Canada’s Entrepreneur

Justin Hartzman is a born entrepreneur, motivated, hard working, ambitious and high level thinker are a few words that describe Justin and his passion for business. Justin is a graduate from one of Canada’s premier business and economic program at the University of Western Ontario. Coming from a long line of entrepreneurs and investors, from an early age Justin worked retail in his family’s businesses, rising to managerial and buying positions. Understanding sales, forecasting, team management, and learning from others are what continue to drive him. Justin is an avid traveler, investor, knowledge seeker and a family man. He is also a Scotch enthusiast. Justin with his team owns and manages a large portfolio of websites and businesses. These fall into the B2B, B2C, and consumer content spaces. With his extreme knowledge of everything internet and past experience in start-ups to exits, Justin's current focus as his mature business flourish is taking the leap back into start up culture with Needls.com.

Kaitlyn Gottlieb has been a successful realtor in Calgary for a number of years but recently she moved to Edmonton to set up her Exclusive Real Estate team.

Braden Parker is co-founder of Casca Footwear, an innovative startup, developing all-day performance shoes for future builders. In the past year, Braden has moved from real-estate asset manager to co-founder of a bootstrapped venture looking to challenge the global footwear giants.

Gavin Harrison is a lifelong entrepreneur, Facilitator of Compello and the creator of ALTAS, a five-stage framework for highly-effective strategic planning. A born-and-raised Calgarian, he works with entrepreneurs and leadership teams as a facilitator of the ATLAS program.

Mike Morrison is the founder of Mike's Bloggity Blog, a blog which this year celebrates its 13th anniversary. The blog covers all things pop culture here in Calgary and across Canada. Morrison also runs a series of digital marketing events including SocialEast in Halifax, Next Big Thing and SocialWest, which is now the largest digital marketing conference in Western Canada.

Gifty Serbeh-Dunn founded Shea Butter Market in 2003 to create an all-natural beauty product while supporting widows and their families in Ghana to climb out of poverty. Gifty believes that her business is a force for "good" and by doing business right means that everyone benefits; from the widows in Ghana who make the Shea Butter for a premium price, to the consumers who buy her high-quality products.

Jacqueline Kitzan is owner of Somewear Mobile Boutique Consignment - retrofitting a 1977 Airstream Globetrotter into Edmonton's first mobile consignment boutique - a high-end and luxury consignment retailer. She is also a communications specialist with Melcor Developments.

Tanya Eklund is a realtor in Calgary and considered to be an industry expert. She is often quoted as a source on real estate stories by the media. Tanya is with RE/MAX Real Estate (Central) and owns The Tanya Eklund Group.

Mark Evans spent 10+ years as a technology reporter with two of Canada's largest newspapers and has four startups under his belt. Mark brings his unique brand storytelling approach to high growth emerging companies that need to create a leadership position. Mark provides strategic and tactical guidance to develop effective content marketing and regularly speaks and workshops in various locations. In this podcast Mark talks about marketing that resonates with prospects, customers, partners, and investors - everything from Websites, videos, and infographics to eBooks, blog posts, and pitch decks.

Sharon Hapton is the founder and CEO of Soup Sisters, a charity dedicated to ‘creating a stir’ in communities across North America. Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers have delivered nearly 2 million ‘Hugs in a Bowl’ of nourishing and nurturing soup nationwide to women's shelters and youth crisis centers. In addition to being a social entrepreneur, Sharon is a best-selling author of the Soup Sisters cookbook series.

Matias Marquez founded Buyatab in 2008. He has since received numerous awards and recognition for his entrepreneurial success, including: being named a BC Business Top 30 Under 30 recipient in 2016; winner of the 2016 EY Entrepreneur of The Year award; and being named to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2017. A digital gift card industry pioneer, Matias has been instrumental in driving Buyatab’s growth and customer-focused success. He is also an active advisor to early-stage technology companies. Matias holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Simon Fraser University and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Emily Salsbury-Deveaux is an entrepreneur and a retailer. She first opened her fashion store EMMYDEVEAUX as a pop-up location in the West Edmonton Mall in February 2018. The store opened a permanent location in the fall of 2018 on Calgary Trail. She is former executive director of the School of Retailing at the University of Alberta.

Since 2013, Ron Spreeuwenberg has been the Co-Founder & CEO of HiMama based in Toronto, where he leads all aspects of a business that facilitates information sharing between child care programs and parents. The HiMama application aims to save child care and early learning programs time and money, while significantly enhancing family engagement through real-time sharing of digital media. Ron has an MBA from Harvard specializing in International Business and Entrepreneurship and a degree in Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Manjit Minhas is one of Canada’s best known entrepreneurs. She is a co-founder and owner of Minhas Brewery in Calgary and one of the dragons on the popular CBC television show Dragons’ Den.

