Flagship Podcast

Simon De Baene is the dreamer and visionary at the top of Workleap, which designs software used by over 15,000 organizations in 110 countries. Recognized as one of Quebec's largest SMEs, Workleap now has over 200 employees and is currently one of the fastest-growing companies in North America. Early in his entrepreneurial journey, Simon realized that employee fulfillment was the key to success, and began building what would quickly become one of the most inspiring business cultures on the planet. Audacious and non-conformist by nature, he is more motivated than ever to challenge the status quo in the workplace.

We spoke about:

• Being obsessed in order to build a world-class product
• How you need to be relentlessly determined to achieve a breakthrough
• How competition has radically increased in software
• The global opportunity for Workleap
• The market for employee experience and how it's growing

Scott is a partner at Panache Ventures. Prior to joining Panache, Scott was the co-founder and CEO of Covera.ai (acquired in 2019), an InsurTech startup that leverages data and technology to take insurance renewals off of your to do list forever. Scott was also an Entrepreneur in Residence at Ferst Capital Partners, one of Canada's pioneering FinTech venture capital funds. Scott writes and speaks about how technology, analytics, design and data impact the various components of the modern FinTech landscape. Scott is a business lawyer and holds a masters degree in business administration (MBA) from McGill University's Desautels Faculty of Management as well as civil and common law degrees from McGill's Faculty of Law.

On this week’s show, we spoke with  Jean-François Leduc, Co-Founder &  Partner @ The PNR. 

JF is an entrepreneur, executive, lawyer and angel investor. Formerly partner of one of the largest agencies in Canada, he was initially Chief Revenue Officer, then Head of Corporate Development. Following a few years of revenue and profit growth, he eventually managed all steps leading to the acquisition of the company by Dentsu-Aegis Media – a world leading advertising company. Previously, JF spent many years with Yahoo!, leading business development across Quebec and negotiating advertising agreements with many key clients. JF used to practice corporate and Internet law for Gesca, Power Corporation’s multimedia group and several law firms in Europe. These days, most of his time is spent with shareholders and management teams of fast growing companies focusing on corporate strategy, based on agility, in order to accelerate execution.

On the show, we spoke about: 

• How JF and Nectar met 

• Starting Point of No Return together

• The ups and downs of running a small business

• How PNR innovated with its consulting model and software

• Lessons learned after 8 years

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Originally from Montreal, business woman, creator and philanthropist, Vickie Joseph has been immersed in the world of fashion from a very young age. Today, as a happy mother of three children, the designer and businesswoman has been recognized for her projects on several occasions, including the multi million dollars she and her husband Frantz Saintellemy invested in the neighborhood of Saint Michel. Having created her clothing line in 2006, Vickie is a model of success. With determination and perseverance, she has succeeded in creating a company that broke into a very limited local market in Quebec, swept the country, and then spread internationally to create jobs for eager young women who would not otherwise have had the chance to work in such a niche sector

John is the Founder and Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity, a private equity firm focused on technology-enabled growth and disruption investment strategies. As a firm run by entrepreneurs, funded by entrepreneurs, and for entrepreneurs, Maverix invests in health and wellness, financial services, transportation and logistics, live, work, play and learn, and retail. John chairs the Investment Committee, guides the strategy of the firm, is deeply involved with fundraising and sourcing and leading investment opportunities, particularly within the technology industry. He led Maverix's first investment in Viral Nation and sits on their board.

John is also the Founder of OMERS Ventures and Co-Founder and Vice Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators. Over the course of his leadership as the CEO of OMERS Ventures, they invested over USD$500 million in over 40 disruptive technology companies across North America, including growth investments in Shopify, Xanadu, Wattpad, Wave, Hootsuite, Rover, Desire 2 Learn, Hopper, DuckDuckGo, TouchBistro and League. During his tenure at OMERS, John also formed OMERS Platform Investments, and as its Executive Managing Director, he formed OMERS Growth Equity and led investments in Purpose Financial, PointNorth Capital, District Ventures, OneEleven and ArcTern Ventures. John co-founded the Council of Canadian Innovators with Jim Balsillie, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping high-growth Canadian technology firms scale globally.

