Donna Litt is the COO at Uvaro.
After months of development, we are beyond thrilled to bring you this tech series on Top Women Founders 2022 edition. In our last series, we covered 100 Tech Companies and today the spotlight is on these incredible women founders. They are the visionaries and leaders behind some of the fastest growing tech companies in the area of e-commerce, real-estate, healthtech, edtech, and more.
Erin Chan, Cofounder & CPO at Rhenti
Emma Kirwin, Cofounder at DirtMarket
Yuliia Tkachova Cofounder & CEO at Masthead Data
Nadia Ladak, Founder at Marlow
Amy Ding, Founder & CEO at Requity Homes
Maryam Farooq, Cofounder & COO aggregate intellect
Jennifer Huynh, Cofounder & CEO at Adaptive Pulse
Pj Lowe, Founder & President at Chocolate Soup
Megan Hall, VP Operations at Chocolate Soup
Rui Su, Cofounder MedMe Health
Pavla Bobosikova, Cofounder & CEO at WFHomie
Linsay Moran, Cofounder at Unwrapit
Kristine Beese, Founder & CEO at Untangle Money
Mylene Tu, Cofounder at Lumaki Labs
Jessica Luczycki, Cofounder Part3
Paola Ruiz, Founder & CEO SASI
Sarah Haefling, Founder at Elevate Podcast Co
Meryl Kaye De Leon, Founder & Managing Partner at PERA Growth Hub
Megan Woerlein, Cofounder at Frugl
Amanda Davis, CEO at Hudson Davis Communications
Emily Mercy, Founder and Managing Director at GoParity Canada
Ren Kainth, CEO & Cofounder at Trancy
Anna Sinclair, CEO at TotalMom Inc.
Remy Warren, Founder at MoxyPatch
Vicki Knott, Cofounder & CEO at CRUX OCM
Brianna Blaney, Cofounder & CEO at Pocketed Grant Platform
Aria Hahn, CTO at Pocketed Grant Platform
Kaylee Astle, Founder at Stealth
Sarah Brown, Founder at Blsh Delivery
Noora Sharrab, Cofounder & CEO at Sitti
Daphne de Groot, Cofounder & CEO at Justo
Sarah Brekelmans, Founder at Brightly
Dina Ghobrial, Founder & CEO at Halo Ai
Alexandra Kapelos-Peters, Founder at cansulta
Janessa White, CEO at Simply Eloped
Rand Abou Ras, Founder at Ucast
Allison Braund-Harris CEO at Hardly
Sokmean Nou, Founder at Calixa
Alize Bhatia, Founder at Super PawBox
Amanda Zhu, Cofounder at Recall.ai
Nancy Soni, CEO & Co-Founder of PathMatch
Erin Chan
Company website: https://rhenti.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I’m one of the founders at Rhenti. We build software tools for the rental real estate industry, enabling property owners to connect with more renters and find the right renter-fit for their property. As the CPO, I have the privilege of working with and leading our talented product and marketing folk.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Tomas (CEO) and I have been renting for most of our lives. We knew that we could build a better system to make the experience of renting better for both property owners and renters. That idea stuck around long enough for us to begin really exploring it. That exploration led to some funding, and that funding led to traction, and then eventually PMF, and so on.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
My biggest personal challenge was a mental one. Tomas and I were a few years out of graduate school and had a mountain of school debt along with a few other important obligations. The idea of walking away from our stable tech job salaries for a life of complete instability made me very nervous – we didn’t have much to fall back on. But I realized that it was a matter of whether I believed if we were capable of building our vision for Rhenti… or not! When I re-framed my challenge in that way, my mental barrier shrunk because I knew that we had the experience, a perfectly complimentary skillset, and the necessary grit to give us a good chance of pulling it off.
What advice do you have to those starting a start-up?
Don’t feel lesser-than for not going full-time before you have product market fit. Testing a solution to a problem area and doing that on the side of your job is a really good way to approach the earliest stage of building product. Also, research and decide if you want to be a funded company or a bootstrapped company. These are two very different paths that have very different implications – know the difference. And lastly, when the time comes, work with a lawyer that has a lot of experience with start-ups.
Ask from the community:
I’m always looking to meet and gain inspiration from more women founders. Connect with me on Linkedin!
Emma Kirwin
Company Website: https://dirtmarket.ca
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
DirtMarket connects soil generators and soil receivers with one another. Think of DirtMarket like Airbnb but instead of connecting renters to homes we connect construction teams who have soil with construction teams who need soil. I am in charge of revenue generation, investor relations, and marketing at DirtMarket.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
DirtMarket was founded out of necessity. Simply put, we knew there had to be a better way to move excess soil in Canada, so we built it. Since we launched, we’ve seen awesome traction and fallen in love with helping construction teams across Ontario.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Being a young founder certainly has its challenges. As a founder straight out of university, funding DirtMarket in its early days required a lot of part-time work and hustle. It all pays off in the end but overcoming the financial needs of starting a startup was certainly a challenge.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Be prepared for it to be hard and be prepared to be resilient. Having a startup is far from what you see on ‘inspirational’ Instagram pages or the entrepreneurial movies we’ve all watched. It will have extremely high-highs, and low-lows. You have to be able to bounce back from those low-lows, which we don’t see on those same Instagram pages, LinkedIn posts, or movies about the entrepreneurial experience that celebrate all of the good times.
Yuliia Tkachova
Company website: https://www.mastheadata.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Masthead Data saves up to 50% of work time for data teams. It catches data anomalies in data teams’ warehouses in real time.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Data became the oil of the 21st century. Companies invest fortunes in becoming data-driven, and one of the reasons they fail — inaccurate data. Companies that use data properly outperform on the market, ex Netflix, Amazon, Airbnb, and the list goes on. Do you know what they have in common? — they highly leverage the data to operate the business. To do so, they have in-house systems to guarantee data quality at scale. Since data technologies have become more accessible to a wide range of companies, the market demands tools like Masthead that guarantee data quality at scale. Understanding the urge on the market and my background makes me just follow the idea and make it happen.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Well, the startup itself is a challenge. In my case, I was scared to embark on a startup road, but I am way past it.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Do not hesitate to ask for help from people in your network.
Ask from the community
Raising funds & looking for companies that can leverage Masthead technology.
Nadia Ladak
Nadia Ladak is the founder of Marlow.
