Welcome to the Eureka Moments Only Podcast, a show that highlights members of the global entrepreneurship community and breaks down the moments of change that lead to success in business that we like to call eureka moments.

Chris Decker kicks off this season with Helen Kontozopoulos, who teaches Product Development, Design, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto. Among Helen’s achievements include co-founding the Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab and co-founding ODAIA Intelligence.

HIGHLIGHTS

Helen on being a startup founder

The process of growing her startup

Helen’s Vision and Mission

The difference between the academic world and the business world

Helen’s eureka moment

Helen’s role models

QUOTES

Helen: “It's really great being a founder, but it's also very scary. So you kind of kind of have an embrace, and be courageous around the fear you have every day. So that's what I do.”

Helen: “My mission is to really kind of educate what it means to have tools at your hands and, and be empowered by them.”

Helen: “If you kind of live in a silo, you don't see that there's opportunities out there, you gotta showcase the problems of what's happening in the real world for students to really log on to and find solutions for.”

Helen: “It was an aha moment. You beat yourself up a little bit too much. You think you do worse than what you really do. On that stage, I thought I was flopping like I thought I wasn't doing great at all. And then you realize that's not what people are seeing. People want to be your champion. People want to hear you. And people want to see you.”

Helen: “I realized if you don't speak your truth and your personality. I'm not the person who is going to try to be someone else. I tried that. Do not do that. Do not try to be somebody else. Do not try to be some person who's supposed to be a startup founder. Be yourself, be the authentic person you are.”

Helen: “Just go out and have fun, you know, and be open and experiment with your thinking, experiment with who you are. And help others experiment and be creative.”

Connect with Helen and learn more about her with the links below:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/helenissocial

Website:

helenissocial.ca (Personal Website)

HELEN KONTOZOPOULOSodaia.ai (Company Website)

Learn more about Chris and what he’s been up to with the links below:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/decker-christopher

Email: [email protected]

Eureka Fest 2022: “Find the Future” is coming. Featuring 30 speakers and over 50 exhibitors from 15 countries, this will be one of the biggest startup festivals in California. Visit https://www.eurekafest.com to learn more about this amazing event.

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