Launch AMA

Serial entrepreneur and investor Shafin Diamond Tejani joined us recently for our ‘Ask Me Anything’ session. As the CEO of Victory Square Technologies (VST), Tejani has pioneered a unique venture-build model to support startup growth — offering not just funding, but his unique expertise and leadership advice. Tejani has won numerous awards including Prime Minister's Volunteer Award, EY’s Tech Entrepreneur of the Year, Person of the Year by BC Tech Association & Canadian Angel Investor of the Year.

In this AMA session, Tejani shared his entrepreneurial journey and answered questions from Launch’s Maple Program members about venture capital, funding, public markets, and Web3.

Twitter & LinkedIn: @shafindiamond

Ganesh is the CEO of Covalent, which is a Blockchain company that started out at Launch Academy a few years ago. Ganesh and Covalent are on a mission to solve the data infrastructure problems preventing the blockchain industry from growing and becoming widely adopted. Some of their biggest milestones lately: a billion-dollar valuation and the recent launch of their DAO.

Social Media:

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Networking expert, J. Kelly Hoey is the author of Build Your Dream Network: Forging Powerful Relationships In A Hyper-Connected World (Tarcher Perigee/Penguin Random House) and hosts the Build Your Dream Network podcast.

A frequent speaker and source for networking insights, she has been lauded from Forbes (“1 of 5 Women Changing the World of VC/Entrepreneurship”) to Fast Company (“1 of the 25 Smartest Women On Twitter”) to Business Insider (“1 of the 100 Most Influential Tech Women On Twitter”) and Inc. (1 of “10 Most Well-Connected People in New York City’s Startup Scene”).

Empowering A Billion Women By 2020 included her on their list of the “100 Most Influential Global Leaders Empowering Women Worldwide”. Not bad for a former corporate lawyer. She’s a LP investor in two emerging tech funds, advisor to New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, and can frequently be found on Twitter @jkhoey.

Connect w/Kelly Hoey

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Tony Blank is the Director of Agora for Startups (a public company in the States well know for their audio technology – they run the technology behind ClubHouse). Prior to Agora, Tony led the startup programs at Twilio and Sendgrid.

He has a lot of experience in developers programs and on how to create meaningful relationships with Tech Giants. Tony is deeply rooted in the startup ecosystem and has delivered hundreds of workshops, mentor sessions, and speaking engagements to help startups grow.

Connect w/Tony Blank

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Greg Gunn is CEO and Co-founder of Commit, a professional network for Startup Engineers. His passion to help software developers led to the creation of Commit in which they provide a collaborative community that provides them tools, resources and connections to help them build their future.

Prior to Commit, Greg was an EIR at Inovia. He was the first business executive at Hootsuite where he launched Hootsuite Enterprise. In this episode, Greg will be answering all your questions about his journey as an entrepreneur, fundraising, early-stage hiring, creating a company culture, building a community and more.

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

Rob is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience founding and running private and public software and hardware companies in telecom, marketing, financial services and artificial intelligence. He is currently the CEO of Think Technologies, a developer of cutting edge AI solutions for enterprise risk management and prediction. Previously, he was CEO of RewardStream, a leader in referral and loyalty marketing (acquired by Buyapowa Ltd.) He was also the Chief Marketing Officer of TIO Networks (TNC.V acquired by PayPal) and the co-founder of Contigo Systems, an award-winning telematics company (acquired by Vecima Networks). Rob has an MBA from Simon Fraser University in Marketing and MIS, is an advisor to technology growth companies, and speaks on marketing technology trends. Rob is also the founding director of the AI Chief Executive Council for the BC Technology Industry Association.

Connect w/Rob Goehring

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Kelsey went from running her own Juice Company to running a 4000+ partnership networks at Hubspot. Follow her journey on how she overcame being new to the tech industry, her best tips on how to do cold reach, when to say no to a sale, and her thesis on why customer retention is more important than ever.

Connect w/ Kelsey Gernert

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Hear from Kevin and learn how WIshpond grew to a 100+ company while competing with 800 pound gorillas in the same industry. Learn how to develop a sales team, carving out your product niche, knowing when to pivot, and building long tail marketing strategies.

Connect w/ Kevin Ho

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Michael Wei (Since the recording, is now a Senior Sales Development Manager at Galvanize) shares quick tips about how businesses should be thinking about sales, deeper dives into how involved founders need to be in sales development, and how to hire your first SDR (Sales Development Representative). If you're struggling with sales, this is the episode for you.

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Ian MacKinnnon (Co-founder of Later.com) leaves no rock unturned as he gives his thoughts on a couple of burning questions startups have about initial traction, why he thinks your app shouldn't be on Android (until you absolutely have to) and why Native > React Native.

Connect w/ Ian MacKinnon

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