The Hard Part with Evan McCann

Cory Janssen is the Managing Director of AltaML Fund I LP and the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of AltaML. Previously, Cory co-founded Investopedia, a financial education site that provided content and tools to help educate individual investors. From its founding in 1999, Investopedia became one of the most popular financial sites on the web and was sold to Forbes Media in 2007. Cory is also a director at...

Steve Davis is the CEO of Operto . Operto is the world’s leading property automation and IoT operating system for vacation rentals, hotels, and serviced apartments is revolutionizing guest stays and hospitality management. Through technology that connects teams, guests, managers and smart devices; Operto addresses common friction points to provide fully seamless and personalized stays - creating g...

Guillaume Thérien is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner (Associé) of Triptyq Capital. Based in Montreal, Triptyq Capital is a $40M early-stage venture capital investment fund that invests in companies developing tech for the media, creator economy, gaming, XR and entertainment sectors. Takeaways Guillaume's background in marketing and entertainment has provided him with valuable insights as a...

Robbie Bent is the Co-Founder and CEO of Othership . Othership is a platform that includes a physical space and a mobile app to affect positive change and address the problem of loneliness and the detrimental effects it has on our individual and collective health. Othership encourages openness to the awe, belonging, and interconnectivity that animates the human experience for a more joy-filled lif...

Neha Khera is a General Partner at 2048 Ventures . 2048 Ventures is a thesis-driven earliest-stage venture capital firm. They are founders, experienced operators, nerds and dreamers obsessed with the future. They've backed over 200 startups and have the experience and conviction to lead your pre-seed or seed round. Takeaways University of Waterloo's engineering program and co-op program pr...

Kaylee Astle is the Founder and CEO of Blanka . Use the code HARDPART10 for 10% off. Blanka helps anyone start a makeup or skincare line in under 5 minutes. Choose from hundreds of high-quality cruelty-free beauty and skincare products to personalize and dropship online. With zero minimum order quantity, they also offer dropshipping services so you can focus on marketing and sales. In their app, y...

Elizabeth Yin is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Hustle Fund . Hustle Fund is a venture capital fund investing in founders at the pre-seed and seed stages. They also have Angel Squad, a vetted community of angel investors , who get radical access to Hustle Fund's deals and investor education. Takeaways Learnings from working for Tony Hsieh (LinkExchange and Zappos). Being in Silicon Vall...

Yvette Wu is the Co-Founder and CEO of Yield Exchange . Yield Exchange is a B2B SaaS platform for organizations to access competitive GIC rates with speed, transparency, and ease. Their platform acts as an online GIC marketplace for investors such as Canadian municipalities, universities, school boards, hospitals, and large corporations to access competitive rates directly from their partnering fi...

Dan Belostotsky is the Founder of HonestDoor . HonestDoor is an Edmonton-based, VC-backed company that combines real estate data with data science to produce estimated values of houses and condos. In addition to the estimated HonestDoor price, it contains property taxes, transaction data, permit data, and neighbourhood growth rates for over 16M properties in Canada. By creating the most comprehens...

Rashel Hariri is a seasoned marketing professional, startup consultant, and podcast host. With over 14 years of experience leading marketing strategies and teams at Global organizations. She created award-winning marketing campaigns for some of the largest brands in the world, like McDonald’s, Shopify, and ING Direct/Tangerine Bank.  After leaving the corporate world in 2021, she established Rashe...

Tyler Rooney was the Co-Founder of Format (acquired by Zenfolio). Format has been offering creatives solutions to showcase, manage and grow their business since 2010. Takeaways The dot-com era at Waterloo was a formative time for Tyler, where he learned valuable lessons and worked at startups a few of which ultimately flamed out. Tyler's early work experiences at companies like Infusion Develo...

Nadia Barbosa is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tandem Experiences . Tandem Experiences is a woman-led, purpose-oriented company making date night easy. They bundle the best local events with great food and activities so that couples can focus on spending quality time together, instead of sweating the details. Takeaways Tandem Experiences aims to solve the problem of fragmented planning and lack of sup...

Shane Murphy is the CEO of Ownr . Ownr is an RBCx company. They are making it simpler and more affordable for businesses to start and succeed. They know that starting and running a business takes a huge effort. By simplifying and automating business formation and everyday legal work, they help SMBs thrive. Takeaways Ownr aims to democratize access to incorporation and provide ongoing support for s...

