Tag Archives: startup

Episode #66: Salim Naran

Salim Naran and I have been friends for over 3 decades. After years of building technology solutions for companies in various industries, Salim Naran is now the co-founder and CTO of Canadian fintech startup, Borrowell.

Recorded live at Girth Radio.

Music by Afraaz Mulji.

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Welcome! Episode #21: Adam Mintz

The following article was originally posted on Girth Radio. 

Published on: February 11, 2016

Adam Mintz is the founder, President and CEO of Toronto-based apparel company, Athletes Collective.

In this episode we chat about Adam’s foray into entrepreneurship, his background in fashion, why he has always wanted to own his own business, how Athletes Collective began, his failed Kickstarter campaign and how he rose from the ashes to build an advisory board and obtain some seed money.

Enjoy!

Listen below:

Girth Radio
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iTunes
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TuneIn
You can also subscribe to the podcast via RSS Feed if you’re so inclined.

#TBT with Ryan Holmes of HootSuite

The following post was originally published on Girth Radio on December 31 2015.

This podcast was originally recorded in May 2011 as part of the XConnect series.

Ryan Holmes is the CEO and founder of Vancouver-based HootSuite. What started as a simple social media dashboard has now grown into a billion dollar company. Take a listen to one of the early interviews with this Canadian startup success story.

My latest on itbusiness

I continue to contribute to one of Canada’s top online destinations for business professionals: itbusiness.ca. My latest piece discusses the different types of businesses that I have had the pleasure of studying over the past few years in the digital space.

startup
startup

Please take a little trip on the interweb and read “Why Does Your Start-Up Exist?” I would love it if you could leave your thoughts, comments and share. Thanks!

INFOGRAPHIC: Toronto, a neighbourhood of startups

Earlier today, MaRS Advisory Services and StartupNorth released an infographic mapping out where in Toronto startups are concentrating in.  There are a few usual suspects as well as some interesting neighbourhoods on this list.

For the full release, check out: http://www.marsdd.com/2012/02/22/startup-city

What do you think of this initial study? Is your neighbourhood fairly represented?

5 Questions with Sonia Ryan

In honour of Canada’s Vancouver Canucks making it into the Stanley Cup Finals, I thought we’d take the opportunity to highlight one of Vancouver’s stars: Sonia Ryan. Sonia Ryan is the Troublemaker at A Thinking Ape. Her vision for ATA is to be THE company recognized by developers as the place to work.  Often described as the “Social Glue” she is dedicated to creating an inspiring experience through creative and experimental initiatives. Prior to ATA, Sonia worked at Bootup and was responsible for organizing monthly mentor visits and workshop, Demo Days, Democamps and Launch Party for the Vancouver startup scene. Sonia can always be found with her iPhone and a smile that doesn’t quit.

What motivates you to do what you do on a daily basis?

My team. I am working at A Thinking Ape and my teams dedication and drive to complete tasks is impeccable. We are all working together to create a solid technology company here in Vancouver and it’s really exciting.

If you had 30 seconds to impart your wisdom on a classroom of soon-to-be graduates, what would you say?

Work at a startup. If you are intrinsically motivated this experience is invaluable because you have an opportunity to understand all aspects of the business.

In your opinion, what has been one of the most important technological developments over the past 12 months?

The tablet was one of the most anticipated gadgets of the year, whether it be the android tablet or highly covetable iPad. We saw these tablets turn into e-readers for our digital books, newspapers, and magazines, and Web TV. Geolocation was also huge and I’m talking beyond Foursquare and Gowalla. The creation of Geo APIs from companies such as Facebook and Simple Geo changed the game by adding rich layers of geo-related data to all sorts of apps.

If you had a crystal ball, what would you say will be the most important technological development over the next 12 months?

Mobile Social Photo apps continue to increase in popularity and I don’t see this slowing down. We have Path, Instagram, Color, Twitpic and I’m excited to see what other innovations occur in this space over the next year. Also, with Amazon and Google’s recent foray into streaming music it should be interesting to see how Apple and the major record labels will respond.

Who is one of Canada’s tech stars and why?

It’s hard for me to pinpoint one person in particular. Being in Vancouver, I will name a few key people I admire: Maura Rodgers, Danny Robinson, my Founders at A Thinking Ape – Kenshi Arasaki, Wilkins Chung, Eric Diep, Ryan Holmes and Boris Mann. I named these individuals because they have been an integral part of my life after joining a startup. I look to them for mentorship, feedback and know that they will always be there for me.