The Startup Different Podcast

This week we're talking about entrepreneurship, Canada, and politics. Our guest is the fantastic Matt Reesor. Matt's expertise lies in understanding how the dynamics of interpersonal communication contribute to the success of plans and ideas. He has trained thousands of MBA and Masters students at Queen's University Smith School of Business in Canada and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business...

In this episode, we unpack our incredible conversation with Octavia Goredema, founder of Fire Memos. We explore themes of employee appreciation, the importance of stepping outside comfort zones, and the myths surrounding solo founders and technical co-founders. We also highlight the need for emotional support in entrepreneurship, the challenges of prioritization, and the innovative spirit of Fire...

Octavia Goredema is the CEO and founder of Fire Memos, a software company dedicated to igniting careers. The platform empowers employees to record and recognize their work accomplishments with AI powered career coaching. She’s also an acclaimed career expert: she’s the author of "PREP, PUSH, PIVOT: Essential Career Strategies for Underrepresented Women", the host of the Audible Original series "Ho...

In this episode of Startup Different, we discuss our insightful conversation last week with Mark Organ. We'll unpack the myths of entrepreneurship, the importance of communication, iterative improvement, and the dynamics of acquisitions. We'll also explore how effective communication and customer connection can drive business success, the iterative processes that lead to improvement, and the signi...

This week we’re talking to a ridiculously successful entrepreneur, Mark Organ. Mark was an entrepreneurial go-to-market specialist, a CEO with a focus on sales, marketing and business development. Along the way he’s lived in Toronto, Silicon Valley, Chicago and Singapore. He’s Founded 6 companies, raised more than 15 rounds of financing, hired over 250 people, built 7 offices around the world, and...

In this episode of Startup Different, we reflect on our previous conversation with Laurie Barkman, a business transition expert. We discuss the psychology behind selling a business, the importance of planning for exits, and the role of culture and employee engagement in startups. The conversation also touches on intrapreneurship and the resources available for entrepreneurs looking to transition t...

Welcome to Startup Different! This week we’re excited to welcome a sherpa - specifically a business transition sherpa, to the show! Laurie Barkman, The Business Transition Sherpa®, is the former CEO of a $100 million dollar revenue company that was sold to a Fortune 50. She guides business owners through the often overwhelming process of transition planning and facilitates sell-side and buy-side t...

It's been over a year since the Startup Different Podcast kicked off, so we decided to re-record our origin story. We'll give you our backgrounds and tell you about our experience running and eventually exiting our business AppArmor. Let's get into it! This is Startup Different!

Last week we spoke with Nathan Yeung of “Find your audience”. While having one of the more interesting business models out there, Nathan also tried to squash a huge myth about marketing - mostly that we kinda suck at it. Today we deep dive into Nathan’s myth busting and talk about the good o’l days of organic content. It’s Startup Different with the Sinkinson Bros.

With years of experience as a leader in marketing operations, Nathan helps mid-market businesses build, enhance, or support their marketing functions and drive value creation. He’s a B2B SaaS Marketing Leader, Guest Lecturer, Consumer Psychology Geek and Dad, delivering companies marketing functions that become revenue engines. And he’s with us today on another fantabulous episode of Startup Diffe...

Last week we spoke to Ameya Juvekar, a serial entrepreneur in the consumer marketing space. His startups in the consumer health worked in tandem to deliver considerable and meaningful value for his customers and their patients. Today Chris and I explore Amaya’s businesses and how working as an intraprenear helped get him going. Welcome to Startup Different!

Once upon a time, Chris and I had a few different businesses on the go. It’s not uncommon for early founders to do this as they’re trying to figure out what works in the market.  But that definitely doesn’t mean it’s easy. Today, we’re speaking with Ameya Juvekar, an entrepreneur with a diverse background in business, marketing, revenue generation, and technology. He’ll be talking about his two co...

Last week Marley Alles gave us a 101 on her startup Rax. She had some awesome insights on how to set up a peer-to-peer business. This week, we dissect her strategy and draw out some of the key learnings from her experiences.

