Startup Women Podcast

Maria dove into entrepreneurship after leaving her teaching career to be home with her two young children. After finding a common bond with other moms and women running businesses while keeping a healthy family life, Mompreneurs was born to support, educate and empower moms in business.“Between 7am and 9am, I’m mom, but between 9am and 2pm, I am a full on business woman.” Maria is also CEO of Mompreneur properties including the Mompreneur Momentum Enterprise of Canada, Mompreneur Magazine, the Mompreneur Awards, and the Mompreneurs Conference. In this week’s #THRIVEPodcast, host Janice McDonald talks to Maria about support from family, and how she is inspiring moms to balance both business and family, without sacrificing one for the other.

The post Business Minded and Family Oriented with Maria Locker – September 27, 2018 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Barbara Orser is an award-winning professor and expert on women in business. She’s been recognized as one of the top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network, and has also been recognized by the International Alliance for Women for her work. “There are different perceptions of success, we tend to think of growth but women also appreciate community contribution, the opportunity to bring products to markets, supporting other women, those are indicators of success too.” A Deloitte Professor at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa, Barbara is the co-author of Feminine Capital: Unlocking the Power of Women Entrepreneurs, a book on women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial feminists. In this week’s #THRIVEPodcast episode, host Janice McDonald talks to Barbara about the research and messages in her book, Feminine Capital, and the differences in how men and women make business decisions and why that is important to the state of entrepreneurship in Canada.

The post Unlocking the Power of Women Entrepreneurs with Barbara Orser – September 20, 2018 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Shawna Tregunna is the Founder and Director of the Founder Institute’s Ottawa chapter, a world-class global accelerator that since 2009, has graduated over 400 women-led companies across six continents. “You don’t know what you don’t know, so surround yourself with people who can help you and point you in the right direction.” Shawna started a digital marketing agency six years ago with a focus on social media marketing. In mid 2017, she partnered with and had her company successfully acquired by Ottawa’s fastest growing mobile, web, and next-gen technology agency, Iversoft.In this week’s #THRIVEPodcast, host Janice Mcdonald talks to Shawna about learning and mentorship, the transition period after being acquired and the important role she plays at Founder Institute

The post Life After Acquisition with Shawna Tregunna – September 13, 2018 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Anastasia is the Chief Marketing Officer at Versature, a cloud-based telecommunication company that offers Hosted PBX business communication solutions while disrupting Canada’s telecom industry. An award-winning business executive, Anastasia uses data-backed strategies to continue Versature’s fifty per cent growth year-after-year.“Don’t let fear be the door closing, instead think about why you are worried, why it is holding you back and then work through it and solve it.” In this week’s #THRIVEPodcast, host Janice McDonald talks to Anastasia about her passion for education and helping young girls and women in STEM, marketing strategies and her newest initiative Carpe Omnia.

The post Valuable and Virtuous Marketing with Anastasia Valentine – September 6, 2018 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Stephanie is the Vice President of Business Development at Women Business Enterprises, also known as WBE. WBE is the one stop shop for women entrepreneurs to gain access to training, education, mentoring and networking events with like-minded business women. “It is so important for women to invest in their networks, to make a significant, consistent and thoughtful commitment to building key networks and to be the source of real business opportunities.”Since 2015, Stephanie has been working to grow corporate engagement and produce world-class supplier diversity strategies. With a background spanning multiple industries from nonprofit to corporate enterprises, Stephanie is an expert in growing and enriching organizations. In this week’s #THRIVEPodcast, host Janice talks to Stephanie about the opportunities WBE Canada brings to women and their businesses and the process of becoming WBE Certified.

The post Selling to Multinationals with Stephanie Fontaine – August 30, 2018 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Elaine Orr is a professional accounting expert with a passion for entrepreneurs and supporting small business owners. With years of experience, her intuition is always spot on. “I can tell from someone’s financials what they have spent most of their time on in the last three months.” Elaine’s experience spans three decades, two continents and numerous private, public and not-for-profit organizations. In 2010, she launched the Ottawa-based bookkeeping company, BalanceSheets.ca to help committed business owners measure their performance and analyse financial statements. In this week’s #THRIVEPodcast, host Janice McDonald talks to Elaine about why bookkeepers are a must from the beginning and how to best manage your finances.