Jesse Abrams is the Co-Founder & CEO of Homewise . Homewise is a national consumer end-to-end homeownership platform, centered around its digital mortgage experience that uses data intelligence to match and secure clients with their best mortgage from 30+ banks and lenders in minutes. Homewise then connects clients to their in-house Real Estate solution (Homewise Real Estate) and partners at e...

Laviva Mazha r is a Principal at Luge Capital . Luge Capital is a fintech-focused venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies in Canada and the United States. They are on a mission to build fintech champions with amazing founders. In this episode, we discuss... Her journey from McGill, work in economic development, a startup studio and breaking into VC The first close of their $71M...

Lisa Mattam is the Founder and CEO of Sahajan . Sahajan blends the power of Ayurveda, an integral part of Lisa's South Indian heritage, with clinical science to create clean skincare products. In this episode, we discuss... What "clean beauty" means How to start a skincare brand from ideation, manufacturing and distribution Launching with one product versus launching a collection on...

Michelle Reid is the VP of Partnerships & Growth at Z1 . Z1 is part of the Tiny Capital family and they are a product studio full of digital experts in UX research, product design, and engineering. Their ‘Zero to One’ approach is a proven process to shape, design, and deliver a minimum perfect product experience to the market. They partner with startup founders and growing companies to create...

Dan Balaban is the Executive Chair and CEO of Greengate , a leading Canadian renewable energy company. Greengate is focused on the development of large-scale renewable energy and next-generation net zero projects. To date, Greengate has successfully developed over 1 GW of operating and in-construction renewable energy projects in Canada, including the country’s largest wind energy and solar energy...

Ian Whytock is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Tidal Venture Partners . Tidal Venture Partners is a pre-seed to seed+ fund focused on the emerging ecosystem of Atlantic Canada. With conviction, they back small teams with high potential, who have detailed plans for achieving larger, later-stage milestones. In this episode, we discuss... Major exists in the ecosystem like Verafin (acquired fo...

Thomas Park is the Co-Founder and Lead Partner of the BDC Deep Tech Fund , a $200M VC fund focused on supporting Canadian start-ups developing “hard tech” such as quantum computers, photonics, and fundamental AI. In this episode, we discuss... How Thomas's experiences at the International Criminal Court, UN, The Gates Foundation, Dartmouth and Havard shaped him as an investor Why and how he la...

Corey Pollock is the Head of Product at Pixel Union and Co-Founder of numerous companies like Uptime (acquired by WeCommerce), ListingAI (acquired), Google Meet Enhancement Suite (acquired) and more. In this episode, we discuss... What he learned about building product from Robleh at Tiny Hearts What made Tiny Hearts unique when building product and the acquisition by Shopify His work at Shopify a...

Peter Root is the Co-Founder of Wildfire Robotics . Wildfire Robotics leverages scalable robotics for complete wildfire containment - from initial attack to mop-up to monitoring.‍ The team has developed a self-propelled and remotely controlled robotic snake, called Firewall, that can be deployed in rough terrain, up to 10 km at a time, to offer rapid, fluid-based protection of communities, industr...

Joella Almeida is the CEO and Co-founder of MedEssist . MedEssist is a complete digital health platform for pharmacies committed to enabling pharmacists to provide the best modern, comprehensive solution for their patient interactions, elevating care, solving irritating pain points around their practice, and helping them craft their dream practice. In this episode, we discuss... The genesis story...

Jessica Hodgson is a Managing Partner at Moonshot Associates . With Moonshot Associates, you can tap into expert guidance and tailored solutions precisely when needed, allowing you to focus on innovation, profitability, and scaling your business. Whether it's developing a winning marketing strategy, optimizing your HR processes, fine-tuning your financial projections, or enhancing your product...

Maninder Dhaliwal is the President & CEO of Lions Gate International. LGI is a venture capital and business advisory firm specializing in international venture projects in technology, mainly focused on Canada, the US and Southeast Asia. She is the Founding Chair of TiE Incubation Lab . Based in Vancouver, TiE Incubation Lab is focused on supporting Canadian pre-seed startups. The lab supports...