Company Website: https://wearemarlow.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Marlow is a female founded brand that has created the first lubricant & tampon designed to be used together for smoother insertion. Beyond our product, we are empowering a generation of menstruators to prioritize their menstrual & sexual well-being by sparking conversations around these awkward (but shouldn’t be) topics.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
We started Marlow after a conversation among a group of friends. One of our co-founders shared that she had pain when inserting tampons. She was an active individual, and pads, her only alternative, were bulky and uncomfortable. In addition, it prevented her from participating in certain activities such as swimming. After hearing her story, we interviewed over 150 menstruators and learned that 86% of them also experienced discomfort when inserting a tampon especially for those who are new to using tampons, who have pelvic floor conditions like vaginismus, who experience vaginal dryness, or for those who have a lighter flow, especially towards the beginning and end of their cycle. Our co-founder went to the gynaecologist to try to find a solution and the gynaecologist told her to “spit” on her tampon. That shock factor blew away our team, and we knew there must be a better way. That’s when we decided to create the first-ever lubricant and tampon designed to be used together for smoother and more comfortable insertion. After doing a deep dive into this space, I was shocked to learn that the modern tampon hasn’t really changed in the last 89 years. In a world of constant innovation, I thought, why should menstrual products be any different? It seemed that as consumers, we were on auto-pilot, never questioning what we were putting into our bodies. Every day, I wake up energized and excited to bring innovation to a space that impacts over 50% of the population at some point in time. I am passionate not only about the impact we can make with our brand new product but about the education we are providing to our community so that they can learn more about their bodies and health.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
One of the biggest challenges we had to overcome was receiving our Health Canada approval. As business graduates, we had limited knowledge of the regulatory space. We spent a lot of time reading through jargon and policies to try to understand what we needed to do to receive approval on our new product. Eventually, we decided to partner with a regulatory consultant & research lab which helped accelerate our product development & testing process. After eight months of submitting details on our product composition and ingredients, setting up quality management systems, and standards of procedure and amidst a pandemic and backlogged Health Canada system, we were thrilled to receive our Health Canada approval.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
My first tip would be to start with the problem, not the solution. It’s important to find a problem that you’re passionate about solving, and then the answer can come after. Spend a week going through your daily life and identifying issues that need to be solved. Think about inconveniences you face or how you can make a certain product even better. The ideas will come after that. Find a low-cost way to test your idea. You don’t have to jump into a picture right away. Start by asking your friends and family about the idea. Then, you can do a customer survey. Next, you can start to build some prototypes and minimum viable products. You will constantly be iterating your product, so it’s important to gather as much feedback as possible.
Build your network. I have been blown away by the generosity of the entrepreneurship community. People are always willing to help out and share their lessons learned. Reach out to other founders, mentors, investors, and marketers. Everyone started somewhere, and they are happy to share lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Ask from the community:
Join our community on Instagram @marlow and on TikTok @wearemarlow to learn about all things menstrual & sexual wellness with us. We post blogs, interactive polls, and mythbusters on everything ranging from does cranberry juice help with UTIs to should you have a post-sex hygiene routine? Also, check out our website to shop & learn more about our products at https://wearemarlow.com/ and feel free to reach out with any product feedback you have. We’re always looking for ways to improve, so we’re all ears!
Amy Ding
Company website: https://www.requityhomes.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Requity Homes is creating a new path to homeownership through a modernized rent-to-own program.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Homeownership is something that’s close to my heart. I still remember having to move 7 times during my first two years in Canada. That experience just reinforced how important homeownership really is. Owning a home is so much more than just having a roof over your head. It’s a place to call your own, to raise a family, and to build wealth. Yet, too many families find themselves on the outside looking in, feeling stuck renting. Rising home prices, stagnating wages, and tightening mortgage requirements have left many unable to achieve their homeownership dreams. About two years ago I saw the opportunity in Canada to help families who could afford the cost of a mortgage, but for whatever reason found themselves unable to get one. That’s when I decided to quit my corporate job and started Requity Homes.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
While entrepreneurship has a lot of glitz and glam, one of the underappreciated challenges of it has been the occasional sense of isolation. At the end of the day, you’re really pushing to bring an idea to life. I knew it’s gonna be hard but I didn’t think it would be this hard – For instance when it comes to fundraising, obviously you will get lots of Nos. The consistency of Nos and certain remarks really grind you down.The whole process really tested my resolve. There are times I question whether I’m solving a real problem and whether we’re building something that people need. It really helps to have some mentors and advisors who previously went through the process and can help me navigate it. At the end of the day, as a founder, we need to take care of ourselves both physically and mentally.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Just do it. I think the pandemic has helped a lot of people focus on what’s really important to them. There’s no better time than the present to get started, and while I don’t think you necessarily need to jump in right away and quit your job and go at it full time, you can always start setting yourself up for that goal. If you don’t have enough saved up to take that leap yet, figure out how much you need and plan backwards towards an end date. Figure out what steps you can take now that’ll help out later.
Ask from the community
We’re hiring for multiple roles. Feel free to reach out to us via email careers@requityhomes.com.
Maryam Farooq
Company website: https://ai.science/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I organize, mobilize & support our team so they can more efficiently execute on building a community-owned, AI-enhanced, shared technical memory.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Generally, I’ve always been attracted to startups because I thrive in dynamic, fast-paced environments. I’ve also been fascinated with productivity hacks and note taking frameworks for the majority of my life.
More specifically, both my co-founder (Amir) & I had built separate AI communities (15K+ members now!) in different cities (Toronto & NYC). We both essentially had the same goal – to curate knowledge from experts.
Amir, a quantum physicist-turned-data-scientist, wanted to stay on top of ML research papers – the amount of which is growing exponentially. I wanted to figure out the best way to learn more about the space in general (from a product & business POV) – but there was a swamp of information out there, muddled by hype & conjecture. We eventually merged forces and are now creating a unified technical search & knowledge-management experience that is AI-guided, graphical, integrative, and connected to our ML community.
To read more about how Amir & I joined forces, check out my blog about it here.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
I was planning to join the Peace Corps right after undergrad and made it through the 9-month application process. In the end, you have to submit a full medical examination, and in that exam, they found an issue that automatically withdrew my application, and required me to have immediate surgery – during my senior year midterm exams. I was crushed that my plans had been derailed after years of dreaming, planning, and executing. I was scared to have to undergo surgery on my own – 500+ miles away from any family. I was stressed out having to study & take all my exams early on a dime’s notice, so I could have the surgery when my doctor wanted me to.
I was very lucky. The surgery went well, and recovery was quick because I was young and healthy. I even did pretty well on my exams (all things considered haha). It took more time for me to overcome the major life pivot, but I’ve found joy and fulfillment in the journey so far. And who knows, maybe one day we’ll work with the Peace Corps We can already envision how our product would be helpful for nonprofits and NGOs down the line.
How did I overcome this major life pivot? I’d speak and meet with anyone who could teach me anything – even if it was something I didn’t think I was interested in (over the years, you can become a little more selective with this, but try to keep in mind: you don’t know what you don’t know). I sought out communities around my interests, and opportunities began to flourish – mostly because I got better at creating them. I’d ask to hop on quick 20 min intro calls, and I’d spend the first half asking them questions about the things I was interested in learning from them. I’d spend the other half asking about what projects they were working on & figuring out ways I could help (or connect them with people that could help).
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Don’t ever build in silo. Know your target audience & do rigiours user testing at each stage of the build to continuously validate your assumptions. Really understand the user flow through your product or service (it’s also helpful to create user journey maps). This will help you better understand all the interaction points & events, which will be very helpful in properly setting up your product analytics.
There are so many resources out there to learn about building a startup, but you’ll be able to learn the most & the quickest by talking to people who have successfully built startups themselves. The power of community is massive, and people are generally more generous with their time than you’d think.
In fact, both Amir & I do 20-min AMAs for anyone to book time with us to talk about anything – other than selling us stuff
Ask from the community
We’ll be raising our seed round soon and are looking to connect with other founders and Angels for early pitch feedback! We’d specifically be interested in connecting with those who run / invest in AI/ML companies, or have experience in building content collaboration or SaaS productivity tools. Email me at maryam@ai.science, ping me on slack, or say hi on Linkedin.
Lindy Ledohowski
Company Website: https://www.wizeprep.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I take visionary ideas and make them operational success stories in EdTech – specifically at Wize.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I was an English professor and again and again students – who I knew were smart and thoughtful! – didn’t perform well on academic writing tasks. I knew it was systemic. I knew I could try to solve it with technology. I developed the patented EssayJack academic writing software that is like smart templating on steroids to walk students through academic writing tasks to get them better grades and reduce writing anxiety. Almost 6 years from our launch date, EssayJack was acquired by EdTech startup Wize, based in Vancouver, and as part of the acquisition, I joined Wize’s leadership team, both expanding Wize’s online educational offerings in the writing space, but also bringing my founder and leadership skills to the Wize team. I’m now officially Wizer!
