With passion for consumer and digital marketing, technological innovation and communications, Eric Mercer is classically trained in consumer marketing at Procter & Gamble Company and has worked with global organizations such as Red Bull, WalMart and Estee Lauder. Eric has accumulated a great depth of consumer and marketing knowledge, bringing an informed vision on what consumers look like and should look like in the future.   “You spend a lot of time making sure your product is positioned properly within a store so a consumer will see it. But now, if somebody uses their voice home assistant to shop, there is no aisle … so that’s a big challenge going forward”.   Eric Mercer is the Director of Content at DX3, Canada’s leading technology, digital marketing and retail event that brings together more than 40 speakers and 4,000 attendees each year. The conference is an immersive and educational experience that is centered around changing the world of digital marketing and retail.  In this week’s #StartupPodcast, host Rivers Corbett talks to Eric about the way technology is changing retail and the way we do business and the way we shop as well as the events that have shaped and transformed his career.

A visionary from Vancouver, Keith Ippel recognizes the new age of the Canadian business landscape.  “The notion of a non-profit is a byproduct of a bygone era. When people did capitalism with no moral compass. And that era is gone. Especially with millennials as a purpose generation, and we see it manifested in Whole Foods, Tesla, Volvo… We’re in this place now where making the world a better place is just going to be the norm.”  Keith Ippel is a serial entrepreneur most notable as the Co-Founder and CEO of Spring Activator, a Vancouver-based accelerator and incubator. Keith is an entrepreneur driven by purpose who has raised over 20 million dollars in angel and VC funding. When he isn’t changing the lives of entrepreneurs at Spring, Keith advises at Hootsuite, Brightkit, and Momentum, just to name a few.   In this week’s #StartupPodcast, host Rivers Corbett talks to Keith about his strategy to raise nearly $2 million in funding and important lessons he’s learned during his 15 years in business.

On a mission to encourage social good by rewarding micro actions, Giovanna Mingarelli is the back-bone behind MC2, an Ottawa-based tech startup offering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) chatbots for social action. “MC2 is founded on the idea that we can apply data specifically to civic engagement and government and drive home making civic engagement more fun, participatory and also more accountable.” Giovanna is the CEO and Co-Founder of MC2. A sought after public speaker and thought leader in the areas of entrepreneurialism, civic engagement, business and socio-political events internationally, Giovanna’s a globally recognized public figure with publications in the Huffington Post, Globe and Mail, and citations in the Harvard Business Review and Forbes. Having worked extensively in the field of political and digital communications, Giovanna served in the office of a former Prime Minister of Canada and was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women by the WXN.  In this week’s #StartupPodcast, host Rivers Corbett talks to Giovanna about how governments can engage with technologies to build greater engagement, trust, and accountability.

As leaves begin to change, entrepreneurs from across Canada head to the friendly town of Bancroft (between Toronto and Ottawa) to join their like-minded counterparts at the Fireside Conference. With sparks of knowledge shared in adirondack chairs and intriguing content for every entrepreneur, lawyer-friends Steven Pulver and Daniel Levine designed the Fireside Conference to welcome the tech-obsessed and startup connoisseurs to kick back and relax.  “This disconnection from technology brings people together.”  In this week’s #StartupPodcast, host Rivers Corbett talks to Steven Pulver and Daniel Levine about what started the spark that would fuel the creation of the much-loved annual Fireside Conference.

Knowing your rights as an employer is as crucial as knowing the implications of hiring and firing. With so many expert employment lawyers in Canada, there’s no reason you can't protect yourself while hiring a team that accels. “It’s very important to hire the right people.”  Malcolm MacKillop is a founding member and primary partner at Toronto’s Shields O’Donnell MacKillop LLP. He is a successful trial lawyer, a law professor, a professional speaker, and an author. Malcolm is certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a Specialist in Civil Litigation and has been ranked by Lexpert as one of the top Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada. He was also awarded the Queen Elizabeth medal for philanthropy abroad by the Governor General of Canada.  In this week’s #StartupPodcast, host Rivers Corbett talks to Malcolm about the basics of hiring employees and building a positive and productive workforce for a small company, and including legal pitfalls to avoid.

