Tech

Building a business during the pandemic and making it work

Shannon Ferguson, CEO & Co-Founder of FanSaves is an entrepreneur at heart and her strong social skills and positive attitude have always been a winning formula for success. Kris McCarthy, COO and Co-Founder of FanSaves is a true athlete and team player, it was Kris’s passion for sports paired with a Business degree from SUNY Potsdam that led him into the world of Sports Marketing. A great sports business success story that grew in spite of the pandemic and an enthusiastic business and life partnership.


Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on FacebookInstagramLinkedIn and Twitter.

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter

How to grow your business with software

Scott Lionello is the Co-Founder and President of Omnae Technologies a Vancouver-based Supply Ops Automation startup. Born and raised in the lower mainland, Scott has a passion for music, invention, lateral thinking, and entrepreneurship. Through the journey of building Omnae, Scott has learned how destructive innovation within a legacy business can be a path to achieving success with ideas too big for the conventional lean startup model.


Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on FacebookInstagramLinkedIn and Twitter.

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter

How to make payment processing easy!

Hamed Arbabi is the CEO and Founder of the Vancouver-based payments company, VoPay, and is recognized as an innovative thought leader in the fintech industry. Known for his drive to innovate and change how firms conduct business, Hamed has used his expertise to turn VoPay into a dominant force in the world of financial technology.

A serial entrepreneur, Hamed has successfully built and grown multiple startups and leveraged his knowledge of business expansion to develop them into successful, disruptive ventures. With over fifteen years of executive-level experience in spearheading comprehensive strategies and business developments, Hamed has a proven track record and an in-depth knowledge of the global financial industry.

Hamed’s overall vision for VoPay revolves around innovation and digital transformation. What began as a simple idea ultimately founded the pillars of his venture: that financial services should be easy, affordable and accessible to all.

Committed to his community, and dedicated to giving back, Hamed has founded and supported multiple non-profit organizations that focus on helping children access technology. He firmly believes that given the right educational tools, young people can expand their skills and take control of their futures by opening doors to new opportunities.


Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on FacebookInstagramLinkedIn and Twitter.

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter

The Importance of Customer Success with Pierce Ujjainwalla

Pierce Ujjainwalla is a career marketer who has lived in the marketing trenches at companies like IBM, SAP, NVIDIA, and Marketo. He launched Knak in 2015 as a platform designed to help Marketers simplify email creation. He is also the founder of Revenue Pulse, a marketing operations consultancy.


Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on FacebookInstagramLinkedIn and Twitter.

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter

Se lancer dans la fabrication de cuir végétal

Fannie Laroche a grandi dans une famille ou l’entreprenariat était un mode de vie. Riche de 10 ans d’expérience en tant que styliste personnelle à son compte, elle se questionne depuis un moment sur les pratiques éthiques appliquées dans le milieu de la mode et, faute d’options intéressantes, décide de créer sa propre solution : La création de cuirs végétaux à partir de matières résiduelles.

Elle-même végétalienne engagée et motivée à faire avancer la cause, elle crée Flaura, cuir végétal afin d’offrir des cuirs haut de gamme durables, locaux et naturels aux marchés du textile et des intérieurs de voiture.

Passionné et curieux de nature, le parcours professionnel de Grégory Hersant l’a amené successivement à occuper des postes touchant à la recherche, à son financement et à l’enseignement. Chimiste de formation, il a tout d’abord travaillé comme chercheur et gestionnaire de projets en chimie verte puis comme conseiller en développement de la recherche (soutien administratif des activités de recherche) et en fin dans le domaine du transfert technologique. Tout ce bagage d’expérience lui a permis de bien maîtriser les éléments importants de la chaine d’innovation. Grégory s’intéresse également depuis plusieurs années à la valorisation des matières résiduelles. Il offre d’ailleurs depuis 2008 des services de consultation en chimie verte et plus spécifiquement dans le cadre de projets touchant à la valorisation de matières résiduelles organiques ou d’origine végétale. Il est profondément convaincu que toutes les matières que nous jetons constituent un formidable réservoir d’opportunités d’affaires. Flaura, cuir végétal est une formidable opportunité de prouver qu’on peut à la fois donner une nouvelle vie à une matière considérée comme un résidu, développer un projet d’entreprise viable tout en ayant une approche respectueuse de l’environnement.


Les entrepreneurs sont l’épine dorsale de l’économie canadienne.

Pour soutenir les entreprises canadiennes, abonnez-vous à notre chaîne YouTube et suivez-nous sur Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn et Twitter.

Vous voulez rester au courant des derniers podcasts et actualités #entrepreneur? Abonnez-vous à notre newsletter bimensuelle.

Using technology to improve the quality of life for pets, pet parents, and veterinary professionals globally

Mark Bordo is the co-founder and CEO of Toronto-based Vetster, a telemedicine service for pets. Taking his 20-plus years of experience as a tech entrepreneur and his own personal experience as a dog owner, Mark has developed a unique platform that is improving the quality of life for pets, pet parents, and veterinary professionals globally.


Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on FacebookInstagramLinkedIn and Twitter.

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter

The dangers of ransomware and ways to mitigate the risk

Today ransomware is becoming a massive problem for everyone, so we thought we would do a special feature on ransomware in business – the dangers and some ways to mitigate the risk.