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Fundraising as a woman is hard. I’m not going to lie. If you’re busy trying to grow your startup, stuck in the weeds of operations and growth, it’s really hard to look externally and chase funding. It’s even extra hard if that external-facing fundraise experience is demoralizing because there’s still a bit of a “boy’s club” out there. So in the end, when we chose to go the strategic acquisition route and join forces, I was able to overcome that particular pain point, and now as we fundraise, I’m part of a team, not going it alone!
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Right now I have to say kindness and empathy are really important leadership traits that I admire. Startups are stressful places; things move fast; pivots happen; but for the day-to-day staff that can feel very unsettled and destabilizing. I think that as founders and leaders, it falls to us to be the calm and steady hand for our teams even though we might be screaming or stressed on the inside! So my advice would be that when you start your startup, you obviously have to think about the product, the market, and the fundraising, but you also have to think about your teams and how you want to show up and be there for them.
Ask from the community
We’ve now launched Wize on Twitter, and while we have nearly 50k followers on Instagram and 150k followers on Tik Tok where our user base is to be found, we want to make sure that our investment and business networks know all about us too. So our ask is easy: Please give us a follow on Twitter (https://twitter.com/wizeprep); Find us and follow us on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/wizeprep); and if you have a blog and are looking to do some mutual backlinking, get in touch with me directly. I’m on Twitter as @DoctorLindy. Website Links: EssayJack, https://www.essayjack.com/ & Wizeprep, https://www.wizeprep.com/
Jennifer Huynh
Company website: https://adaptivepulse.com
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Adaptive Pulse is an AI-powered solution that helps B2B SaaS companies predict, identify and act on customers who are at risk of churning or ready to expand for businesses to increase retention rates and increase lifetime value with automated scores, workflows, and recommendations.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Being an entrepreneur previously, making a positive change and impact in the world has always been a key motivating factor. Specifically with Adaptive Pulse, I felt the problem first hand at the B2B SaaS company I was working at which is what sprouted this startup.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Forming a clear and concise vision and strategy that will rally talent, investors, and customers to evangelize and support your startup.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Be ready for sleepless nights. If you’re working on something truly disruptive, you won’t be the only one in the space. To win, you have to continuously strategize on how to be the only option in the space, and always incorporating scalability and defensibility, and more.
Ask from the community
Though we won’t be raising for another couple quarters, networking with people whether that be talent, investors, or passionate customer-centric professionals is what we will always be seeking to collaborate in the community.
Mila Banerjee
Company website: https://www.pronti.app/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
We are revolutionizing the way we dress and shop by deeply understanding your closet and your style & mood.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I love building companies – especially the people side. Its amazing what more than one mind can accomplish together! I also have this swiss army knife skill set that really lends itself to early stage.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
I started coding decades ago, then took a career path outside of computing (thank you Pharma for all the sales, leadership, and product training) and when I returned to the tech space I had imposter syndrome. Was I really still good enough to call myself technical? All I can say is that it worked for me to dive in and just start doing. My github commits look pretty good for a CEO
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Never stop talking to your customers and asking them questions and iterating. It is important to look at the data, but equally you get context and weight from conversations. Every user that emails us with suggestions we try and strike up a conversation.
Ask from the community
I am raising – we are two viral events strong and have had over 100K downloads. We need to scale our team and push to the next milestones. I’m happy to discuss more with founders that might have an intro or investors.
Pj Lowe
Company website: https://www.chocolatesoup.ca/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Chocolate Soup helps businesses celebrate and appreciate their employees as people inside and outside of work.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
At each startup we’ve worked on, I’ve alway recognized our employees professional AND personal milestones through thoughtful gift-giving. I saw first hand the amazingly positive impact it had on our employees and their families. Increased productivity, engagement and retention are just a few of the benefits. I realized this is something that we can do—help other companies experience the same benefits we experienced by helping them recognize their employees.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Our biggest challenge so far has been keeping our foot slightly on the brake when it comes to growth. We took a year and paused onboarding new customers because we wanted to refine our product with existing customers before scaling in the wrong direction. That decision has paid off with 5x YoY growth in 2021!
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
The idea has to be something that not just customers care about—but that you care about too. We’ve had great exits and tough exits in the past, but each startup was solving a problem we cared about solving.
Ask from the community
We’re working on a raise now and always interested in sharing our growth plans.
Megan Hall
Company website: https://www.chocolatesoup.ca/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Chocolate Soup helps businesses celebrate and appreciate their employees as people inside and outside of work.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I’m a later founder. I was a client of Chocolate Soup and knew Dan and Pj from our local tech community here in Waterloo. Their passion for helping businesses show real, tangible recognition is infectious. When they asked me if I wanted to be a part of this, I couldn’t say no.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Leading operations means different things at different startups. At Chocolate Soup, my biggest challenge is working to scale how we source products for our boxes, working with shipping and logistics providers—it’s extremely fluid and you have to be ready for anything to happen.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Love the people you work with. Startups are not easy—I’ve worked at enough to know that when you take care of the people you work with, they’ll take care of you.
Ask from the community
We’re in the same boat as almost every startup! We’re looking to hire—developers to packers to marketers and everything in between!
Linsay Moran
Company website: https://www.unwrapit.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Like most start-up founders I do many (seemingly random!) things each day. Overall, I’m focused primarily on BD and have a hand in creating unwrapping experiences for our customers too.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I didn’t set out to start my own start-up, I think a career full of varied experiences, always rooted in social impact (and then entrepreneurship) that brought me to this place. I connected with Peter (Deitz, my co-founder) and the timing and opportunity was right!
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
We’re still overcoming it, how to do all the things at once and not lose sight of the big picture!
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Be patient, the highs are high, the lows are low. Stick with it and be prepared to defend that decision not only to others, but to yourself as well!
Ask from the community
As Unwrapit continues to grow we will only be as strong as a diverse, smart and social impact focused team. We’re always open to speaking with individuals, even if there isn’t a role imminently in mind for them.
Rui Su
Company Website: https://www.medmehealth.com
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I co-founded MedMe Health, where we’re building the operating system to transform pharmacies from dispensaries to community health hubs.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Despite being a highly qualified healthcare professional with a $200K Doctor of Pharmacy degree, I struggled to find time as a pharmacist to focus on truly caring for my patients. This was largely due to systematic challenges like outdated workflows, clunky tools, and lack of reimbursement structures for clinical services. Ultimately, I felt like the only way to change the paradigm was to create an operating system that was designed for the future of pharmacy from the ground-up – by pharmacists, for pharmacists.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
The transition from “Clinician” to “Founder” was one of the most difficult challenges in this journey – both from an experiential/skills-based perspective as well as from a mindset/beliefs perspective. I had to learn everything from scratch in the beginning – technical terminology, product management, and enterprise sales, just to name a few! But the biggest challenge I had to overcome was breaking the mental belief that I held of myself, that I didn’t “look” like or have the skills or experience of a traditional engineering/ex-FANG founder. There were so few pharmacists in health-tech, let alone pharmacist-turned-founders, and I really had to adjust my mindset to believe that I had the capacity to grow continuously within my role to become a strong and capable leader.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Every single person you bring into the company in the early days will have an irrevocable and lasting effect on your company culture. Choose your tribe carefully and intentionally, because it’s truly the people that make or break this journey.
