Flagship Podcast

On this week’s show, we spoke with David Charbonneau, Managing Partner @ Boreal Ventures.

David is the founder and managing partner of Boreal Ventures, Quebec's first early-stage venture fund dedicated to deeptech. Areas of expertise include industrial technologies, artificial intelligence, enterprise SaaS, semiconductor, computer vision, IoT, medtech, cleantech and energy.

Prior to founding Boreal Ventures, David worked at BDC Capital where he helped manage a $135M early-stage venture fund.

David initially started his career working in various engineering functions for Bombardier, Kraft and Toyota before transitioning to management consulting and strategy at KPMG-SECOR, where he supported executives on investment decisions, strategic planning and post-merger integration.

David also co-founded the Comité de Consultation en Gestion de Polytechnique (CCGP), a student-run consulting organization supporting strategic decision-making at start-ups, not-for-profits and established businesses.

On the show, we spoke about: 

• The skill of closing the gap between engineering and business
• How we strong engineering talent right here in Quebec
• De-risking investments at an early stage  
• Why he started Boreal Ventures and how they partner with Centech 
• His vision of making Canada a leading innovation center across the world 

David is well on his way in building a world class venture capital firm. I’m grateful that he took the time to chat and share his insights

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Sévrine Labelle, CEO @ Evol

Sévrine Labelle arrived at Femmessor in May 2017 with the desire to lead the organization and its human wealth with kindness and empathy. With more than 20 years of experience in management and entrepreneurship, she values collaboration and relies on collective intelligence to reach greater heights as a team. In his view, entrepreneurs have the power to positively transform society. It is this conviction that led her to invest in the evolution of Femmessor towards Evol, with the ambition of contributing to the creation of a more prosperous, sustainable and equitable economy.

On the show, we spoke about: 

• Evol’s mission and how they help female entrepreneurs and underrepresented founders
• How the tides are changing and more women are starting companies 
• Sevrine’s personal passion about wanting to make an impact
• Evol’s foray into equity investing and growth potential 

Sévrine is working towards a more prosperous future and a more equitable one. I hope that you enjoy the conversation!

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Miles Schwartz, Co-Founder @ Zum Rails. 

Experienced FinTech entrepreneur with a successful track record of building businesses from scratch. His passion for excellence and achieving results stems from his drive to continuously improve in all aspects of his life. He’s had the luxury of working with some very inspiring mentors who have helped shape him into the entrepreneur, leader, and team player he is today.

On the show, we spoke about: 

• Choosing the non-corporate life
• Being the first employee at Flinks
• Starting Zum Rails and building a company entirely remote 
• Scaling to 7 figures ARR and fundraising strategy 
• His ambition in building a unicorn

Miles shares some great insights about a winning mindset and what it takes to succeed in the startup world. I hope that you enjoy the conversation!

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Guillaume Duchesneau, CEO @ Ingeno

Guillaume is a software developer passionate about cloud computing and has been working in the IT field since 1997.

Over the years, with the emergence of the term "cloud", he had the chance to participate in multiple small and large scale cloud/SaaS projects as technical manager, architect and developer.

As "cloud-native" development techniques have evolved, he has developed a keen interest in using concepts such as test-driven development, continuous integration, continuous delivery, or microservices architectures as levers to deliver high-value, high-quality software on public or private clouds.

What he loves the most is coding. He sincerely believes that to be a great software architect, you also have to be a great software developer.

On the show, we spoke about: 

• How he fell in love with software development
• What it takes to become good at making software
• Starting Ingeno and entrepreneurship lessons
• Building a culture that attracts top developers
• Making the decision to step down as CEO

Guillaume is incredibly humble and has had a stellar career. He shared some great entrepreneurial lessons. 

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Azadeh Dastmalchi, CEO & Co-Founder @ VitalTracer.

Azadeh Dastmalchi is the CEO of VitalTracer, a medical startup that designs smart wearable medical devices. She is a Ph.D. candidate at Ottawa University, obtaining her MSc from the same university in Biomedical Engineering. In the last twelve years, her main field of research has been designing and developing medical devices, particularly vital signs monitoring ones and applied AI on bio-signals.

She is one of the top 25 women of Influence Recipients 2021, Student Entrepreneur National Champion in 2021, a Canadian G20 Young Entrepreneurs' Alliance, a skilled leader, entrepreneur, business planner, and a successful project manager. Azadeh raised $1M non-dilutive grants since April 2019. VitalTracer has been awarded several regional and national awards under her leadership, including Mitacs national entrepreneur award, Cannie regional award on innovation product, Startup Canada award, and Age-Well Emerging Entrepreneur Award (COVID-19 Countermeasures).

Experienced Research Assistant with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Skilled in leadership, entrepreneurship, business Planning, Data mining and project management. Strong research professional with a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Biomedical Engineering focused on Smart Wearable Medical Device with Machine Learning and Deep Learning and AI Algorithms

On the show, we spoke about: 

• How her father inspired her to launch a startup
• The challenge of medical startups 
• The state of wearable technology
• How VitalTracer will be able detect and prevent heart disease
• Her ambitions for growing the company

Azadeh is well on her way to making a huge impact in the world. She shared some great insights into what it takes to build a med-tech startup. I hope that you enjoy the conversation!