For the first episode, I could not think of two better people than my mighty partners at Amiral Ventures, Frederic Bastien and Dominic Becotte. We spoke about:

• Why we're starting Amiral Ventures

• The funding gap in Canada and how we're planning to address it

• Our investment thesis centered around sustainable economic dynamism

• Why we believe that the Canadian tech ecosystem is just getting started

On this week’s show, we spoke with Hugues Lalancette, Partner @ iNovia Capital

Hugues has over 10 years of experience in technology, finance and entrepreneurship. He joined Inovia as an Analyst in November 2015 and quickly rose through the ranks to become a Partner on the growth investment team where he focuses on enterprise software opportunities. During his six year tenure at the firm, he worked with 15 portfolio companies — including AlayaCare, AppDirect, Bench, Lightspeed, Top Hat, WorkJam, WorkFusion and Rewind — helping them raise $2B+ across 25 transactions and driving great exits to date. Hugues also developed Inovia’s LP co-investment program — enabling Inovia LPs to deploy about $800M across the portfolio. Prior to Inovia, he collaborated with startups in CFO and advisor roles after having worked at BMO. Hugues graduated with an MSc. in Accounting & Finance from The London School of Economics in 2012 and with a BBA in Economics & Finance from HEC Montreal in 2011.

On the show, we spoke about: 

• Hugues’ journey into venture

• iNovia’s mission and platform team

• Current macro environment and how their portfolio has adjusted 

• Leveraging insights and relationships to build M&A

• Key technology trends he’s studying

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Ashley Werhun, CEO & Co-Founder @ Mentorly. 

Ashley Werhun is the CEO and Co-Founder of Mentorly.com, and is on a mission to make mentorship accessible, and reliable to all. Mentorly is a cloud-based mentorship solution for businesses and organizations looking to invest in their people and help them soar. Ashley leads all things growth: B2B sales, marketing, positioning, fundraising and long-term vision. With many hats, Ashley is a leader who puts culture first. She strives to build an organization where each team member thrives because they are trusted and have the space to be their authentic selves. Prior to co-founding Mentorly, Ashley spent 10+ years touring the world performing with BJM Danse, Ballet BC and Trey McIntyre Project. She also was a development liaison, where she was the bridge between donors and artists. It was on tour when the large mentorship gap in the creative market became apparent and she started her journey into building a start-up.

On the show, we spoke about: 

• The path from elite level ballerina to startup entrepreneur

• Lessons from performance art world 

• What does it take to have a successful mentor- mentee relationship

• The Mentorly business model and growth strategy 

• Helping organizations with their people science function

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Sheldon Fernandez, CEO @ Darwin AI.

Sheldon Fernandez is a seasoned executive and respected thought leader in the technical and enterprise communities. Throughout his career, he has applied emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence to the enterprise. First, in his capacity as CTO at Infusion, the company he founded out of school with five partners that grew to 600 people. Then subsequently, at Avanade, the organization that acquired Infusion in March of 2017. Sheldon is also an accomplished author and speaker. He has spoken at numerous conferences in numerous contexts, including Singularity University, the prestigious think tank in the Bay Area, and has written technical books and articles on many topics. Through his career, Sheldon has coupled his entrepreneurial endeavors with non-technical pursuits, resulting in an interdisciplinary approach that is critical to the intelligent application of AI. He completed a Master’s degree in theology at the University of Toronto in 2008, with thesis work in neuroscience and metaethics. He also pursued creative writing at Oxford University.

On the show, we spoke about: 

• How studying theology helped Sheldon in his career 

• Darwin AI’s mission to protect our supply chains

• His thoughts on the current AI landscape

• The innovation behind Alpha Go

• Their innovative hardware and software model 

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Alik Sokolov, Co-Founder & CEO @ Responsibli.

Alik is passionate about empowering asset managers with the tools and insights they need to make informed, responsible investing decisions. With a background in finance and NLP, he bridges the usability gap for asset managers and pension funds in applying cutting-edge AI technologies. He is committed to helping their partners stay ahead of the curve and deliver value through data-driven investment decisions.

They are building advanced tools for responsible investing, using AI to distill and summarize all relevant information in a streamlined, concise and interactive format & connect economic externalities to a fundamental investment thesis.

On the show, we spoke about: 

• How Alik started Responsibli and the bold vision

• Math as a foundation for AI technologies

• His thoughts on the current state of AI

• How Responsibli is helping people make better investment decisions 

• Alik’s entrepreneurial lessons 

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