Ask from the community
MedMe is growing fast and if you or anybody you know is looking to transform healthcare for communities across the country (and beyond) reach out for roles in engineering, product, and more: https://jobs.lever.co/bloom?team=MedMe
Pavla Bobosikova
Company website: https://www.wfhomie.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
WFHomie is the employee engagement analytics and culture-building platform for remote-first teams. We help companies retain top talent.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I’ve always been entrepreneurial, fascinated by the impact a small team of determined people on a mission can make. When the pandemic hit in 2020, it was a great opportunity to reset, and finally take the leap of faith – the “if not now, when” moment. As the world went into lockdown and the adoption of remote work accelerated, I felt that the way we live and work will change forever and surely it did. Remote work, employee engagement and people analytics, are still in their nascency in the new remote-first world and I’m really excited about companies like WFHomie created a category and shaping the future of work – and life.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Perfectionism. In startups, you have to move fast and you just have to accept the fact that done is better than perfect. You have to get comfortable with shipping products before they’re ready, and talking to prospects before you’re ready. There are no breaks, the world want pause and wait for you to make everything perfect, you’re building the plane while you fly it.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Trust yourself, learn to ask for help and give back. It takes a village to build and scale something meaningful and you will need help along the way. Lean into your network, join relevant communities and understand who can help with what while remembering to support others the same way.
Ask from the community:
Looking to hire senior backend and full-stack developers! Fully remote, working on EST.
Kristine Beese
Company website: https://www.untangle.money/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Untangle Money helps women better understand their Now Money and their Future Money in a welcoming, personalised and fast way.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Women’s financial equity is my passion and drive. As the founder and CEO of Untangle Money, my vision is to help close the wealth gap one woman at a time. I will never stop finding affordable and meaningful ways to improve women’s financial lives in a way that works best for us.
Personally, I loved learning about money and finance; I pursued an MBA and sought out work in finance, but I never found a space where I felt entirely comfortable within the industry when it came to managing my own money.
I wasn’t alone. Hundreds of women shared with me that they felt the same way. Traditional, male-centered financial conversations – that labelled my spending as frivolous, that made assumptions about my career progression and salary based on a man’s typical path – did not work for me or resonate with me.
The financial lives of women and men are fundamentally different. The Wealth Gap exists where, for every dollar a man has in net wealth, a woman only has 32 cents. This offended me to my core. I felt like I needed to amplify it to the world and to help work to close this gap. I built Untangle Money to give women the tools they would need to help them make decisions about their money.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Building trust. There is so much stigma and misinformation about personal finances. There are so many scams out there that we needed to build trust with our users. For example, we found that if we priced our product too cheaply, people visiting the website thought it was too good to be true.
We still face that to some extent, but our reputation is growing, so there is more trust that we are offering incredible value at a low price because we want to change the world for the better. In order to change the world, we need to be accessible to more people at a more affordable price.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Start now and start small. If I could do it over again, I would have started Untangle Money years ago. No job ever fulfilled me the way that growing Untangle Money has.
There is always a clever way to test your ideas quickly and cheaply. Find a small part of your problem and see if it resonates with an audience. We were working with companies to pilot a program with, so we put a call out on LinkedIn. With just that one post, we’ve connected with several blue-chip companies who want to reduce the financial anxiety of their female employees.
Go to a hackathon and see if other people like your idea. Use your networks. Meet and talk to as many people as you can. Start small and don’t give up.
Ask from the community
We need 3 things:
1. Amplification – women need to know their financial lives are different, and what it means for their finances. Spread the word about us and check out our website.
2. Passionate people – we love finding ways to leverage your skills, or the skills you want to develop, to help push us forward. If gender equity drives you – reach out!
3. Money – of course the fuel for every startup’s growth is money. We are funded by an incredibly passionate group of angel investors who want to change the world for women.
Great things happen when women have more money.
Mylene Tu
Company Website: https://lumakilabs.ca/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I’m a future engineer by degree & a social entrepreneur by choice. I am the CEO & co-founder of Lumaki Labs & former founder of FEM in STEM.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I made the decision to dive into entrepreneurship during my first year of university. I had no clue what creating a startup entailed at the time but it was during that period of time that I realized that the only thing holding me back from making an impact and solving big problems was myself. Both of my ventures to date have been motivated by the desire to help young individuals grow in their career. The motivation for FEM in STEM came from my own failures and learnings as a woman in STEM and the desire to help push other young women up. The motivation for Lumaki Labs came from the need to make the adjustment to remote work easier for companies bringing on interns/co-ops.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
As simple as it sounds, my advice is to not close doors before they even have the chance to open. In other words, don’t talk yourself out of acting on an idea or starting something before you’ve allowed yourself to dig a little deeper first. Another piece of advice is to leverage the resources within your own city (regional innovation centres, small business support groups, etc.) and connect with other founders to build your support network.
Ask from the community:
As a student entrepreneur, I am still navigating my own unique career path. My only ask right now is to connect with fellow entrepreneurs and product people! I’m always open to chatting to share some of my learnings as well as learn more about yours! You can find me at https://mylenetu.com/ or https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylenetu/
Jessica Luczycki
Company Website: https://www.part3.io/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
My role as co-founder is focused on Customer Experience. With my background in the construction and architectural industry, I focus on what project teams need from our platform to make their lives better.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
After 6 years of experience working for a General Contractor, I made the switch to working at an Architectural firm. The lack of technology focussed on the consultant team and the dispersed way in which project teams were working was very frustrating. Consultants have so much paperwork to do, there had to be something to streamline our work, help us collaborate, and ultimately spend less time on repetitive tasks. This is how Part3 came to be!
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Find something you’re passionate about. If you know there is a problem to be solved and you truly believe in it, then you will find a way to see it come to fruition. Additionally, having a great team with the same mindset and dedication is extremely important. In the startup world, there is always something that needs to be done, so having a team where people are comfortable stepping outside of their comfort zones is key.
Ask from the community:
We’re looking to meet great people! Send investors our way, and if you know anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit who would be interested in joining as very early employees in Sales or Software Development, get in touch!
Paola Ruiz
Company website: https://www.thestrategysolution.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I am building a technology platform aiming at modernizing the consulting experience. Passionate about helping owner-managed businesses execute strategies in a sustainable and purposeful way.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I started my startup because the entire consulting process for small businesses or owner-managed businesses is often approached in silos, whether because of time, budget, or resources constraints. In my 16 years as a management consultant, I saw the problems caused by planning never being realized in successful execution. The gap kept growing for my clients and the processes of traditional enterprise consulting companies are not tailored for small businesses. Therefore, businesses often run out of budget too early into the process. I just needed a product that was effective and most importantly simple to use for my clients and consultants like myself.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Cultivate a mindset and a network that is positive and supportive. You will have good and bad days and that is why you need to have a mindset that allows you to pause but never quit; seek advise, ask for help and be very specific with what you want to achieve so that you are open to infinite possibilities.
Ask from the community:
I’m looking for a technical co-founder or a dev house for my venture. I’m looking for someone with the technical skills and experience of developing and launching customer management system. My preference would be another woman co-founder based in Canada. If you’re interested on know someone who might be, please send me an email paola@thestrategysolution.com so we can arrange how to connect.