It’s a difficult subject. Not surprisingly in the past 5 years there has been a renewed focus on how to overcome a problem that costs enterprises billions of dollars – and allows secrets to seep out. Today, we talk to Ed Dubrovsky, COO and Managing Partner at CYPFER. Ed has a tremendous knowledge base and for almost 30 years Ed Dubrovsky’s name has been synonymous with information security. He gives us some insightful thoughts on ransomware and how it is costing organizations billions of dollars. And he also has some suggestions on how to mitigate it.

Ed is a seasoned entrepreneur, executive & technical leader with over 29 years of experience building and growing technology companies with a deep technical acumen. Experience in managing over 4700 security incidents including ransomware, business email compromise, malicious insiders, extortion, executive protection, threat intelligence, and prevention/mitigation of risk associated to cyber-attacks.

He has deep experience in helping companies across all industries including military, defense, public and private sectors recover from cyber-attacks.

Ed has a keen interest in technology & cyber-security leadership, managing business growth under challenging conditions and constant change. Holder of Canadian secret II clearance.


This is a sponsored podcast by FileFlex, The #1 Zero Trust Data Access platform for Windows.

FileFlex manages the chaos of unstructured data and minimizes ransomware.

Learn more at https://fileflex.com/


Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on FacebookInstagramLinkedIn and Twitter.

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter

Decarbonizing and electrification of buildings with carbon-free heat pumps

Belinda Gilbey is a woman entrepreneur, green building enthusiast and market leader in heat pump technology. Her graduation from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering kick started her successful professional journey that was fueled by her passion for clean technologies. For several years, she worked in sales and consulting helping commercial property owners, operators, and developers with their mechanical equipment needs, with a focus on improving efficiencies and reducing building energy consumption and operating expenses. While working in the solar and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) industries, she gradually developed a true passion for creating cost-effective decarbonization solutions for a better tomorrow, which brought her to co-found and become President of Bondi Energy. Since then, she’s been raising awareness on the positive effects that these technologies provide, not only from an environmental point of view but also from a cost reduction angle. Under Belinda’s guidance, Bondi is now aiming to decarbonize as many buildings as possible across North America. Belinda is co-founder of US-based Gigawatt Heat Pump Supply (2021), which sells efficient heat pump and electrification equipment for new-build and retrofit applications.

Aaron Graben is the co-founder and Vice President of Bondi Energy. Shortly after its inauguration in 2019, Bondi became a market leader in energy efficiency retrofits of multifamily and commercial buildings. Aaron, along with his partner Belinda, have accelerated the market uptake of heat pump technology across North America. Aaron’s background in commercial real estate gives him a unique understanding of how energy affects building values and their owner’s decision-making process.

Bondi Energy Corp (Bondi) is a turnkey project management firm specializing in decarbonizing and electrification of multi-residential and commercial buildings with energy efficient, carbon-free heat pumps.


Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on FacebookInstagramLinkedIn and Twitter.

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter

Seafood that is changing consumers’ perception of the category

As Scout’s CEO and co-founder, Adam Bent leads the team toward bringing Scout’s mission to life – to make deliciously crafted seafood that changes how consumers perceive and experience the category.

Adam joined Scout in 2018 with a passion for sustainability, product innovation, and brand experience. Brand founder and acclaimed Chef Charlotte Langley tapped Adam to help transform Scout from her side hustle into the rapidly emerging omni-channel brand that it is today. Under Adam’s leadership, Scout doubled its annual revenue from 2020 to 2021, expanded beyond its Canadian headquarters into the United States, and raised a total of $4 million USD to date.

Previous to Scout, Adam was a technology entrepreneur building VC-backed businesses as the co-founder of thisopenspace (2016-2018) and Uppercase (2016-2018). No stranger to the food industry, Adam also served as the Vice President at Provender (2014-2015), a TechStars backed online marketplace that addressed inefficiencies in local food delivery to the wholesale industry. Adam was the Canadian manager for Urbanspoon (2012-2013) before its acquisition and is a partner at Prairie Boy Organic Bakery (2015 – present) in Toronto, Canada.

The food-tech entrepreneur turned seafood expert is a founding member of the SeafoodCollab, an industry group of emerging seafood CPG brands that are committed to a regenerative ocean food system and increased consumer engagement within sustainable seafood. Adam also sits on the board of directors for the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, a national historic site representing the historical significance of Canada’s west coast fishing industry.


Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on FacebookInstagramLinkedIn and Twitter.

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter

Tackling unexpected challenges with fearless determination

Nicole Matos is a Metis woman, wife, mother of three, President of Rivet Construction and Founder of Oonnie Food Technologies. Leading her construction company for over a decade and now founding a food tech company, Nicole loves to tackle unexpected challenges with fearless determination. You will often hear Nicole say that her successes have mostly come from trying everything the wrong way first.

As an indigenous business Rivet is open to talking about potential partnerships or joint ventures. Rivet currently operates mostly in Alberta, however has a satellite office in Kelowna and some presence in SK. Rivet’s focus is commercial construction, commercial preventative maintenance and design build.

Oonnie is Farmers Market online – it gives you an opportunity to sell your products all day everyday without ever having to set up a physical booth or stand in the rain. Oonnie is like Etsy for food. Oonnie provides a platform and tools to support and help food producers grow their business.


Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on FacebookInstagramLinkedIn and Twitter.

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter