepreneurship 101 Course
• Entrepreneur's Toolkit

Tips Mentioned:

• You got to focus on solving the problem that people will understand and that people prioritize the problem worth solving
• You need to stay away from nice-to-have solutions and really focus on must-have solutions
• Why this, why you, why now?
• Shares the key mistakes that entrepreneur makes all the time
• We are reinventing ourselves as a kind of innovation where we help different kinds of entrepreneurs
• You always got to be hustling
• You should not be shy to pick up the phone on making the call or going to a conference
• Its different to just go out there and get people's attention and get notices than sitting in a room with your colleagues
• Build skills that allows you to feel comfortable being out there and building your network
• "Be sure to find people to be a good team member, co-founders and investors in your business"
• "Regardless of how digital our world gets we can't forget about the aspects that we are doing in"
• "Think carefully about the partners you choose and the relationship that you build"
• Companies may come and go but relationships will last a long time
• It is hard for one person or one small group to know everything
• There is no right or wrong when you're building a business; You just need to navigate your way to a lot of grey area in order to get to the other side.

Episode Overview:

Toronto's it at its peak stage because they have unbelievable companies that are reaching out for growth and stage that they are trying to get on a global map. They have global corporate coming in to the city and wanted to be a part of the community, investing in teams and resources. They also have global investors that are coming into their market to make big bets on their companies.

In this episode, Salim Teja talks about all aspects of being an entrepreneur in Canada and how it impacts the innovation growth. He also shares how MaRS is one of the crowned jewels that really help the growth of innovation in Canada and and learn more about his venture services.

"How could we do something different to re-capitalized the local ecosystem and give back to our community."

Salim also shared his a story about him and his colleague who had a relationship with The SickKids Hospital conceived a concept around - "why don't we get community together to raise funds and help the hospitals and made a big campaign to build a next generation of children hospitals in Toronto.

It is a $25,000 that they are spearheading where they used the money to setup a chair at the SickKids hospital in artificial intelligence and machine learnings. Check out the video of SickKids VS Undeniable Youtube video.

About Company:

MaRS is one of the largest Innovation hub, an innovation center right in the heart of Toronto. The company had been around for about 13 years

The Vision of the early founders was: where can we build a place where we can active all of the different nerves that are important to the innovation process.

And how to we build a program to find the company that has the highest potential driven by science and technology and how do we help accelerate their path to become global businesses from Canada.

The vision: "how to we build a place and how to we build a program that will put Toronto and Canada globally"

13 years later now, what we have the world's largest urban innovation centers of about a million and a half square feet of space and a flagship program that Salim leads called Venture Services which today has twelve hundred octave startups that are participating in the program.

Foresights of the founders was "This type of platform was important to the city and the country and certainly as an economy we started to shift away from natural resources towards science and technology, how are we going to create the companies of tomorrow and thereby the jobs of tomorrow to really drive Canada's growth.

Connect with our guest:

Website: MaRS.com

LinkedIn: Salim Teja

Twitter: @salimteja