Sarah Haefling
Company website: https://www.elevatepodcastco.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Founder of Elevate Podcast Co. a podcast management agency & host of Made it Happen, a top-charting podcast highlighting female founders.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
After starting my own podcast, I saw the true impact podcasting can have on businesses, and found that there were many people looking to launch their own, but not sure where to start. The podcast industry has been growing rapidly over the past few years and many people want to join in, but I also know there are many barriers keeping them from taking the leap. That’s where Elevate came in, to help others launch their own successful podcast and offer full podcast management to share what I learned through my own experience, making the process as easy as possible for them. This allows them to focus on their own business while having an impactful podcast of their own to raise brand awareness, connect with new audiences, and establish themselves as experts in their fields.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
The biggest challenge I’ve had to overcome was learning the backend of running a business such as how should I price my services, what should I include in my contracts, and what do I need to know when it comes to tax season? As a new business owner, there was a lot I had to learn along the way, but there were also many mentors and programs that helped answer all these questions. I found that many in the entrepreneurial space were always willing to help and provide guidance, which definitely helped set my business up for success in the first year of operations.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
My advice for those starting a startup would be to just take the first step. Not everything will be perfect before the launch and there’s so much you will learn along the way from experience, but you won’t know until you actually start. Then, always be listening to your audience and willing to accept feedback as your business will evolve and pivot along the way, which is key in truly creating a successful business.
Ask from the community:
I am always looking to connect with other founders, hear their stories, and build my network.
Meryl Kaye De Leon
Company website: https://www.peragrowthhub.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
PERA Growth Hub is breaking down the gap of opportunity and connecting business owners, entrepreneurs, and late-stage founders to equity and debt solutions.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I was driven to start PERA Growth Hub because I saw failure to access capital as one of the biggest barriers facing entrepreneurs and business owners today. A lot of entrepreneurs and business owners are excellent in their own unique domain, and that may not necessarily translate to knowing all of the options available to them. PERA bridges this gap to help both entrepreneurs and business owners, match with the right source of financing. And at the same time, provide investors/lenders with what they are actually seeking. PERA undergoes our own unique due diligence which includes looking at all of the financial instruments to make the necessary connection with the appropriate investor/lender. What this means for us is a lot of time spent on each client, by doing that we truly understand each business we are working with from their high-level strategic concepts, to the numbers that make the wheel turn. I’m also extremely passionate about supporting businesses and entrepreneurs, and believe that business is one of the biggest sources of economic growth and overall well-being. Supporting businesses means more jobs and opportunities for all. With PERA, we are contributing to the success of the entrepreneurs and our investors.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
In the research phase of starting my business, I was told by multiple business leaders that my business focus was too narrow, and also too broad by others. The biggest challenge was to determine which feedback to apply to the problem I was trying to solve. With the feedback I incorporated, I basically went down to basics, which meant further revisions of my business plan and really understanding product-market fit.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Build Your Community In Your Industry
My advice would be to build and grow a strong community. I don’t think anyone is as excited about your startup as much as you are, and it helps to have early supporters to keep you going and want to see you succeed. From the beginning, I’ve had the fortune of industry leaders who believed in my vision and purpose, but most importantly, in myself.
I don’t think I would have started PERA without the early and ongoing encouragement from Amit Vadan of Elevate Capital, to Kwang Lim and Lisa Kakoske of Bennett Jones, and Rod Burylo of Axcess Capital Advisors. These people provided key guidance and mentorship on navigating the landscape, and the full legal and regulatory compliance of establishing a company in the financial services industry.
Family & Friend Support
Starting a startup is a Herculean task, and the success you build is based on your execution but also your mental capacity and strength. Gaining support from the industry is key, but also having the support personally is pivotal. Support from my friends, family, and my significant other has allowed me to remain grounded, and to ensure I’m walking in lockstep with my purpose and goals.
Be Patient
Be patient with yourself. Overnight successes are not real. A true success takes time and hard work, but it’s worth it in the end.
Ask from the community
I want to gain a better understanding of start-ups in their pre-seed or angel stage of fundraising. There are so many vehicles for startups – which avenues are beneficial? Which avenues did you find yourself getting lost in?
Megan Woerlein
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I’m the co-founder of Frugl, a financial wellness platform for workplaces. We empower employers to take an active role in their employees finances by contributing to their savings goals.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Mike, my co-founder’s vision for a financially healthier world really inspired me. Too often in my role as an HR leader I’ve watched employees struggle with finances and have seen the downstream effects that has on their work and general happiness. With work and home being so synonymous these days, employers need to be more involved in ensuring employees are balanced. Both for their company’s needs and to be good corporate citizens.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
In my personal life, being a working mother of two continues to be my biggest daily joy and struggle. Society insists on a very fend for yourself mentality when it comes to parenting, finances, mental health, etc. Part of the idea of building Frugl is to showcase that every individual issue has systemic societal issues that can be met either with a structure of support or ignorance. We saw the effects of ignorance play out in the pandemic….
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Seek advice but follow your instincts. Every great company, great idea, great individual faced opposition and rejection. This doesn’t mean your idea is bad or shouldn’t be pursued.
Ask from the community
We’d love intros to companies that are putting employee wellness in the forefront. Progressive companies with a wholistic approach to company success are who we’d love to work with.
Amanda Davis
Company website: https://www.hudsondaviscomms.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I’m an expert B2B marketer
What made you decide to start your own startup?
My former employer wanted everyone to come back into the office after working from home during the pandemic. I didn’t want to go back to the office and my fiancé convinced me to go out on my own.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Being a marketer, I knew nothing about all the different aspects of running a business, I just knew how to be really good at marketing. When you become a founder, you’re the head of IT and Finance and operations and I had to learn all of that with a really steep and difficult learning curve.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Be yourself and trust yourself. I thought I had to be on the same timeline as everyone else around me and that got me into some tricky situations. Focus on your own journey. People will want to work with you because of who you are, not who you think you need to be.
Ask from the community:
Just say hello! Looking forward to getting to know everyone in the community.
Emily Mercy
Company website: https://goparity.ca/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
As Managing Director of GoParity Canada, I am responsible for strategic decision making, resource allocation and external communications.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Like many young people, I felt frustrated about the climate crisis and how little power I had to make a real impact. The world’s elites are making critical climate decisions, yet they will be the least impacted by the harmful effects of climate change. This frustration amplified when I began my investing journey and wanted to support sustainable companies and initiatives while earning a profit. The mainstream options such as clean ETFs are littered with dishonesty and withheld vital information as an environmentally conscious investor. Alternatives for Canadians such as green bonds are utterly unaffordable for most people, with minimum investment amounts upwards of $10,000.
This issue was central to my final business school project that inspired the idea to start a venture that would address this issue in Canada. After several months, my team and I connected with GoParity in Europe, which has a mission to democratize access to impact investing. As we aligned on so many levels, the decision to partner and bring GoParity to Canada was clear to us all.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Managing uncertainty has been the most challenging part of my startup journey. A large part of launching any business is understanding legal regulations which the company must abide by. In the Canadian finance industry, businesses must receive a high level of authorization while complying with governmental securities regulations. The complexity associated with regulatory approval required an enormous amount of learning and the formation of partnerships. Since we are in the process of obtaining provincial approval, there are many elements related to our launch that are out of the founders’ control. Dealing with these elements has proved to be a tremendous challenge as we adapt our business strategies, budgets, and timeline.
Over the last year, my co-founders and I have learned to embrace change. Every startup faces unforeseen challenges; therefore, it’s critical as a founding team to be adaptable and comfortable pivoting the business strategy and extending the timeline.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
My advice to young entrepreneurs is always to seek help, even if you don’t think you need it. Talking to others about your idea, project, or business will broaden your perspective and affirm your assumptions while contradicting or disproving others.
Additionally, when performing outreach, ensure you are not only seeking affirmation. It is essential to realize that support does not always come in the form of approval. Instead, the best feedback is critical, constructive, and honest. Anyone founding a startup should seek guidance from those who challenge them to improve.
Ask from the community:
At GoParity Canada, we are currently looking for programming and competitions that will help connect us to the sustainability community within Canada and allow us to raise non-dilutive funding. We welcome any opportunity to connect with industry experts or anyone who wants to chat about what we’re doing. If you are interested in learning more about us, subscribe to our newsletter at goparity.ca If you would like to connect with me, feel free to message me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-mercy-558240169
Afshan Ahmad
Company website: https://neuravue.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I am a risk taker with broad skill set around strategy, management and governance of innovative technologies including Artificial Intelligence with focus on product development with a difference.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I had always been fascinated by the magic of AI and its capabilities to improve the quality of living. But when someone very close to me got impacted due to the false sense of security provided by security cameras, I decided to take matters in my own hands and formed NeuraVue. NeuraVue is your AI guardian angel. It’s a platform backed by AI which analyzes indoor camera feeds on real-time basis and sends alerts for emergency events (like physical abuse, sexual abuse, criminal activities, robbery, fall detection, fire, drowning, and flooding etc.)
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
The biggest challenge I had to overcome was my getting out of my comfort zone and starting with the start up. It involved a certain level of recklessness and spontaneity that was initially missing from my personality!
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Just be courageous and consistent. You got this!
Ask from the community:
NeuraVue is looking for volunteers (people and organizations) to pilot with them and get feedback. We are also looking to raise funding (NeuraVue is currently working on its MVP which is targeted to be ready in April).
We are also looking for help in raising awareness around the abuse cases and capabilities of NeuraVue to get help on real-time basis. Please let me know if you need further information Thanks for the opportunity!
Ren Kainth
Company website: https://www.trancy.co/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Trancy gives remote workers the tools to connect with users nearby, share experiences and to unplug via a curated wellness marketplace. We aim to bring people and communities together, to a performative state.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Myself and Co-Founder Judy Li, started Trancy in November 2021, an all-female founder team consisting also of a wellness expert and a content/marketing specialist, based out of London and Berlin. The need for this app came from our own personal experiences and that of nearly everyone we spoke to as a means to validate our idea. We came up with three factors that have arisen as a result of the pandemic and that is loneliness, a lack of collaboration and almost everyone we spoke to is finding it hard to unplug.
My personal experience came about by moving from London to Canterbry during one of the UK lockdowns, but having my own home office space and closeness to the countryside came at a cost. And that was the inability to make friends or even find alternative ways to focus on my own wellness outside of endless hours on my screen. My hour-long commute to work had been cut down to 30 seconds at home to my desk, but that meant being available to management – even on Sunday mornings! I started to notice a significant increase in my own stress and anxiety levels.
We’re building a platform to allow users to connect, share experiences and grow via services that will be curated to their own specific needs.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
For me, it’s mostly been time management. I’ve been juggling a full-time job, an On Deck No-Code cohort, a digital writing course and all the interesting elements to a startup since January 2022. And then working with our Bubble developer on a weekly basis, to daily standups with each other on identifying our market adoption plan, financial planning, growth etc.
We’ve really had to work out the best tools to effectively communicate, efficiently outsource, optimize our productivity and deliver (Slack, Notion, Airtable, Miro). We have to regularly ask ourselves “What is important right now?” and “What will make the biggest impact right now?” in order to focus our time on what matters most. And that’s something I’m sure we’ll have to adapt as we scale. I also have to learn to drink my own cool-aid here and focus on wellness
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Start with something small – a simple idea or a solution to one problem and get user feedback early. Focus on your strengths, where you can work with others who can do a whole lot better in areas that are your weaknesses.
Ask from the community:
We are about to launch our MVP (web app), in a matter of days, to a group of beta testers and will simultaneously be looking to raise funds. We want to focus on our next development block, wellness marketplace development, user acquisition and monetisation models – so please do feel free get in touch hello@trancy.co and join our waitlist: https://trancy.co/
Judy Li
Company website: https://www.trancy.co/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Trancy gives remote workers the tools to connect with users nearby, share experiences and to unplug via a curated wellness marketplace. We aim to bring people and communities together, to a performative state.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Myself and Co-Founder Ren started Trancy in November 2021 – an all-female founder team based out of London and Berlin. We went through a validation process to understand user needs based on loneliness, a lack of collaboration and finding it hard to unplug, that has arisen during the pandemic.
I suddenly found myself becoming a Covid-19 casualty after building up my career over 4 years in London. Unable to return home to NZ, I found a new opportunity and relocated to Berlin. Frequent lockdowns, however, made it near to impossible to meet and/or connect with like-minded people. The isolation I experienced in a new city combined with working night shifts seriously impacted my own mental health.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Creating boundaries to create a better work-life balance. To be honest, this is still a work in progress. After working a full day, I log off my work laptop to log into my personal laptop and start working on our passion project. It was hard initially to make the separation from our passion project and my personal life as I enjoy the creative process and collaboration with Ren so much that it hasn’t felt like a second job!
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Surround yourself with the right people and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Like Ren said, focus on your strengths and keep building on those foundations. Because as much as we want to do it all, expending energy on tasks that are not within your wheelhouse will likely create unnecessary inefficiencies. And be patient. Timing is crucial.
Ask from the community
We are about to launch our MVP (web app), in a matter of days, to a group of beta testers and will simultaneously be looking to raise funds. But what we’re looking for right now is Beta testers and your feedback! We would love for you to come and join us on https://trancy.co/ in our quest to build a new platform and give remote workers tools to connect, find support and grow.
Anna Sinclair
Company website: https://www.thetotalmomshow.ca/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I help founders develop powerful brands that leave a lasting impact on their lives, careers and communities through their businesses.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Advancing professionally as an entrepreneur after having children made the uphill journey remarkably harder. This inspired me to grow a global online community with a mission to personally & professionally support women to live a life they love while building successful businesses.
The #TotalMomLife ” is an empowered life. Women face substantial barriers to economic freedom, entrepreneurial pursuits, independence, and security. In the face of these challenges, many moms all across Canada have been turning to Total Mom Inc as a way to get connected to the resources, introductions, and community that they need. I didn’t want to stick around and work for someone else who was not going to understand what it felt like to work and be a mother with so many things always coming up. Now I and this community turn to Total Mom Inc. to gain greater access and control over personal, business, financial opportunities for themselves, their families, and their businesses.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Losing a business partner following the peak of our first and largest event when I needed them the most. It was lonely, really long hours and late at night. I learned that running a business came with a lot more than just a great idea. Funding was hard to get and I bootstrapped every step of the way. I wore all the hats. I was running every division of this company with the help of my husband and not only was I not paying myself, but I was also always the first one up and the last one to go to bed. I look back 5 years later and I cannot thank God enough for the strength. Growing a business has many seasons and most people won’t ever understand how difficult it really gets when your juggle all the plates and then some. That’s being the founder. You are the one who gets up and makes sure this vision comes to life.
What advice do you have for those starting a startup?
Once you realize that there is a problem that you undeniably want to fix and you can’t look away, there is this sense of duty that comes about. I saw a huge gap in what was offered to moms on a holistic level and felt that as moms, we are constantly being sold to and more or less left out when it comes to getting our needs met. So I disrupted and rewrote the rules of how things were done in the so-called mommy space. I led a team and this company to turn the focus back to mom becuase I believe as women, we deserve to be in alignment with our needs and have a solid support system around us so we can have it all but not have to do it all ourselves. If you find yourself passionate about something, that passion will get you through the rocky times.
