In Ontario, the number of older adults aged 65 and above reached 2.4 million in 2017 and it is expected to reach 4.6 million by 2046. Self-directed care provides care recipients with more autonomy on what care they need and how that care will be delivered. Cheney Xia, an entrepreneur who co-founded Gotcare, an at-home care provider that is designed to transform how healthcare is delivered throughout Canada, joined us for a thoughtful discussion on her personal journey as an experienced designer, technologist, and now an entrepreneur. In this interview, Cheney discussed how she stumbled upon her venture ideas, met her current business partner, how a highly diverse team helped her pull 7 digits revenue in year one, and her personal reflections as a female entrepreneur. 

Windy Natriavi founded and co-led the GO-LIFE services under GoJek, Indonesia's first tech unicorn valued at $7 Billions. After being promoted to be GoJek’s VP of Growth, Windy took a rare turn in her career and decided to build a microfinancing company, AwanTunai, which serves millions of unbanked customers. AwanTunai builds digital distribution to thousands of micro-retail merchants who can then access working capital as well as accept payment from AwanTunai consumer credit. The financially inclusive startup also issues mobile-based consumer credit, serving the 100 million Indonesians unable to access banking products. Her work with AwanTunai led to her being inducted into Forbes Indonesia's 30 Under 30 list in 2019.

During this interview, we discussed how Windy Natriavi overcame her fear of joining a hyper growth tech firm without technical knowledge, her brave step in entrepreneurship after a 5-mins conversation with her mentor, and her latest work in a women empowerment platform aiming at providing the same opportunities as she has to others.

Check out our website: www. abdtoronto.com

Windy Natriavi founded and co-led the GO-LIFE services under GoJek, Indonesia's first tech unicorn valued at $7 Billions. After being promoted to be GoJek’s VP of Growth, Windy took a rare turn in her career and decided to build a microfinancing company, AwanTunai, which serves millions of unbanked customers. AwanTunai builds digital distribution to thousands of micro-retail merchants who can then access working capital as well as accept payment from AwanTunai consumer credit. The financially inclusive startup also issues mobile-based consumer credit, serving the 100 million Indonesians unable to access banking products. Her work with AwanTunai led to her being inducted into Forbes Indonesia's 30 Under 30 list in 2019.

During this interview, we discussed how Windy Natriavi overcame her fear of joining a hyper growth tech firm without technical knowledge, her brave step in entrepreneurship after a 5-mins conversation with her mentor, and her latest work in a women empowerment platform aiming at providing the same opportunities as she has to others.

Check out our website: www. abdtoronto.com

“Learning is a lifelong journey.” Few people will disagree with this statement, but in the fast-changing world we live in, our learning journey won’t be linear. In the interview with Trishala Pillai, an enterprise software account executive turned education technology enthusiast and advocate, we hear her own non-linear journey getting to and working as the director of strategy at Rumie, an educational nonprofit working with the world’s most influential organizations to create and distribute micro-learning materials to meet the needs of the economically-displaced, smartphone-first modern learner.

Similar to the frugality concept that what the tech world is fascinated with, Trishala turns the clock back to ancient India and introduces us to the concept of “Jugaad”, referring to non-conventional, frugal innovation emphasizing on “doing more with less”. Towards the end of the interview, Trishala also shares with us her thoughts on the rise of “social learning” and what skills required in a world humans are going to be intertwined with machines. 

“Learning is a lifelong journey.” Few people will disagree with this statement, but in the fast-changing world we live in, our learning journey won’t be linear. In the interview with Trishala Pillai, an enterprise software account executive turned education technology enthusiast and advocate, we hear her own non-linear journey getting to and working as the director of strategy at Rumie, an educational nonprofit working with the world’s most influential organizations to create and distribute micro-learning materials to meet the needs of the economically-displaced, smartphone-first modern learner.

Similar to the frugality concept that what the tech world is fascinated with, Trishala turns the clock back to ancient India and introduces us to the concept of “Jugaad”, referring to non-conventional, frugal innovation emphasizing on “doing more with less”. Towards the end of the interview, Trishala also shares with us her thoughts on the rise of “social learning” and what skills required in a world humans are going to be intertwined with machines. 

Every organization wants to embrace artificial intelligence (AI), but here is the little secret: Majority of AI projects have never moved beyond a proof of concept (POC) phase and only a small fraction of AI experiments has been proved to be ROI positive. In fact, Only 10% of companies have gained significant benefits from their AI initiatives.

We are in an AI hype for a while now, which means not much persuasion is needed to pitch AI investments to senior executives. However, what is missing is the overall awareness of what AI can and cannot do.

