She Built That | Get Inspired! | Weekly interviews with female founders building their empires on their own terms!

"Business is a numbers game. If you have a grasp of the numbers, you are so powerful!" Kathryn Loewen on She Built That.

Today I am super stoked to have the incredibly savvy, driven and grounded CEO & Founder of payment analytics tool Control, Kathryn Loewen on the show. Kathryn was actually referred by my second guest Natalie Cartwright, as her female business crush, and after talking to her I can certainly understand why. 

Kathryn is one of those women that is as equally knowledgeable and driven as she is kind and humble. Kathryn acquired a vast interest in the technology and the payment space early on (before as she says it had this cutsie term 'FINTECH'), and went onto eventually launch her own company Control in the Spring of 2014 – and as if she wasn’t busy enough, she decided to do her MBA at the same time (which she doesn’t entirely recommend – but hindsight is sometimes like that isn’t it) and recently secured her largest investment to date, over $100 million dollars in funding. She is A FORCE! 

On today’s show, Kathryn shares her insights on the future of e-commerce and mobile and why having the right payment metrics are critical to small & medium size enterprises, how one single incidence of credit fraud can literarily bankrupt an entire small and/or medium size business, how she almost died at the age of 8 from a venomous spider bite on her face and why she recommends all founders, male and female, have a solid understanding of their numbers when it comes to business, because as she states in our interview – business is a numbers game.

To hear from other rad women building incredible businesses, head on over to shebuiltthat.com

"Drive Your Dream And Dream Big" Maryam Sadeghi, PhD on She Built That.

On today’s episode of She Built That I sit down with Maryam Sadeghi, PhD, the co-founder of Digital Health company MetaOptima and the creator of the MoleScope, a smartphone-attachable magnifying device that allows individuals to take high-quality images of their moles so that you can spot warning signs sooner.

After completing her PhD in Computer Science at Simon Fraser University, Maryam went on to work at the BC Cancer Agency.  Whilst there Maryam uncovered that approximately 70% of skin cancer was actually found by patients and thus went onto create the MoleScope, a tool that helps patients better track and monitor their moles.

On today’s show, Maryam shares how inadequate compensation for a job offer she received during her post doc caused her to start her own company, how contrary to North America, Engineering is a very common degree for women to pursue in Iran, how she rebuilt her self-confidence after it was destroyed in a former relationship and why she believes that social capital is the most powerful thing you can have to start a business.

To hear from more phenomenal women running, building and founding companies head on over to SheBuiltThat.com

"We have one life to live. Dream big and go for it!" Caroline Frenette on She Built That

Caroline Frenette is a serial entrepreneur who is passionate about helping women awaken their inner CEO. Over a decade ago, she left her job as a cartoon artist to follow her dreams of developing her own ready to wear yoga collection, which garnered national attention being featured on the cover of Elle and Fashion Magazine. With her collection in high demand, Caroline went on to open 2 retail stores as well as a yoga studio in Canada’s fashion Capital, Montreal. Craving more freedom and the desire to help empower female entrepreneurs on a global scale, she founded an Intuitive Leadership & Business Coaching business where she coaches female CEO’s to think big & abandon fear so they can create a thriving business and an extraordinary life. I’ll take one of those as well

She has both failed and succeeded, made over a million dollars with one of her businesses and lost thousands with the other, and learned the hard way what happens when you ignore your intuition (it’s never good, but it usually makes for a good story nonetheless).

In today’s interview, Caroline shares when she first developed the entrepreneurial spark, why it’s important to listen to your intuition, steps you can take today to begin building your own self-confidence and how she created a thriving online business from a place of creative flow, joy and ease. Me too please!!!

To hear from more women building incredible businesses head on over to shebuiltthat.com

“Success to me is being able to have choice” Nicole Smith on She Built That

If you had of asked my guest Nicole Smith in her 20’s if she was going to be an entrepreneur her answer would have been a very solid No. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs as well as an ex-husband who was an entrepreneur, she was very familiar with the uncertainty associated with running your own company and was quite content working in her senior role at one of the biggest tech companies in the world, Microsoft. That was until a trip with her best friend to Paris changed her life.

The trip had ignited a business idea that she could not shake, and after bouncing the idea off of a couple of close friends and family and celebrating a milestone 40th birthday Nicole thought to herself, If not now, when and thus Flytographer was born.

Two years and almost 10 staff later, Nicole is running the company of her dreams all on her own terms. Flytographer has been featured on CBC’s Dragons’ Den and has garnered international media attention in publications such as The New York Times, Forbes and Conde Naste Traveler to name a few.

In today’s interview Nicole shares why she decided to leave her great job at Microsoft to launch her own business, how trusting her gut has proved extremely beneficial in her business, what steps she took to help build her confidence quickly when transitioning from the corporate world to the startup world and why she recommends to future entrepreneurs everywhere If you have great idea and people shoot it down and you still really believe in it, don’t let that stop you!

For more interviews with rad women building cool businesses, head on over to shebuiltthat.com

"Starting Your Own Company Is Like Childbirth" Dr. Alexandra Greenhill on She Built That.

Today on the show, we are back with another phenomenal female entrepreneur, Dr. Alexandra Greenhill. After graduating from medical school, and spending hours working in the ER as well as in various senior roles in the health care field, Alexandra decided she wanted to make a bigger impact within the health care system focusing on…wait for it…keeping people healthy and out of the hospitals!