Ask from the community
We are looking for content marketers and any brands to partner that does editing, graphic design, content creation and a marketing assistant…oh yeah and a 2 Million dollars
Remy Warren
Company website: www.MoxyPatch.ca
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I am the creator of MoxyPatch – an over the counter, eco-friendly product designed to prevent unintentional leaks caused by mild to moderate stress incontinence.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I decided to create MoxyPatch because I recognized a huge gap in the incontinence care market for women. Most of the products available on store shelves today are just absorbent, disposable products that aren’t even designed to prevent leaks. There were no great, eco-friendly solutions that I could find that actually worked to prevent leaks and that could be accessible to most women without a Doctor appointment or prescription, so I set out to create one.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Imposter syndrome is real. As a woman without a medical background creating a medical device, I have certainly been questioned about my experience. After engaging multiple professionals in this industry, however – medical designers, gynecologists, urologists and pelvic floor therapists, conducting user feedback studies and taking all of the appropriate regulatory measures – I am confident that we have now created an accessible device for women to help them to regain their confidence and freedom and to go about their daily activities, leak-free.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Hearing a ‘NO’ can be a good thing and you will hear it a lot as an entrepreneur, so get accustomed to it. One of my favourite quotes regarding this is: “Every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being redirected to something better” – Steve Maraboli
Never underestimate your own intuition. If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.
Never be afraid to ask for help or advice but always remember that you know your business best.
Ask from the community
Please join and engage with our growing community online! If you know any women that leaks when she does things like jump, run or even sneeze, please tell her about MoxyPatch!
Website: www.MoxyPatch.ca
Instagram: MoxyPatch™
Facebook: MoxyPatch
Vicki Knott
Company website: https://www.cruxocm.com
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I’m CEO and co-founder of CruxOCM, delivering innovative robotic industrial process automation software for industrial control room operators.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I started my career in a pulp and paper mill to gauge how things work before engineering solutions, then moved on to train as a control room operator for a major pipeline company. During my time there, I analyzed the ways in which control operators worked and quickly realized the rigid, old school methods in place needed to be more repeatable, as well as safer. I decided I wanted to change the oil and gas industry by bringing diverse perspectives and better, safer standards to control rooms through automation. As a result, CruxOCM was born to close the loop in heavy industrial control rooms to deliver tools to control room operators that have a meaningful impact on heavy industrial operations.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
The oil and gas industry is notorious for being one of the oldest “boys clubs,” being that the industry is made up of just 15% women. I’d say I shook up the status quo by pushing for better safety standards and company values that allow workers to thrive. I recognize this industry won’t be able to make real DEI strides without a fundamental shift in culture, so have overcome this challenge by taking a wholly different approach to leadership than that of my peers.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Stay focused on the customer. Don’t get distracted by investors, events and awards. Of course you will need those things but they come after the customers. Be sure to prioritize appropriately.
Ask from the community
We’re looking to hire software engineers, deployment engineers, product managers, and sales!
Brianna Blaney
Company website: https://hellopocketed.io/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Pocketed helps businesses grow with simplified access to government funding.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Money is a leading barrier to entrepreneurship, especially for women and equity-seeking groups. We get it. As experienced founders, we’ve lived this pain, trying to find money to start and grow our businesses. There is $5.9B in government funding available every year in Canada with grants, tax credits, and more – and a lot of it goes unused. Because it’s hard to find the right programs and then painful to apply.
We decided it was time to build a better, simpler way for companies to get the money they need to grow. Pocketed helps start-ups, small businesses, and side hustles access government money with our intelligent matching platform and managed marketplace solution. We have helped more than 5,000 companies apply for over $80M through our platform. Money to help them innovate, hire, export, and grow.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Accessing capital is always hard as an entrepreneur. Like many founders, we thought that dilutive capital was the only route to funding our business. When we learned that there is $5.9B in government funding available every year, we realized there was another way – one that allowed us to keep more of our company. We were able to bootstrap Pocketed to product-market fit, achieving key milestones to drive a strong valuation for our equity financing round. With the support of mentors, we closed an oversubscribed financing round in fall 2021 to accelerate our growth.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Be a little (or maybe even a lot) obsessive — I don’t think there is another way to stick to entrepreneurship if you are not thinking about it almost all the time. Find a problem that you’re genuinely passionate about solving. It will help to keep you going through the long days, late nights, stress, and uncertainty.
Be lucky — entrepreneurship is a privilege. It involves risks and sacrifices many people simply cannot make. There is a huge element of being fortunate enough to have the option to even try building something. Access to funding plays a role in this. Our vision for Pocketed is to eliminate financial barriers to entrepreneurship.
Ask from the community
There are billions of dollars available to help you innovate, start, and scale your business. Pocketed makes it easy. Create your free account today with the referral code FOUNDERSBETA to access exclusive benefits: https://hellopocketed.io/create-account?referral_code=FOUNDERSBETA
Aria Hahn
Company website: https://hellopocketed.io/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Pocketed helps businesses grow with simplified access to government funding.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
The world is facing some major problems right now – and innovation can help. More diversity in innovation is the key to tackling really big issues like climate change and food security. Without equitable access to funding, there will continue to be a systemic lack of diversity in R&D and entrepreneurship. We built Pocketed to level the playing field, helping entrepreneurs access billions of dollars in government funding to develop impactful solutions and build their businesses.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
In the early days of building Pocketed we had developed a big, complex roadmap of features. It was exciting! During our first “Ask Me Anything” session with users, our users told us that while the flashy features were cool, small changes – like added filters – would materially improve their experience using Pocketed. By making space for people to share feedback, our users saved us from months of building features that it turned out nobody really cared about, regardless of how ‘cool’ they were. This was a great reminder of the importance of staying close to our users to understand their pains, regularly asking for feedback, and always focusing on adding value to everything we do.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Be the dumbest in the room by design — we intentionally hire, work with, and speak to people who know more than us, have better ideas than us, and provide their experienced opinions all day, every day.
Be curious — entrepreneurship is a daily lesson in humility. You get it wrong often. Staying curious helps you stay agile and responsive. Experiment and move quickly.
Be focused — focus has been drilled into us through our advisors and directors. It’s hard to pick “just one thing” or “just one user” you are going to build for. We find it helpful to remember that focus doesn’t mean everything else is a “no,” it’s just a “not yet.”
Ask from the community
There are billions of dollars available to help you innovate, start, and scale your business. Pocketed makes it easy. Create your free account today with the referral code FOUNDERSBETA to access exclusive benefits: https://hellopocketed.io/create-account?referral_code=FOUNDERSBETA
We’re also currently hiring 2 Full Stack Developers and would love to connect with interested folks.
Kaylee Astle
Company website: stealth mode
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
My role as a founder and leader fluctuates between working ON the business and working IN the business. I am responsible for setting the strategy for our company, but given the nature of being a small start-up, I’m also rolling up my sleeves everyday and getting into the weeds (which I love!)
What made you decide to start your own startup?
From running childhood lemonade stands to helping my parents grow their own businesses, I have always been very entrepreneurial at heart. Today, what keeps my entrepreneurial fire burning is that I’m so passionate about what we are building and I love that every day is completely different.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
I have always worked for start-ups, but taking the leap and starting my own was really scary. It took me a long time to gain the courage and confidence to make it a reality. Getting started can definitely be the hardest part of any new venture or project.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Listen to your customers! We built an entire community before we wrote a single line of code and that allowed us to gather valuable feedback on how to build our platform. We saved a ton of time building what our customers ACTUALLY wanted versus what we THOUGHT they wanted.
Ask from the community:
While the company is still in “stealth mode”, I’d love to connect with anyone in the e-commerce tech space!