Teresa Spinelli is owner of the Italian Centre grocery and deli store chain with stores in Edmonton and Calgary. The store has been a fixture in the Edmonton market for decades and expanded to Calgary just a few years ago.

Pierre Séguin is a dynamic technology leader, innovator and product manager with almost two decades of experience creating, developing and implementing solutions for customers ranging from the biggest of multinationals to the smallest of children. He currently is working on a number of projects including being Expert in Residence for the Semaphore Research Cluster at University of Toronto. Semaphore is a research cluster at the iSchool, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, dedicated to inclusive design in the area of mobile and pervasive computing. When I first met Pierre, he was /and still is founder of Brili, an application that relieves families of stress by helping kids succeed in their daily routines. With Brilli, parents set up the activities their kids need to do when getting ready for school, after school or bedtime. These then come to life as a game on a mobile device. Parents can monitor in real-time from their own device while kids stay on task and earn rewards. Brili builds on the proven practice of using visual schedules to give kids structure and consistency, while making them more fun and easier to use.

Mallory McKewen founded and currently serves as President & CEO of BridesMade.ca, an e-commerce business focused on improving the bridesmaid dress shopping experience. BridesMade was born as an idea early in 2016 and has now serviced over 1000 bridesmaids Canada-wide, employing a team of 10. Before diving into entrepreneurship, Mallory completed both a BBA and MBA degree at Laurier and had worked in Sales & Corporate Finance.

Michael Kehoe is an Alberta-based retail real estate specialist. He is often quoted in the national media as an expert on retail stories. Michael is broker/owner of Fairfield Commercial Real Estate in Calgary.

Reema Duggal is a strategic IT professional and technology entrepreneur with significant experience in the global IT industry where she helps companies build revenues and profitability via expansion of their digital business channels. Reema is a seasoned tech leader with a strong blend of revenue generation experience - Strategy, Marketing, Portfolio Management, and Delivery Management experience - Practice Leadership as well as Program and Project Management. She is the President of the Sitaran Group, helping manufacturers, distributors, and tech companies build digital online sales channels. She is also a co-founder of Silicon Halton which started up nine years ago -and is where I met Reema. Now with over 1500 members Silicon Halton is a real hub of technology entrepreneurs in Halton – which includes Burlington, Oakville and Milton – a population base of 1 million plus and a real entrepreneurial hub in the GTHA economy.

Andrew Novak is an Entrepreneur from Hamilton. Andrew founded his own digital marketing company after a career in the Financial Services industry. Andrew is a passionate innovator, digital marketer, entrepreneur, and expert in search engine optimization. He is President of Thinkr Digital the new digital division of Hamilton Ontario's largest full-service marketing agency, Thinkr Marketing. Thinkr Digital focuses on high-performing digital marketing campaigns that are fully integrated into the larger marketing plans of medium to large size companies across North America. Prior to this he was Founder of Nova Digital Marketing which specialized in Search Engine Optimization - Search Engine Marketing - Display & Video Marketing - Social Media Marketing - Email Marketing (CASL Compliant) - Mobile App Marketing - Content Creation.

Phil Hemmings is the Sales Manager at Ross Chocolates in Port Coquitlam. His experience stems from starting and running two food related companies as well overseeing sales for other natural food companies. Phil will be in charge of spear heading the product launch in the US and to work closely with his team at Ross Chocolates to ensure all areas of the company are ready for launch in late May. Ross Chocolates have been making Canadians No Sugar Added Chocolates for over 20 years.

Pavel Bains is the CEO of Bluzelle - the decentralized database for the new internet. He is an expert in digital media having worked with Disney, Microsoft, Warners Bros, and DreamWorks. Pavel is also a frequent contributor to Forbes, Huffington Post and Fast Company, writing articles in the areas of finance and digital media. In less than one year he led Bluzelle to doing projects with the world’s biggest banks to being named Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum to becoming one of the most influential blockchain projects in the world.

Zeeshan Hayat is the CEO and Co-founder of Prizm Media Inc., a digital health agency that services some of the fastest growing mail-order pharmacies and durable medical equipment providers in North America. His new start-up, Kudo Technologies, is developing mobile applications that integrate both healthcare product delivery and IT tools for patients to manage and transform their chronic conditions. Amongst all things, Zeeshan is equally passionate about being a family-man and giving back to the community in Vancouver.

Troy Assoignon has been an entrepreneur for 10 years, starting off as an interior contractor in Winnipeg to working in the technology scene in Vancouver. Now he is a full time strategic marketing and business advisor for business owners & corporations alike. Last year him and his girlfriend spent 8 months in Bali, and this year they are living full time in Thailand. Troy's satisfaction comes from seeing a change and a shift inside people, and that's what wakes him up every single day.

