The Hard Part with Evan McCann

Stephen Seibel is the Founder and COO of Clutch . Clutch is Canada’s largest online used car retailer, delivering a seamless, hassle-free car buying and financing experience to drivers everywhere. Takeaways - Stephen's move from investment banking to starting Clutch. - Why he booked a one-way ticket to Halifax to launch the business. - Navigating regulartory hurdles. - Clutch's business mo...

Rishi Nayyar is the Co-Founder and CEO of PocketHealth . PocketHealth is on a mission to empower every patient with instant access, control and understanding of their health records while streamlining medical image sharing for healthcare providers. Takeaways - Current Landscape of Medical Imaging - Building a Patient-Centric Platform - Prioritizing Security and Privacy - Navigating Different User...

Mark Goad is the GM of Canada at Alan . The health partner who prevents, insures, and cares daily - Alan's mission is a healthier humanity. Alan is partnered with 30,000 companies, has more than 700,000 members, is at +€470m ARR with 600 employees in France, Spain, Belgium and now Canada. Takeaways - Choosing to pursue business over a CFA. - His move and time in venture. - Career decision-maki...

Simon De Baene is the Co-Founder and CEO of Workleap . Workleap is for HR teams that need to solve HR challenges. They help you make your people happier and more productive with the easiest employee experience technology to launch, manage and love. Takeaways - Why the name Gsoft was inspired by G-Unit. - Starting Gsoft (now Workleap) at 20 years old right out of school - Transitioning from a servi...

Great to dive into Build Canada with Daniel Debow ! Build Canada is a platform of bold ideas for growth, innovation, and prosperity. Every policy is proposed by successful Canadian entrepreneurs with deep knowledge from building in the relevant areas. They are supported by policy experts with experience in government. Their singular focus is a Canada where people build again. Takeaways - What is B...

Kat Garcia is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Ground . Uncover untapped revenue, with zero effort. Ground is an AI revenue driver growing the next generation of consumer companies, for Founders, Agencies, and Go-to-Market Teams. Takeaways - Kat's time at BCG Digital Ventures. - Understanding customer psychology. - Retention strategies and how Ground helps. - Growth teams face unprecedented challe...

Anson Yu and Hudhayfa (aka HudZah) Nazoordeen are Hosts at Socratica. Socratica is an open collective of makers, artists, founders, researchers, designers, and everything in between. RSVP for Socratica's Symposium here . Takeaways - How and why Socratica was founded. - Socratica emerged as a countercultural response to isolation post-COVID. - It attracts individuals who seek to explore their o...

Mark Ang is the Co-Founder and CEO of GoBolt . Takeaways - GoBolt started as Second Closet, focusing on student storage. - Their TTC ad which got them a great ROI. - The pivot to GoBolt involved a complete rebranding and change in the business model. - Building trust with customers is crucial in logistics. - Nuances in the 3PL space. - Last mile logistics. - Integrating technology + human operatio...

Jean Schmitt is the Managing Partner of Jolt Capital . Jolt Capital is a private equity firm specializing in investment in growth capital technology. Jolt Capital generates returns for its investors by enabling growth-stage technology-rich companies with strong fundamentals to execute their scaling strategies, in sectors that offer strong exit potential across hardware-driven or software-driven so...

Jelena Djuric is the Co-Founder and CEO of Noble . Noble is changing how stablecoins and other real world assets are issued on blockchains by combining minimalistic, high security architecture with the cross-chain efficiencies of the IBC protocol. Takeaways - Jelena's political science and economics background shaped her interest in crypto. - Background on Stablecoins. - Providing infrastructu...

Jean-Michel Lemieux has an incredible profile. Former VP of Engineering at Atlassian Former CTO at Shopify Founder of DevDegree at Shopify Restaurant owner of Arlo in Ottawa Author of an upcoming book "Build Right Side" Founder of SeaPeople Takeaways - Early Ottawa tech scene. - Moving to Australia to work for the iconic company Atlassian. - Building trust when leading a new team. - Bein...

Ian Burgess is the President and CTO of Validere Technologies . Validere is an Emissions Management Software Platform that enables customers to integrate their operational and field measurement data for regulatory reporting and corporate emissions initiatives. Over 50 of North America’s leading energy companies rely on Validere’s technology and multidisciplinary experts to understand their emissio...

