Startup Women Podcast

Mandy Potter is the CEO of Vancouver-based Jane, a woman-founded cannabis technology company with an impressive three-million dollar run rate in month five.

As the director, speaker, and judge for the Vancouver Chapter of Lesbians Who Tech, as well as a panel guest for Women Who Code Vancouver, Mandy’s dedication to connecting the entrepreneur community along with members of marginalized groups is more than evident.

On this week’s THRIVE Podcast, Komal Minhas and Mandy discuss her experiences as a young entrepreneur and what’s budding in the BC cannabis industry.

The post Canadian Cannabis: Disruption in the West Coast with Mandy Potter – September 26th 2019 first appeared on Startup Canada.

The word failure comes with a special set of nuances that are unique to the entrepreneurship community. When starting up, you need to overcome so many challenges that sometimes, failure is the result. For Laura Fortey and many entrepreneurs like her, failure has been a normal part of the process, and some even say a necessary one.

“The best advice that I would give to entrepreneurs is: don’t be afraid to fail. If it doesn’t work out, awesome, try the next thing.”

Laura Fortey, the Co-Founder and CMO for REITIUM Blockchain Technologies, which is a real estate equity crowdfunding marketplace and compliance engine. REITIUM utilizes blockchain technology & smart contracts to allow anyone to invest into income producing properties for as little as one hundred dollars, enabling ‘Real Estate for Everyone.’

As a real estate entrepreneur, Laura has bought, managed, renovated and sold her own investment properties, as well as invested in REITs and MICs. As the daughter of a realtor, Laura grew up with entrepreneurial parents who also owned a successful property management company. In May 2019, Laura and her team took home the Startup Canada Innovation Award for the British Columbia region.

In this week’s episode of the #THRIVEPodcast, host Komal Minhas sits down with Laura to talk about how she’s using the latest tech to build her company and her startup story in Western Canada.

The post Real Estate Innovations: Buying & Selling with Tech with Laura Fortey – September 19th 2019 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Bernice Kootoo Clarkee is the Founder and President of Uasao Soap (Wah-so Soap), an Inuit owned company dedicated to preserving traditional Inuit knowledge by incorporating it in a new and modern way. When she first started up in Nunavut, she had to overcome not only the challenges of starting up in a remote community, but those who had their doubts about her success.

“I had a feeling. I went with a gut instinct. I went against people who didn’t believe it would pick up. I ignored it, I forged through, and I saw it through, and then I said I told you so.”

Guided by Inuit values and a commitment to revitalizing Inuit culture, all of Uasau’s products feature natural ingredients like bowhead whale oil, seal oil, and tundra. Fellow Intuit reach out to Bernice to share their knowledge of healing methods that have a long history in Intuit culture spanning hundreds of years.

In May, Bernice took home the 2019 Startup Canada’s Entrepreneur’s Choice award for the North Region, and in 2016, she was awarded with the Top Aboriginal business of the year award from the Yukon First Nation Chamber of Commerce. She has raised four beautiful children in her home community surrounded by friends and family.

In this week’s episode of the #THRIVEPodcast, host Komal Minhas and Bernice explore the realities of starting up in the Arctic, and how gut feelings, intuition, and grit are the real recipe for success.

The post Preserving Traditional Inuit Knowledge through Entrepreneurship with Bernice Clarke – September 12th 2019 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Entrepreneurship is often a vessel for passion – it’s where those who have an undying urge to change the world go to make an impact, and Bonnie Foley-Wong is no different.

“After my experience in investment banking and seeing vast amounts of capital flowing, I rediscovered my roots and thought, there has to be a more purposeful way of using this money.”

Bonnie is the Founder and CEO of Pique Ventures, a Vancouver-based impact investment and management company. She helps people make impact investments confidently and in an integrated way. She is an accomplished financier and investor with 20 years experience of mobilizing capital for entrepreneurial businesses. Over the course of her career, she has financed over $1 billion dollars of alternative investments in Europe and North America.

Before relocating to Vancouver, Bonnie worked in the UK with social entrepreneurs and impact investors such as Big Issue Invest and Resonance from 2009 to 2011.