Spencer Sheinin, a CPA, CA, has a unique background with over 15 years as an Entrepreneur combined with extensive financial experience as an investment banker. He is the Founder and CEO of Shift Financial Insights, providing ridiculously simple accounting and financial insights for businesses on the rise. Spencer has previously owned businesses in manufacturing, construction, cold storage and Real Estate. He has also been recognized as winner of the Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40 awards and finalist for the Surrey Business Excellence Awards.

Steve Beatty is the founder of cultureONE which in In May 2015 merged with Front Row Insurance Brokers and created Canada’s largest insurance brokerage specializing in entertainment & media, arts & culture having offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Los Angeles, Steve has over 25 years of experience in arts and entertainment and insurance - everything from the performance arts to tv and film. As a theatre manager himself for many years and then an insurance “entrepreneur”, Steve’s heart is in the arts and he is a valued supporter of many cultural initiatives. Steve knows what it takes to bring an artistic vision to completion as well as make sure the risk factors get covered on the way.

Anthony DeCristofaro is currently President and CEO of Qnext Corp. and has over 25 years of computer industry experience. In his entrepreneurial career he has driven three M&A transactions valued at more than $600 Million. Previously he was President and CEO of iseemedia Inc. which merged with Synchronica in 2010. Anthony was also Founder and CEO of MGI Software Corp. He brought Intel in as an investor into this venture which he co-founded in 1996 and was sold to Roxio in 2002. Prior to MGI, Anthony was a founding board member of Delrina, a VP/GM of AST Computer Canada and NEC Canada. I have known Anthony and worked as an advisor to him throughout many of these ventures and I am excited to have this fantastic entrepreneur and leader here today.

Izzie Egan is the founder of BLANKSLATE Partners. In 2015 Izzie started her company to allow SMBs and scaleups access to enterprise-level management HR services - supporting growing companies with a unique blend of HR, training, recruitment, and immigration expertise. She has extensive experience building fast-paced, high-yield management teams, paying particular attention to the strategic needs of the company. She’s committed to bringing purpose-fuelled employees into businesses that are aligned from both a values and a strategic, bottom-line perspective.

Aliya Amershi is the CEO and Founder of AskaTechie.com, a tech talent 2.0 marketplace that intelligently matches companies with a supply of vetted technical contractors specializing in Web 3.0 and advanced technologies, such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and complex App Development. Since they launched in 2017, AskaTechie has bootstrapped their way to six figures in sales, which only the top 10% of female founders have been able to achieve. They were also selected to participate in the Canadian Technology Accelerator in Silicon Valley and was a finalist for NextAI Canada. In addition, Aliya recently served as a Director at the Founder Institute in Vancouver and is currently a contributing member to YEC Next - which is part of the Forbes Business Council. Aliya is also launching soon a couple of new ventures, first is the Techie Concierge, an online tool that helps tech startups easily create better technical job descriptions. The second is Stiletto Startup, which supports female founders by empowering them with the necessary technology business basics via their customized online tech startup workshops. Aliya has over 20 years of technology experience and 10 years of international enterprise experience working on award-winning products at Viacom Networks, Codemasters and Electronic Arts as a Software Engineer, IT Manager and Technical Lead.

At 35, Karen Magill was forced onto disability due to MS. Taking a 30% cut in pay, caused her to file for bankruptcy. Karen is disabled by MS but every day she sees people diabling themselves with debt. Now she tackles that issue with the 90 Day Turnaround, 90 Days To Financial Stability coaching program.

Jesse Barruch is the founder of Avanta Consulting in Vancouver. The company partners with companies to find the right people for high-performance cultures, by focusing on creating access to candidates not looking for work, in a market where job boards fail to deliver top quality candidates. Born and raised in Toronto Jesse moved to Vancouver back in 2006 and can be found hanging with his family (Wife Leanne and 3 kids - Ethan, Logan, and Siena) or hiking the Grouse Grind almost every morning!

Irene Strong was born in Nakusp, BC, a small village in the West Kootenayregion along the Upper Arrow Lakes. She has since worked with NBC Olympics, TED Conferences and Habitat for Humanity Greater Vancouver, among many other organizations. These great organizations have all influenced Irene’s mortgage business model. A model built on a foundation of perseverance, education and belief in the power of homeownership while assisting her clients in realizing their dreams of owning a home.

Alecia Repp is a small town girl from Alberta who moved to the big city of Vancouver at the age of 17 to start a new life for herself. She became a professional makeup artist running her own business. During that time she was also creating side projects like business trainings and online courses. Now she is living full time in Thailand running a full time coaching and consulting business. She also runs a branding agency. Most importantly she started a retreat business called the Self Love Retreat and the first one is coming this August in Greece.