Rogayeh Tabrizi, a quantum-physicist-turned-data-scientist, is now the co-founder and CEO of Theory+Practice, a Toronto-based AI startup focusing on bringing advanced AI solutions to retail and financial services. In this episode, Rogayeh shared her personal journey of transitioning from academia, to finding fascination in data and modeling, and to creating market-product fit in AI applications.

In this episode, you will hear Rogayeh share her reflections on:

•  How fresh perspectives are born by combining theoretical data practices and business challenges

• Why “Asking the Right Questions” is critical to establishing the right foundation for any data project

• Why you must find yourself a mentor if you want to start your business, especially for women founders (to be)

Every organization wants to embrace artificial intelligence (AI), but here is the little secret: Majority of AI projects have never moved beyond a proof of concept (POC) phase and only a small fraction of AI experiments has been proved to be ROI positive. In fact, Only 10% of companies have gained significant benefits from their AI initiatives.

We are in an AI hype for a while now, which means not much persuasion is needed to pitch AI investments to senior executives. However, what is missing is the overall awareness of what AI can and cannot do.

Rogayeh Tabrizi, a quantum-physicist-turned-data-scientist, is now the co-founder and CEO of Theory+Practice, a Toronto-based AI startup focusing on bringing advanced AI solutions to retail and financial services. In this episode, Rogayeh shared her personal journey of transitioning from academia, to finding fascination in data and modeling, and to creating market-product fit in AI applications.

In this episode, you will hear Rogayeh share her reflections on:

•  How fresh perspectives are born by combining theoretical data practices and business challenges

• Why “Asking the Right Questions” is critical to establishing the right foundation for any data project

• Why you must find yourself a mentor if you want to start your business, especially for women founders (to be)

Each organization has its own maturity curve in leveraging artificial intelligence. Some larger organizations hire AI consultants to help them navigate the complexity within data and analytics initiatives, while small players like SMEs and non-profit organizations tend to steer away from AI adoption due to financial and other resource commitments.

In this episode, an analytics democratization enthusiast, Eric Huang, the founder and CEO of Advanced Analytics and Research Lab, shares his views on who might be left behind in this AI race and what organizations can do to ensure they can move forward in the right direction in their respective analytics journeys. Eric also shares some pivotal moments during the time when he made a career change and the challenges that he needed to overcome to become a data science practitioner.

During the podcast, you will hear the following:

• How organizations can get started with something small and build incrementally to move up in the AI maturity curve

• Why you (probably) need to up your game in technical skills and find your niche in this overly crowded market

• For all aspiring entrepreneurs out there, start experimenting your ideas with minimal costs but expect the path gets steeper as your start-up evolves

Each organization has its own maturity curve in leveraging artificial intelligence. Some larger organizations hire AI consultants to help them navigate the complexity within data and analytics initiatives, while small players like SMEs and non-profit organizations tend to steer away from AI adoption due to financial and other resource commitments.

In this episode, an analytics democratization enthusiast, Eric Huang, the founder and CEO of Advanced Analytics and Research Lab, shares his views on who might be left behind in this AI race and what organizations can do to ensure they can move forward in the right direction in their respective analytics journeys. Eric also shares some pivotal moments during the time when he made a career change and the challenges that he needed to overcome to become a data science practitioner.

During the podcast, you will hear the following:

• How organizations can get started with something small and build incrementally to move up in the AI maturity curve

• Why you (probably) need to up your game in technical skills and find your niche in this overly crowded market

• For all aspiring entrepreneurs out there, start experimenting your ideas with minimal costs but expect the path gets steeper as your start-up evolves

2020 is an exciting year for Internet Satellite companies. There were roughly 200 Internet satellites in low-earth orbit (LEO) seeking to offer Internet access to wider consumers and enterprises in 2019, and the number grew to 700 satellites. Globally, Morgan Stanley estimates that satellite internet providers could be generating over $500 billion in revenue by 2040. Our featured guest is Christian Keil, the Chief of Staff at Astranis, a geostationary communications satellite company with a vision of building the next generation of internet satellites. It is a timely conversation as it touches on the ever evolving technology scene and how it’s becoming more democratized thanks to the next generation of startups.

To many people’s surprise, Christian was never technical. With a business degree and used to work as a management consultant, Christian Keil paved his way in tech by applying for a supply chain operations manager’s role at Astranis, but unfortunately got rejected for lack of relevant experience. Christian did not just walk away from a company that is aligned with where he wants to be in a long-term. In this first edition of “Unstoppable Millennials”, Christian shares how he started a company but walked away from his investors, and eventually became the chief of staff in his dream company (after being rejected). To Christian, he thinks many of us who have a Silicon Valley dream but might not necessarily end up in the valley, but being a “Silicon Valley Outsider”, he shared his learnings constantly through self-reflection and weekly newsletters.