Tech

Solving the pain point of sales-based compensation

Nabeil Alazzam, is CEO and founder of Forma.ai, a Toronto-based company striving to solve the massively under-appreciated pain point of sales-based compensation. Currently the systems for calculating and awarding sales-based compensation are clunky, unwieldy and often manual, creating a lot of work for operations teams and sales professionals. Nabeil identified that automation could solve this problem, and built a system (aka Forma.ai) that is able to take the many unique compensation problems that sales organizations face and create unified solutions that save time, money, and mental health for their customers.

Nabeil can speak to the above and more on the podcast Building a solution that works: How Forma.ai has experienced over 2000% revenue growth since 2016. The overlooked market of sales compensation and how Forma.ai is streamlining the process for over $1.5 billion commissions per year.


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Why the Lightning Network is key to scaling bitcoin trading

Shone Anstey brings 20 years of experience in building complex technologies and software within search, analytics, and data centre operations. Engaged with cryptocurrency since 2012, Shone has acted as technology lead for an industrial Bitcoin mine and Bitcoin mining pool, and is a Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator. Shone is the CEO and Co-founder of LQwD, the first publicly traded, pure play, purpose-built bitcoin company that’s focused on solutions that power the growth of the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

In this podcast, we highlight three key ideas:

  1. Why Bitcoin is like the ‘reserve currency’ of cryptocurrencies
  2. The Lightning Network – what is it and why it is important to scaling cryptocurrency trading
  3. Like E-mail was the first use case of the internet, transaction exchanges are the first use case of cryptocurrency…and there is so much more to come!

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Building a Hardware & Software Company as a Non-Technical Founder

Serese Selanders’ journey as a tech entrepreneur has been anything but typical. Serese spent 20 years in the financial services industry, the majority of those years as a senior executive. However, life threw her a curveball when her parents went through major health challenges. Despite having no technical background, she invented ORA, an innovative, wearable personal safety alert device. Two years ago, Serese launched her second company, SolusGuard. SolusGuard helps employers protect employees who work alone or in dangerous situations with a suite of hardware and software safety solutions. Listen in to find out how SolusGuard helps organizations keep their employees safe and the unconventional path Serese took to get here.


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Putting a Human Face on Tech with Faye Pang

Faye Pang is the Canada Country Manager for Xero, the global small business platform with more than 2.7 million subscribers worldwide that’s dedicated to making business beautiful. Faye brings nearly 15 years of experience building businesses from the ground up. Prior to joining Xero, Faye helped launch Uber Freight into the Canadian market. She also helped launch the Uber Eats app in Toronto in December 2015, scaling the business from 80 restaurants on launch day to 20,000 partners by the end of her tenure.

As a leader, Faye prioritizes growth above all else, and practices authenticity, transparency, and empathy in the way she manages her team. She strongly believes that we all have a set of values that we have to live by at all times (rather than keeping our work and personal lives separate), and keeps this consideration top-of-mind when championing her team’s growth, both personally and professionally. She is passionate about creating systems that lift women up, while tackling the hierarchical barriers that have disproportionately affected women in the workplace.


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Learn why resilience is important for entrepreneurs

In over 20 years running a Canadian software company, Alykhan Jetha (AJ) has weathered a lot of storms – from the dot-com bust, to 9-11’s blow to business confidence, right up to the sales hit of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the biggest threat he’s ever seen to his business, is how his pipeline for software engineers has utterly dried up. See this recent Financial Post story that quoted AJ at https://bit.ly/3m36bV0 and https://bit.ly/3s1kLjn

AJ is CEO of Marketcircle Inc., the Markham, ON-based developer of award-winning Daylite CRM for Mac-based small business of 1-100 people. Daylite powers small business teams to handle more clients, close more deals, and execute more projects.


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What if we could end paralysis?