Kris Hartvigsen is the CEO & Co-Founder of Dooly and a leader in the tech industry with over twenty years of experience. Before founding Dooly, he held senior consulting and management positions in sales for companies like Mobify and led Vision Critical as their EVP Sales from its early startup days to revenues in excess of $100 million.

Justin Vaillancourt is a force to be reckoned with—he started teaching himself how to code at the age of 8 and was working as a Software Developer by the age of 14. As the Co-Founder and CTO of Dooly, Justin previously held Lead Engineer positions at several emerging tech startups.

Megan is the award-winning author of Our Interrupted Fairy Tale. She is also the co-author of a children’s book with her award-winning, 10-year-old step-daughter, Madison. After 3 years of helping writers publish their books off the side of her corporate communications career, Megan launched The Self Publishing Agency in 2017. The Agency supports indie authors in writing, publishing and marketing their self published books. Her clients have been featured in The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, CTV, and BC Business.

Merideth is an entrepreneur and mother of three from Vancouver. She is the Founder of PROtect…Smart Personal Safety. The development of PROtect came together organically. She had one too many close encounters in her professional life where she was alone with a stranger and feeling vulnerable. Born out of a need to unite mobile technology with the reassurance of personal safety, the application allows users to connect with their closest contacts and alert them when they find themselves in unfamiliar or emergency scenarios.

Ilya is the CEO and founder of VanHack. After graduating from Cornell University with a Degree in Applied Economics and Management, Ilya spent 4 years working in the Brazilian startup scene where he joined the country’s most successful early stage accelerator. It was there he discovered a large community of talented software engineers who were interested in relocating to Canada, but didn’t always have the soft skills needed to work abroad. Upon moving back to Vancouver, he founded VanHack as a way of empowering people who wanted to have more out of life and live in Canada. VanHack now has over 170,000 members from 73 countries and has helped over 200 companies hire and relocate 446 developers across Canada and Europe. Ilya is fluent in Russian, Portuguese and English.

Paul Romani is the co-founder and director of Pear Tree Elementary, a progressive K-7 elementary school in the Kitsilano neighborhood of Vancouver, and the only school to teach children through theme and project-based learning, rather than through separate school subjects. Originally from the UK, Paul lived in Spain and Germany before moving to Vancouver. Through Pear Tree, Paul is equipping Vancouver children with the practical tools and knowledge they need to be happy and successful and, ultimately, to be their best selves: academically, socio-emotionally and physically. He also hopes to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs.

Jen Ray, Director & Owner of Dancinema. Dancinema is a Canadian and American-based company founded in Vancouver that fuses the arts and industries of Dance & Film through productions, education and events. Next up is the 3rd annual Cascadia Dance & Cinema Festival, happening June 2 and 3 in Vancouver.

Diana is the Founder and CEO of Dragonfly MedTech, an early stage startup company in Vancouver who is building clinic software to enable medical doctors to provide a treatment solution for concussions. She is originally from Seattle where she worked for Microsoft for 13 years. She moved to Vancouver in 2001 to work for the doctor who developed this medical approach.

Fergus leads acquisitions and strategic partnerships at Glance Technologies. He has a background in strategic advising and management consulting for startups in Toronto, Vancouver and Silicon Valley. He holds a Master of Finance from the Rotman School of Management at U of T.

Melanie Ewan is Managing Partner at local startup advisory firm, Volition, where she oversees operations and communications, in addition to working with entrepreneurs on funding research and grant writing projects. As COO and Head of Research at Women in Tech World, a national grassroots organization based out of Vancouver. Melanie took to the road for two months this past fall, to provide a platform for Canadian women in tech, and their allies and advocates, to share their experiences and ideas for creating more inclusive and diverse tech communities nationwide. When Melanie isn’t working with clients, colleagues and community members, she can be found traveling.

Diane is an award-winning communications strategist and a sales & marketing expert. She is a master storyteller who has spoken on stages internationally and worked with hundreds of clients to initiate massive growth in their businesses. She has helped clients secure millions of dollars in funding and sales contracts, and initiate change through creating story-based speeches, webinars and investment pitches. Diane is the founder/CEO of “Be a Better Story” business services.

Bob Wang is the founder and CEO of Legacy Advantage. He holds a CPA, CA and had cut his teeth at one of the Big 4 accounting firms. Bob is passionate about entrepreneurship. Currently, he is on a mission to revolutionize the bookkeeping industry. He is married to Anne, and has a super energetic daughter, Elizabeth, who is 16 months old.