This week we’re talking fashion, something Chris brutally sucks at. But it turns out that thanks to Rax, his situation may be salvageable.  Rax is Canada's peer-to-peer wardrobe rental app where you can save money borrowing and make money lending your closet. Co-Founder Marley Alles is here today to tell us about rax, how to own the social media game, and win a ton of awards. Startup Different...

Last week we spoke to Flowstate Coaching and Consulting, and Life By Design Lab Founder Rishi Behari. It was an awesome conversation about flow, going from what it is, to how to make it happen to the science behind it. Today Chris and I deep dive into flow and cover some of the biggest data backed learnings from our conversation with Rishi. We also figure out our flow profiles and the answers migh...

Today on the program we have Flowstate Coaching and Consulting and Life By Design Lab Founder Rishi Behari. Rishi started these businesses in order to help others find joy and purpose in their lives and work. His coaching philosophy leverages powerful insights from cutting-edge neuroscience research to empower organizations and individuals alike to perform at their peak, while falling in love with...

Last week we spoke to Brooke Finlay about her business, Navio, and how it’s helping people get through the “gong-show” of immigration bureaucracy. While her business was definitely impressive and disruptive, it was her passion for impact and helping people that really impressed Chris and I. It’s truly a different startup. This week, Chris and I go deep on impact, bureaucracy, and disruption - and...

Brooke Finlay is an innovator, change maker and purpose- driven entrepreneur. She's a Canadian immigration expert and founder of Navio. At Navio, they unlocking infinite possibilities of human potential to co-create a better world by making immigration legal services more affordable, transparent, and trustworthy.

Last week we spoke to Co-Founder and CEO Meti Basiri of ApplyBoard, a genuine unicorn. It was pretty cool - not gonna lie. And you know it was a live episode because I even got a little star-struck. What does one say to a paper billionaire? For our show today, Chris and I deep dive into some of the biggest points made by Meti. Are 25% of all unicorns founded by immigrants? Is dealing with work col...

For our first episode of Season 4 we met a unicorn. We weren't trippin', but there was a collision involved - the Collision Conference held in Toronto Canada this year. We interviewed ApplyBoard CEO Meti Basiri live at the show.  Meti founded ApplyBoard with his two other brothers. After facing many challenges and obstacles on their own study abroad journeys, the Basiri brothers saw an opp...

In our fourth episode of the Big Data for Small Companies series, and the finale of season 3, Tom McDonell of HazTrack Inc. is here. Tom is the CEO at HazTrack Inc., an industrial IoT startup based in Calgary and Saskatoon. HazTrack helps Oil and Gas and Waste Management companies run their operations more efficiently with best-in-class hardware and software. He's here today and we're look...

Everyone knows that business decisions are best informed by good data. But, when you're a small startup, good data is hard to come by, especially if your market is in its early stages of development. Enter the data brokers! You can just buy data about your market, and you'll be on your way to startup success... Because I'm sure all the data you buy will be super-accurate, right? Let&#3...

Picture this: It's 9:45am on a Monday morning. You're gathered with your senior team, including your co-founder. You’ve got a big decision ahead of you and unfortunately you and your co-founder are at odds as to the best path forward. What do you do?  Because you're a different leader, you lead your company by consensus, meaning that you need to convince your co-founder. No strong-armi...

In the early days of many businesses, including ours, data is at a premium. You want to take a data-driven approach to decision making, but because of frankly low system usage, or a product that may not have a ton of data you're at a loss as to how to "find" data. But data is important. Having a healthy feedback loop with material data sets is crucial to your success. In episode 9 of...

To conclude our series on product innovation, we invite co-founders of Bujjify, Rohit Jinka and Rekha Anem to the show. Their lives took an extraordinary turn with the arrival of their daughter, Reva. Enter their company: Bujjify. Bujjify is a child development and parent education company dedicated to promoting healthy and well-rounded development for children from birth. Their PlayRigs are toolk...