The post Banking on Bookeepers with Elaine Orr – August 23, 2018 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Understanding that treating people equitably doesn’t mean treating them all the same is an important realization when providing support resources for women entrepreneurs. For Petra Kassun-Mutch, developing programs that fuel entrepreneurial feminism is her passion. “We help incubators and accelerators know the importance of their gender outcomes, getting more women into their space and the retention of women in theses spaces.” Petra is the founder of Eve-Volution, a B Corp certified enterprise which aims to integrate feminist work into entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems. Eve-Volution offers gender-lens based incubator design, strategy, and programming services. Eve-Volution also publishes LiisBeth, an online magazine that serves as the voice of the growing entrepreneurial feminist community. Petra’s last venture, Fifth Town Artisan Cheese, is the world’s first platinum LEED certified dairy, and Canada’s 8th registered B Corp. It won the Premier’s Award for Agrifood Innovation in 2010, along with 32 product awards in Canada and the US. In this week’s Thrive Podcast, host Janice talks to Petra about the different business models that exist, the importance of looking at business from different perspectives and why feminism is important in entrepreneurship and innovation spaces.

The post Changing the Lens with Petra Kassun Mutch – August 16, 2018 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Sandra is the Chair of the Women’s Enterprise Organizations of Canada and CEO of the Women’s Enterprise Centre of Manitoba. Her day to day activities involve supporting women entrepreneurs in Manitoba and helping like organizations throughout Canada.  “If you are an organization that works in any way with women entrepreneurs, you can reach out to WEOC.” Sandra is a former entrepreneur, a mentor, and champion of building entrepreneurial and leadership capacity amongst women. The Women’s Enterprise Organizations of Canada (WEOC) in comprised of six member organizations working to serve the unique needs of women in all regions of Canada. Resources, services, and programs provided by these organizations include professional business advising, mentoring, business loans, skills training, trade missions, and so much more.  In this week’s #THRIVEPodcast, host Janice McDonald talks to Sandra about the connections and supports available for women through (WEOC), financing your business, and what it takes to scale up.

The post Building an Ecosystem for Entrepreneurs with Sandra Altner – August 9, 2018 first appeared on Startup Canada.

Arnon knows their relationships with tenants is more than a contract; it’s a commitment. For Robert Moses, the In-House Counsel and Real Estate Officer at Arnon Corporation, building great relationships from the start means success for everyone. “We like to see our tenants succeed because it’s a win-win on both sides.”Arnon Corporation has achieved exceptional success by making sound, timely business decisions, by consistently demonstrating to clients and tenants that a relationship with the company means more than contact – it means commitment. In this week’s #THRIVEPodcast host Janice McDonald talks to Robert about his advice, insights, and tips for listeners to find the right space to grow a company.

The post Leasing and Space for Small Businesses with Robert Moses – August 2, 2018 first appeared on Startup Canada.

The strength of Canada’s economy is built through strong foundations, with young skilled leaders and tech-savvy innovators. Canada Learning Code, former Ladies Learning Code, started with the simple vision to empower women to build technical skills. Now, it’s grown through overwhelming support to teach Canadians of all ages and backgrounds the power of coding. “It’s really never the wrong age or the wrong time to get started.” Now with programs for children, school teachers, teens and anyone who wants to learn, Canada Learning Code has taught over 80,000 students, mostly women, of all ages to code through more than 2,000 events in over 30 Canadian cities. In this week’s #THRIVEPodcast, host Janice McDonald talks to Laura Plant, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer about how she is facilitating opportunities for Canadians to learn how to build – not just consume – technology.

The post Coding for Women Founders with Laura Plant – July 26, 2018 first appeared on Startup Canada.