Vitaly Pecherskiy is the CEO and Co-Founder of StackAdapt . StackAdapt is a digital advertising platform specializing in native, display, video, connected TV, audio, in-game, and DOOH advertising. Takeaways - Vitaly's time at AdParlour, Hussein Fazal's (Super.com Co-Founder) first company. - Bootstrapping StackAdapt early days. - Capital efficiency has been a core principle for StackAdapt&...

Kevin Michael is the Co-Founder & CEO of Tempo Labs . Build beautiful UIs 10X faster with AI - Tempo generates and edits high-quality react code directly in your codebase so you can ship UIs in minutes. Takeaways - Working at Chamath's Social Capital. - Customer obsession is crucial for product development. - AI will enable teams to focus on unique intellectual property. - Benefits of YC f...

Ben Cox is the Co-Founder & CEO of  Page . Page uses advanced technology & AI to make it effortless for companies to gain real-time and personalized insight into government activities that can impact their business. Takeaways - Working at Shopify for over 10 years and moving from a junior role to a Director level. - Why lobbying was interesting to Ben. - Understanding the lobbying process....

Michelle Kwok is an Investor at Draper Associates and the Co-Founder of BlueBox . Takeaways - Genesis story of FLIK. - How to build + scale a community. - How to monetize a community and build a business around it. - The acquisition of FLIK. - Life post-acquisition and opening up around identity challenges. - Her MBA experience at Columbia. - Roles in venture. - Founder empathy as an investor. - W...

Amrita Gurney is a Fractional CMO . Amrita supports Seed to Series B stage startups as a fractional marketing leader. She has been a marketing leader at Audiobooks.com, CrowdRiff, Float and many more. Takeaways - Building challenger brands. - What makes a successful challenger brand. - Most founders don't know how to hire marketers. - Developing a deep customer understanding. - What Brand trul...

Brendan Baker is a Partner at Rackhouse Venture Capital . Rackhouse Ventures is an early-stage venture capital management firm that focuses on founders and firms that sit at the intersection of AI/ML and the real world. Takeaways - Brendan's journey into venture from an engineering background. - Early days at Angellist. - The 5 Buckets of Venture. - Tips for founders fundraising. - Dive into t...

Ben Gigone is the Co-Founder and CTO of Chexy . Chexy is the first tenant-facing payments platform that allows renters to earn rewards & build credit on rent, all while bringing rent payments into the 21st century. Takeaways - Growing up in an entrepreneurial family. - Genesis story behind Chexy. - Focusing on tenant needs to drive early customer adoption. - Building credit through rent paymen...

Sam Pillar is the Co-Founder and CEO of Jobber . Jobber is the easiest-to-use business management platform for home service businesses. Landscapers, maid services, and companies in dozens of other industries use Jobber to keep track of customers, schedule jobs, get paid, and more. Takeaways - Jobber began at Remedy Cafe in Edmonton with Forrest and Sam. - Early days of Jobber driving around to see...

Aidan Vaandering is the Co-Founder of Reserv Labs . Reserv is the yerba mate based focus + productivity drink made for the modern consumer. Takeaways Aidan's sales skills from Shopify and how they help as a founder. The branding and positioning of Reserv in a crowded market. Nuances with Red Bull, Monster and other energy products. Understanding customer rituals and where Reserv fits in. How n...

Ben Rollert is the Co-Founder and CEO of Composer . Composer is an automated trading platform that allows you to build a portfolio of hedge fund-like strategies. Takeaways Ben's first founder experience with Intervaliq. Learnings from building Breather (raised $100M+). The importance of a solid business model cannot be overstated. Keeping a small team with Composer. Founder-led companies versu...

Ori Eldarov is the Co-Founder & CEO of OffDeal . OffDeal is an AI-native investment bank for small businesses. They offer small business owners a hassle-free way to sell their company for the highest price to the best possible buyer. They leverage years of Wall Street experience and their custom-built proprietary AI technology to ensure your business attracts the highest number of buyers so th...

Asanka Jayasuriya is a Partner and CTO at 8VC . 8VC is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage and growth-stage tech companies. It was co-founded in 2015 by Joe Lonsdale, who is also a co-founder of Palantir. The firm is headquartered in Austin. Takeaways Asanka's early days at UofT. The benefits of internships. Launching and building the Amazon Toronto office. The "Glass Ceiling" in Ca...

Charlie Iscoe is the Co-Founder of CommonShares . CommonShares is a business succession platform that enables retiring owners to get fair value for their business while ensuring that their employees and communities are cared for. They facilitate fair and efficient exits for retiring owners, recruit, train and support succession leadership as required, and transition the business to employee owners...