Bonnie is the author of Integrated Investing: Impact Investing with Head, Heart, Body, and Soul, a guide for making compassionate investment decisions to help create a better world. She is a 3-time Quora Top Writer and has been published in Business Insider, Next Billion, Inc., Forbes, Vancouver Observer, and Huffington Post.

On this week’s episode of the THRIVE Podcast, host Komal Minhas and Bonnie Foley-Wong dive into impact investing, purpose, and prioritizing diversity every step of the way.

The post Investing with Purpose with Bonnie Foley-Wong – September 5th 2019 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Caterina prides herself on her ability to read trends, innovate products and translate visions into viable strategies. Caterina is a passionate believer in human centered design and has built her career by investing her energy into lofty goals and left field ideas to create game changing brands and experiences.

“This person has a name, and a hair colour, I try to envision as much as possible who this person is”.

In this week’s #ThrivePodcast, Komal talks to Caterina about crafting unique experiences through design, building Breather, as well as her newest venture, Hotline, a knowledge sharing platform for women entrepreneurs.

The post Supporting End Users Through Design with Caterina Rizzi – August 29th 2019 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Lover of food and creation from a young age, Antoinette has brought her passion for cooking traditional Trinidadian and Tobagonian foods to Canada’s North. Influenced by her mother and grandmother’s love for cooking, Antoinette opened her first restaurant in Manitoba in 2002. For the past eleven years, Antoinette is now the owner and Executive Chef of Antoinette’s, a Whitehorse favourite. “My legacy is to help young women, particularly women of colour. I want them to look at me and say, if she can do this, I can do this too”. In this week’s #ThrivePodcast, Komal and Antoinette discuss adversity, strength and courage and how Antoinette has created one of Whitehorse’s favourite and famous spots.

The post Nourishing Communities through Food and Love with Antoinette GreenOliph – August 22nd 2019 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Sharon Nyangweso is an international digital communications and inclusions consultant. Sharon’s work is centered around using design principles to solve inclusion in organizations, community initiatives, and projects by helping to advance their visions for inclusivity from aspirations to action. “If diversity is a picture, then inclusion is stepping away from the picture and getting a great understanding of how the picture came to be”. In this week’s episode, Komal speaks to Sharon about diversity, inclusion and the difference between the two.

The post The Difference Between Diversity and Inclusion with Sharon Nyangweso – August 15th 2019 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Gillian Riley is President and CEO of Tangerine Bank and is working to build and execute the strategies behind Tangerine Bank, positioning the bank as Canada’s leading digital bank.  In addition to growing Tangerine’s customer base, Gillian is spearheading Scotiabank’s Women Initiative.

“I have always been committed to women entrepreneurs.”

In this week’s episode of the #ThrivePodcast, our host Komal Minhas and Gillian Riley discuss the importance of grit, tenacity and working towards your goals, as well as the supports available to women entrepreneurs across Canada, through Scotiabank’s Women Initiative.

The post Capital, Mentorship and Education for Women Entrepreneurs with Gillian Riley – August 8th 2019 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Chantal is a seasoned marketing and communications creative with expertise in business, digital strategy, and social media. Using her outgoing personality and the power of social media, Chantal has grown an engaged and vibrant audiences on channels such as Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. “It’s very important to know who your audience is, know where they are, and match that with the business you are working with.” In this week’s #ThrivePodcast, Komal and Chantal discuss how to build meaningful and long-lasting relationships and strategic partnerships, while supporting local companies and empowering women.

The post Nurturing Local Businesses through Collaboration with Chantal Sarkisian – August 1st 2019 first appeared on Startup Canada.

At Plan It! Outsourcing Solutions, Kara and her team work with businesses to uncover operational inefficiencies and gaps in processes to replace chaos with order. By approaching problems holistically and beginning at the source of these issues, Kara builds strong foundations so organizations can regain control over their time, workflow, efforts and earnings. “Where other people would see problems, I would always see solutions” In this week’s episode, our host Komal talks to Kara about finding efficiencies, solutions in our workplace, and in the world of entrepreneurship.

The post Building Businesses through Efficiencies and Solutions with Kara Morgan – July 25th 2019 first appeared on Startup Canada.