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Stephanie Mouchbahani-Constance, CEO & Co-Founder @ Pterotech. 

Stephanie Mouchbahani-Constance is the co-founder of PteroTech Inc. and is currently finishing her PhD at McGill University in the department of Physiology. She is the recipient of the Vanier Scholarship from the Canadian Institute for Health Research and for the past 4 years, her PhD research has focused on studying the venom responsible for excruciatingly painful stings produced by lionfish with a focus on understanding how this venom causes so much pain on a molecular level. From her research, Stephanie and her PhD supervisor co-founded PteroTech in 2019 to commercialize the first ever treatment for pain caused by lionfish stings. They since taken their product, called StingMaster, from lab to the market in 1 year and it is the first ever over-the-counter topical ointment that treats the pain caused by aquatic stings. Originally, they designed their formula to treat the pain caused by lionfish stings but have since found that StingMaster also works for a broad variety of aquatic stings including jellyfish, sea lice and fire coral stings. 

On the show, we spoke about: 

• How Stephanie got interested in the field of pain 
• Discovering the solution for lionfish stings 
• Building a company despite lack of business experience
• Taking advantage of the District3 Acceleration program
• Potential applicability of her solution

Stephanie is on the path to help millions of people globally. I hope that you enjoy the conversation!

Let us know what you think. What types of guests would you like to see on the show?  What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Philippe-Antoine Lehoux, CEO @ Missive App

Philippe has been bootstrapping businesses for the last 24 years. He’s done it all from the free flash game portal, the outside gaming creation jam, his city's first coworking space, the million dollar badge printing app, and now the best collaborative communication app in the world.

On the show, we spoke about: 

• Lessons from bootstrapping his business
• Learning to code
• Building Missive to get $2M 
• Entrepreneurship lessons after building several businesses
• Focusing on the product above all else

Philippe-Antoine is a serial entrepreneur that shared some great lessons on this interview. I hope that you enjoy the conversation!

Let us know what you think. What types of guests would you like to see on the show?  What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Adrian Schauer, Co-Founder & CEO @ Alayacare.

Adrian is a serial technology entrepreneur currently working on his 3rd technology start-up, AlayaCare. Having sold his mobile enterprise software last start-up, Vortex Connect, in 2012 he spent two years engaged as VP Innovation at the acquirer, JDA Software. Adrian is also an active Angel Investor and is a member of Maple Leaf Angels and Anges Quebec. Most recently he led an investment in TrackTik. In 2013 he led an investment round in Chipcare Corporation, a biotech spin out of the University of Toronto where he is currently the Chairman of the Board. Prior to spinning Vortex Connect out as an independent company, Adrian had co-founded the market leading mobile marketing company Vortex Mobile where he was in charge of product strategy. Vortex Mobile was recognized for 2 consecutive years as one of Canada’s 50 Fastest growing companies by Profit Magazine and was acquired by Transcontinental in 2010. Adrian is also the co-founder of the Madiro Fund, an organization created to support innovative solutions to the health problems of women and children. It is the first initiative of The Gillian and Adrian Schauer Foundation which seeks to invest in sustainable local projects promoting the health of communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Adrian holds a Masters of Applied Science from the University of Toronto and Bachelor’s of Engineering Physics from Queens University.

On the show, we spoke about: 

• Their mission of enabling care for our loved ones at home
• The insight that led to AlayaCare
• The state of healthcare technology today
• Raising $225M and their acquisition strategy 
• The privilege of empowering home caregivers

Adrian is a serial entrepreneur that is on a mission to reinvent healthcare at home. It was an inspirational conversation. 

Let us know what you think. What types of guests would you like to see on the show?  What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Tiffany Uman, Career Strategy Coach and Founder. 

As a former Fortune 500 Senior Director with 13 years in the corporate space at the #1 beauty company in the world, and where she achieved 7 promotions in under 10 years, TIff was named an internal transformation change agent, and was Head of Marketing on multiple multi-million dollar consumer brands.

She became a Career Strategy Coach, so that she could empower young professionals on how to set themselves up for the most success, avoid blind spots that cripple their progression, all while fast tracking achieving their career goals.

On the show, we spoke about: 

• How she left a stellar career at L’Oréal to start her own coaching business
• Opportunities to build a B2B consulting business on top of coaching
• The biggest career mistakes young professionals make 
• Her new book Stuff I wish I knew earlier
• Key themes: Proactivity, Communication and Intention

Tiff is a brilliant coach and has helped many young people in their careers. I hope that you enjoy the conversation!

Let us know what you think. What types of guests would you like to see on the show?  What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Genevieve Guay, CEO @ DentsuX and President, Dentsu Quebec. Genevieve is an experienced Managing Director with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Skilled in Digital Strategy, Mobile Advertising, Real-Time Bidding (RTB), Advertising, and Integrated Marketing. Strong business development professional with a BAA focused in Marketing from Université de Montréal - HEC Montréal.

On the show, we spoke about: 

• Avoiding bias in media
• Challenge of recruiting talent 
• The role of traditional media today
• Three pillars of transforming the agency landscape

Genevieve is a dear friend and of the smartest executives I know. She shared a ton about elevating marketing at the strategic level. I hope that you enjoy the conversation!

Let us know what you think. What types of guests would you like to see on the show?  What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]

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