His journey into technology with stints at Miovision, Fibernetrics and Kitchener-Waterloo based accelerator, Communitech, prior to joining Axonify.

Axonify and what its all about.

Serving the enterprise market and what that means what considerations the finance leader has to make, including the size of investment round and choosing the right investor.

Managing the ever-changing priorities as the CFO, and how priorities change in a smaller organization to a larger one.

The importance of the finance function at a technology company.

Your go to online resource for all things startup finance related

Your favourite productivity hack

Tech jargon that makes you cringe

The best advise you’ve received

One thing you don’t leave the office before finishing

Joining me on this special episode of the Backbone is Austen Allred, Co-Founder and CEO of Lambda School - a training program specializing in coding, computer science, and web development, with a revolutionary tuition model that asks graduates to pay once they land a successful job.

I chat with Austen about:

1. His journey so far and how it was instrumental in the founding of Lambda School in 2016.

2. Lambda School and what it's all about. How Lambda School challenges traditional the university structure?

3. Employers, credentialing candidates and educating employers to focus on hiring candidates whose experiences and skills best suit them for the job. 

4. Some of the financial challenges and risks associated with Lambda School's revenue model and how to raise capital for such a model? (Lambda School has a unique revenue model in that the company does not require students to pay up front for their training. Instead they are taking a bet on the student's career prospects for the first 2 years after they graduate Lambda School, to take a % of their earnings.)

5. Whether Lambda School would consider expanding its offering over time, to other aspects of training such as sales, marketing, and finance?

We close things off with a quickfire round:

- Your go to online resource for all things startup finance related

- Your favourite productivity hack

- Tech jargon that makes you cringe

- The best advise you've received

- One thing you don't leave the office before finishing

On this episode of The Backbone, I chat with Samiksha about:

- Her path into technology and comparing working in large companies with fast-growing tech companies. We also chat about her international experiences in Melbourne and Auckland.

- Uberflip and what it's all about.

- Lessons learned from Uberflip's $32M growth financing round led by Updata Partners and what it means to balance raise process with day-to-day responsibilities as the VP Finance and Ops.

- The symbiotic relationship between Finance and Operations.

- The importance of the finance function at a technology company.

We close things off with a quickfire round:

- Your go to online resource for all things startup finance related

- Your favourite productivity hack

- Tech jargon that makes you cringe

- The best advise you've received

- One thing you don't leave the office before finishing

On this episode of The Backbone, I chat with Trisha about:

- Her path into health and technology after starting her career at PwC, and moving to CAMH - the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health before jumping into tech and at her current role as Finance Manager at Figure1.

- Figure1 and what it's all about.

- The most important metrics to track for the largest crowd-sourced medical platform and how to correlate non-financial metrics into financial outcomes.

- The challenges of balancing ad-load and monetizing through sponsored content.

- The importance of the finance function at a technology company.

We close things off with a quickfire round:

- Your go to online resource for all things startup finance related

- Your favourite productivity hack

- Tech jargon that makes you cringe

- The best advise you've received

- One thing you don't leave the office before finishing

On this episode of The Backbone, I chat with Mark about:

His journey into tech after being an auditor and investment banker at EY, then moving leading finance at Shomi, prior to joining Drop;

What Drop is all about;

Balancing Drop's various stakeholders including consumers and brands and how Mark thinks about those that generate revenue for Drop (brands) versus consumers who use Drop for free;

The valuable lessons from Shomi as one of its earliest employees on the project to shutting it down;

The importance of the finance function at a technology company.

On this episode of The Backbone, I chat with David about:

What he attributes to being a part of many technology success stories and the advice he'd impart on finance leaders.

The biggest difference between software and hardware technology companies and how it effects the capital raise or acquisition process? What Ecobee is all about, and how it became a global brand in home automation.

About his passion towards people and their role in organizations; why its important in scaling organizations and why he cares so deeply about it as the finance leader?

The importance of the finance function at a technology company.

On this episode of The Backbone, I chat with Danielle about:

Her progression within finance at tech companies such as: BluePrint Software Systems, Goldmoney and others, before joining League;

League and what its all about;

Raising from a $47M USD financing round from a strategic VC firm vs a traditional venture capital fund; 

Dealing with the challenges of the various stakeholders (employers, administrators, and plan members) the company's products and services serves;

When should a company hire a controller, vs a Director of Finance vs a VP or a CFO?

On this episode of The Backbone, I chat with Emma about:

Her journey into tech with stints at eBay, Kaboose, and Ariad Communications prior to her gig at Canopy Labs;

What Canopy Labs is all about;

Taking advantage of analytics and predictive models to improve the budgeting process;

The role of attribution in assessing digital marketing ROI;

The evolving role of the Finance leader within a technology company and it is much more than just making sure the books are in good order.

On this episode of The Backbone, I chat with Matt about:

His move into tech after stints in PwC Nova Scotia and Australia;

What Celtx is all about;

The biggest challenge for you moving from a professional services firm to a growing technology company like Celtx;

How to think about customer acquisition and churn at a company with a self service pricing model;

The importance of the finance function at a technology company

On this episode of The Backbone, I chat with Brandon about:

His move into tech from PwC to joining Kik when it was only 40 employees;

What Kik is all about;

The process of raising $100M through a Token Distribution Event or Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and launching your own cryptocurrency;

What its like to scale the finance function as a company grows from 40 people to 160

The importance of the finance function at a technology company