After having spent almost 10 years at financial institutions as an investment specialist, Robert Bruski spotted a game-changing trend and leaped ahead of the curve as he co-founded Control V, the very first virtual reality arcade in North America.  “When you create something truly out of the box, which comes from your creativity, run with it.”  Robert is currently responsible for overseeing the expansion of Control V across North America and uses out of the box sales and marketing techniques to do so. When he isn’t at the forefront of a technological revolution, Robert works closely with the startup community in Waterloo and is following his other passion, promoting the startup life through his new apparel company, I am Startup.  In this week’s #StartupPodcast, host Rivers Corbett talks to Robert about how he’s navigating uncharted territory in tech and innovation.

Storytelling is essential for growing a strong and memorable brand. For Emily Smith, it seemed obvious that in order to stay ahead, companies need to combine the power of art and science. “We’re an experience company. We leverage the latest tech to create amazing, shared-story experiences for our clients customers.” Emily is the CEO of *no campfire required, a Toronto-based geeks-meet-augmented reality company. *no campfire required launched in 2014 and has since been crafting interactive social experiences using their most popular product, PASSPORT AR, which Emily says is a “customizable Pokemon-Go.” As the personality behind no campfire required, Emily connects with brands, tourism destinations, and festivals to promote its products.  In this week’s #StartupPodcast, host Rivers Corbett talks to Emily about how she’s enriching the audience experience and the exciting possibilities that lie ahead for *no campfire required.

Gloria Roheim McRae attributes her success to one common denominator.  “Everything we create, every act of a business, of creativity, of relationships, of friendship, is about love. It starts from love and it is fostered by love. And love will get us through those hard, hard times. It's gotten me through the hardest moments of entrepreneurship.” Gloria is the Co-Founder and Chief Consultant for Toronto-based brand-building company, Wedge15. Since the company's inception nearly five years ago, Gloria’s crafted over 250 digital marketing strategies for various non-profits and SMEs across the country. Her most recent position titles her as the Senior Value Consultant at the west-coast Canadian giant Hootsuite, where she’s responsible for creating world-class strategies for top clients. Her book, BYOB the Unapologetic Guide to Being Your Own Boss, ranked as a best-seller on Amazon.ca and has since inspired a generation to forget their comfort zone and make a soft-landing into entrepreneurship.  In this week’s #StartupPodcast, host Rivers Corbett talks to Gloria about how her self-starter mindset led her to rule the digital world and how she’s navigating the new North American dream.

April Dunford is the brains behind making a startups product sparkle. After noticing the disconnect that often happens when entrepreneurs are hyper-focused on their startup for months, even years, April created a framework and action plan to strategically position the result of determination and hard work. “You’ve built a thing, it’s amazing, it has special features. Now what you have to do is step back and think, what context do I put it in so my special stuff really shines?”  April is an experienced startup executive who’s deeply interested in positioning and creating and expanding into new markets. The founder of Rocket Launch Marketing, the Toronto-based mentor and author has held executive roles at global companies and is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at the DMZ.  In this week’s #StartupPodcast, host Rivers Corbett talks to April about her role at the SaaS North conference in Ottawa and how she’s helping entrepreneurs make their products stand out.

At a young age, Dan Martell learned that if he was going to the play the game, he was going to play it big. From Moncton to San Francisco, Dan’s left an imprint as a wildly successful and award-winning Canadian entrepreneur who’s started, grown, and exited two companies while putting his hometown on the Map.  “When I started Clarity I raised $1.6M from like Mark Cuban and a bunch of other cool investors, and made them wire the money to TD bank on Main Street, Moncton, New Brunswick.” Dan is the founder of Clarity, a platform that connects business minds by phone to advisors who support by answering any questions an entrepreneur might have. He currently works as a top advisor and coach for performing SaaS startups.   In this week’s #StartupPodcast, fellow New Brunswicker and host Rivers Corbett talks to Dan Martell about his story as an East-Coast entrepreneur turned global success.

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