Sparked by a paralyzing bike crash in Phuket, Kieran Macleod has joined forces with friends in the blockchain ecosystem to source funds for a Robotic ExoSkeleton. This will allow Kieran to regain a level of functionality you can only imagine: from being stuck in a wheelchair every day and walking 2-3 hours per year, to near-full personal autonomy again!

Together, Kieran and his friends’ massively transformative purpose is to Enable Augmented Human Purpose. And, their moonshot is to support 1 million people with mobility issues transform their lives to a better future. Introducing ExOSkeletons to people experiencing paralysis in communities in Canada and around the world would:

  • Help people with paralysis experience first-hand the next-generation technology that can transform their lives to a better future;
  • Save billions of dollars in public healthcare spending;
  • Fast-track the adoption of ExOSkeleton and related technologies so ‘access’ takes on a whole new meaning

Kieran invites you to make an impact – start by sharing your ‘ideas’ for ambassadors, manufacturers, health professionals, health product distributors and community leaders that would love to see the adoption of ExOSkeletons happen!


The Silicon Valley Bank team in Canada can help you take your next step. Find out more about the bank that has nearly 40 years of global experience supporting venture-backed tech and life science companies and their investors. We’re in Canada to help leading innovators reach the next stage, faster. Visit www.svb.com/canada/connect. Silicon Valley bank, helping you move your bold ideas forward, fast.

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Connecting medical cannabis patients, licensed producers and processors

Joel Taylor, Co-founder of Patient Choice, has been at the forefront of the ever-changing cannabis industry for many years. He helped transition black market cannabis cultivators to the legal market, connecting them to the regulators of Health Canada and British Columbia.

Patient Choice is a licensed online medical platform that connects medical cannabis patients, licensed producers and processors.


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How being a Canadian company is a huge advantage

Alison Taylor is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Jane, an online platform for healthcare practitioners that delivers a unified approach to online booking, charting, scheduling, video services and payments. Alison, who is based in Vancouver, built Jane with her Co-Founder and Co-CEO Trevor Johnston after running her own practice and finding that she needed an all-in-one solution for her practice’s needs. Now, Jane helps thousands of practitioners across the world with the business side of their practice, so they can focus on what they do best — helping their clients. Alison’s company has gotten here by pushing the envelope and challenging tech industry norms. Jane doesn’t have a sales team, in fact, Alison calls herself the antithesis of sales, and lets the product speak for itself.


The Silicon Valley Bank team in Canada can help you take your next step. Find out more about the bank that has nearly 40 years of global experience supporting venture-backed tech and life science companies and their investors. We’re in Canada to help leading innovators reach the next stage, faster. Visit www.svb.com/canada/connect. Silicon Valley bank, helping you move your bold ideas forward, fast.

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.

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Geotechnical engineering for logistically challenged and remote projects throughout Canada

Adam Temple launched the wildly successful Inline Group at just 22 years old, after learning some tough lessons, like losing $300,000 in another venture.

Inline Group is a Geotechnical Engineering, Materials Testing, and Surveying company pursuing logistically challenged and remote projects throughout Canada.

Adam Temple has lead his company to amazing successes, including doubling its growth initiatives, investing in people, and charging forward with incredible corporate social responsibility initiatives. Hear his take on this in this week’s episode.


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.

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There is no such thing as a social media expert

Tessa May Marr is an entrepreneur at heart and proud to lead a 100 percent virtual social media marketing agency of exceptionally talented and relentless Social Media Managers! Her company, Marr Media Group works with B2B and B2C brands to build custom social strategies, paid social advertising, influencer marketing and fully outsourced social media management. They plug right into each client’s marketing team to augment and amplify all marketing efforts, making them even more effective, creating more connections and achieving desired results and outcomes. Tessa is a pioneer in her leadership style, with a strong focus on work/life balance, empathy, and a whole-human approach. She has developed unique practices throughout the years of building and leading a remote, creative team and breathes new life into the agency format.


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.

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