Driven by a passion to help and support others, Alexandra eventually left the medical world and launched her own company, My Best Helper, a service that helps families find child care, home care and elder care throughout North America.

As a result of her work, Alex recently won the prestigious Cartier Women’ s Initiative Award, an experience she described as “The hardest thing I have done since my medical school exams”, so let’s be honest, that probably counts me out of the running:).

When she is not running her business, she can be found advocating for her female peers, part of her TechWomenLead initiative or launching a side business, Little Codr a card game that teaches children (or adults like me) the basics of coding because let’s be honest 1 business, 3 children and a husband does not keep this woman busy enough – just another reason why Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank says it smart business to invest in female entrepreneurs.

In today’s interview, Alexandra will share why she decided to start her company My Best Helper, why she compares starting a company to the wonderful experience of “childbirth” (I have yet to go through that joy, but I can just imagine the Kleenex investment) why when someone tells her something is impossible, she knows she is on the right track and why she believes in the importance of “eating your dog food.”

To hear from other women building cool businesses, head on over to SheBuiltThat.com

On today’s show I sit down with the very funny, incredibly bright and extremely candid Katelyn Bourgoin. A serial entrepreneur and self-prescribed ‘ideas junkie’ who is deathly allergic to the status quo, Katelyn founded her first company, RedRiot at 25, and is no stranger to the hustle required to build and scale your business. In 4 years, she grew her one women consulting business into one of Halifax’s top branding agencies and was recognized as one of Nova Scotia’s top 15 young entrepreneurs in 2012 as a result.

 Katelyn's latest venture Vendeve, a referral platform for women, has been described in Forbes magazine as “a platform that takes the best features from Facebook, LinkedIn and Yelp and combines and refines them for a very specific purpose —to connect women entrepreneurs”, eliminates barriers allowing women all around the world to connect, support and refer one another every day of the week. 

In today’s interview Katelyn will share how she never considered herself to be “business minded” despite growing up with an entrepreneurial grandfather, why she identifies as an ambivert and how that is different from an extrovert and introvert, why she has a major business crush on comedian Amy Schumer (as do I)  and why she advises entrepreneurs avoid comparing themselves to one another b/c as she says "Comparison Is The Thief Of Joy!"

Head on over to SheBuiltThat.com for more interviews with women building cool companies.

"I wouldn’t have had the opportunity I have had and accomplished the things that I accomplished, without the person I married" Shannon Byrne Susko on She Built That

Today I am super excited to have a serious powerhouse and business woman on the show, Shannon Byrne Susko. Shannon is a serial entrepreneur having built, scaled and sold both of her companies: Paradata Systems Inc., in 2006 and Subserveo Inc. in 2011. Shannon is also the author of the business book The Metronome Effect, which combines the wisdom of the best business minds of our time along with Shannon’s personal experiences to teach all entrepreneurs the systems and habits necessary to grow your business. 

Shannon has been the recipient of several awards including Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 and currently works as an executive coach with top executives all over the globe.

In today's interview Shannon will share how despite having a father with a somewhat “traditional” mindset she was never told she could not do anything, how the discipline of being varsity athlete in University helped Shannon excel in the business world, how the support of her husband has been critical to her success in business and what things you can do today to start building your confidence in business.

I think failure is staying in a cushy job for 20 years that you hate, retiring and realizing your life just passed you by ~Nicole Parmar, on She Built That.

Today I am stoked because we have the super rad Nicole Parmar on the show. Nicole is the founder of NicoleParmar.com a consulting company that specializes in Growth Marketing. i.e. basically she analyzes company data to better understand their customers; what they want, where they live and how you can better reach them.

Prior to launching her own company, Nicole was a teacher specializing in deaf education. While many of us in our undergrad are working towards one degree, Nicole was busy working towards 2 – at the same time, and was working full-time as a teacher by 23. After graduating with 2 degrees, Nicole went onto complete a 3rd degree in Psychology as well as a Master's degree in Evaluation and Measurement.  Her husband of 4 years, is also the CEO and founder of his own company and together they have ventured to San Francisco, Toronto and Manhattan where she gained valuable experience working in marketing on both the agency and startup side before starting her own business in Vancouver.

In today's interview Nicole will share why brands need to evolve with their customers so they don't get replaced, how her husband removed the fear of being an entrepreneur thus empowering her to take the entrepreneur leap, her new definition of failure and how she changed from being a, as she describes 'b*tch' who thrived on drama to taking accountability for her actions and her future.

After graduating with a BA from McGill University, Natalie went on to pursue a Masters in Public Health in Sweden at Lund University and then an MBA at IE Business School in Madrid.  On track to pursue a lucrative career in Public Health, Natalie spent several years working abroad where she managed a $250 million investment portfolio for HIV investment to low and middle-income countries before returning back to her native Vancouver Canada and co-founding Payso at age 31.

On today’s show Natalie will share:

Why she left a lucrative career in public health to start a startup

The three things that give her confidence (including the thing she does before pitching to feel more confident)

The 4 benefits of being a female founder in the male-dominated tech industry

The strategy she used to cope with what she calls her 'worst day in the last decade'

To get all the details from the show, head on over to www.shebuiltthat.com

In this episode I will share why I decided to start the She Built That podcast as well as what listeners can expect to hear on the show