Sarah Brown
Company website: https://www.blsh.online/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
We’re building a simple platform for the complex needs of local delivery.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I kept wanting a service that made ordering anything online as easy as Skip the Dishes made getting dinner. I finally got fed up with waiting and decided to try building it myself.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Imposter syndrome. I didn’t think of myself as a founder and for months I wouldn’t even call BLSH my business because I was so self conscious that people wouldn’t take me seriously.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Just because some iteration of your idea might already exists doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try anyways. When we first conceived of BLSH I was asked “but what about company X” 100 times a day which planted a real seed of doubt. I’m glad I believed BLSH was different and deserved to exist but in the moment it admittedly felt tempting to let someone else try and solve a problem that had plagued me for years.
Ask from the community
We’re in the midst of a seed raise and will need an awesome CTO.
Noora Sharrab
Company website: https://sittisoap.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I lead a social enterprise called Sitti (meaning my grandma in Arabic) that is committed to the self-reliance of refugee and displaced communities through long-term employment opportunities and skill development training, empowered by an inclusive global economy.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
In the summer of 2015 while working in the Palestinian Refugee Camps in Jordan, I was approached to help refugee women in the selling of handmade olive oil soap, soon, I met my co-founder Jackie who was also working closely with the community and before we knew it Sitti was born. We knew that this was more than selling a bar of soap, this was about giving women back their dignity through fair-paid work opportunities that could lift them out of poverty towards becoming financially independent!
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Before we knew it, our biggest obstacle was accessibility to a global market. Working from a refugee camp to exporting to North America, it was not longer about a simple soap bar but about creating a sustainable model where we could create a continuous demand to continue generating employment on the ground with our community based organization partners. It also meant that we had to compete with large companies with massive budgets, which meant that we had to get creative in getting our brand out there.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Love it so much that on days where you have no hope or when things are going wrong, you still want it bad enough to make it work. For my co-founders and I, our core intention was always and continues to be the ultimate impact we make with the communities we serve, as opposed to x number of soap bars sold or x number of sales made – in the end, did we make a difference?
Ask from the community (e.g. Looking to hire developers, raising funds, etc.)
If you’re looking for corporate gifting opportunities for your team or company, reach out to us and let’s talk about how we can maximize your gift giving with ultimate impact. Who says you can’t buy good and feel good at the same time?! And why not subscribe to our Sitti Subscription box to get hand-selected highly curated items to your doorstep every quarter link here: https://sittisoap.com/pages/subscription
Daphne de Groot
Company website: https://justo.ca/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
We’re building a full service tech-enabled real estate brokerage, uniquely modeled to save homeowners B’s of $ in commission with fairness at its core
What made you decide to start your own startup?
As is the case for so many entrepreneurs, it was the lack of a solution to an existing pain, experienced first-hand, which thrust me into action. For me, the disparity between the dollar amount of a high commission and the lack of control and visibility which I experienced in my own home-buying process was the true trigger. Realizing that this was being lived by so many in the inherently stressful process of deciding on the most economically intensive investment of a lifetime, made me realize a model shift was long overdue. This triggered the realization that the advancement seen in so many other industries have yet to be folded into real estate, and the brokerage field. Embracing the customers’ interests and needs as a driving principle, by enhancing access to data, visibility and trust have been the birth cause of Justo. Justo (fariness in Latin) was born to address these pains with technology, agents and a better model to serve our customers.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
The biggest challenge, and also the most interesting one, was finding a sustainable way to make all parties involved in Justo satisfied: Home buyers, sellers and agents alike, a balanced platform. With the changes of customer’s needs and market shifts, you have to have the ability to zoom in to the details and out to a bird’s eye view all the time, and the job is to solve the puzzle on a continuous basis. It’s not a one-time challenge but a continuing one.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
You can’t create something from scratch without taking risks. But make sure the risks you take are calculated. Having ideas and talking to the right people before committing to a strategy will benefit you in the long run. Another thing is finding the right people: surround yourself with hard working committed people, that are on the same mission as you are, and have their values in line with yours.
Ask from the community
We are growing fast with regards to our team and capital. To support that we would encourage any investors who are interested in sharing our vision can reach out to us on justo.ca, and if you’d like to be part of our story then look out for open roles on our LinkedIn page.
Sarah Brekelmans
Company website: https://brightlysearch.com
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I am the founder of Brightly, a boutique executive search & recruitment firm that’s founded on the belief that mindful, nurtured candidate relationships and assessments make for stronger long-term hires. We work heavily with growing tech startups to find their next hires in growth marketing, product management, and HR.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I grew up in an entrepreneurial family and knew from a young age that I wanted to build my own business at some point. Last year, I finally made the decision to do it.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
It sounds cliche – but the biggest challenge was starting. I had a great job with a great company that was stable and fulfilling. Leaving it for something so unknown was incredibly scary at the time. But, it ended up being the best decision I ever made.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Never be afraid to connect with other founders, and ask for advice or help. You won’t know everything – and that’s ok, that’s part of the learning. Get involved in startup communities (such as FoundersBeta) and network with other founders both at similar and more advanced stages. There’s so much support, and so many opportunity to learn from others. A lot of people will say that building your own company can be lonely, but I truly believe it doesn’t have to be!
Ask from the community
I am always interested in connecting with growing startups who are looking for counsel and/or support on hiring mandates in the following areas: Growth marketing, Demand generation, Product management, Content marketing, Product marketing, Human Resources, Ecommerce, Public relations/influencer relations, SEO/SEM, and UX/UI Design.
Dina Ghobrial
Company website: https://www.gohalo.ai
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I’m building Halo Ai, the first holistic risk and compliance management platform dedicated to helping FinTech companies win.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
It’s been a long journey getting here and it all really started when I was 12 years old. I watched my father give up a lucrative CEO role because he wanted to build something of his own. To carry out his own vision. He went on to build a super-successful business across Dubai, UAE, and Cairo, Egypt, my place of birth. But as I graduated from university, he came to our whole family and told us we were moving to Canada… it came down to him wanting to live in a country that respected human rights. His own – but more importantly his children’s. So we left everything behind. I watched as my father went from a millionaire to pizza delivery man in Toronto because that’s the only job he could get. I then watched him start a new business in a new land, and once again, persevere until he built a successful and thriving business that he continued to run well-into his late 70s. As I think back, it was watching that level of belief – seeing the rewards that come from hard work and tenacity – that always inspired me to one day carry out my own vision. I ended up with a dual degree in economics and computer science which led to me working in product all my life. First at a large international Bank and then moving into a newly IPO’d company in Silicon Valley. Through it all, however, I was always working for someone else. I was always carrying out their vision. And they weren’t solving the massive compliance problem in the FinTech space that I dreamt about building out a solution for. It got to the point where I knew what I needed to do because I saw how all the dots connected to get me here. That’s how Halo Ai was born and that’s the vision I’m building.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
It is my conviction that sometimes we tend to manufacture our own challenges and in this case, my challenge was simply taking the first step. Getting over the doubts that invariably encircle a drastic career move like this. I was very fortunate to have watched my father rise, and rise again… an experience that acted as an antidote to my secret fears. Furthermore, I’m blessed with an incredibly supportive family and a network of friends, previous bosses, mentors, and other business partners, all of whom believed in me, and in my vision, and inspired me to never doubt myself. Once over that initial hurdle, it feels like the sky is the limit to how far I want to carry my vision and where I want to take my company.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Despite the unspeakable rewards (and I don’t mean just financial), founding and leading a startup is not for the faint of heart and is fraught with a great amount of ups and downs. Some of the “ups” are so high, it feels like an out-of-body experience while the “downs” tend be unusually low. So, buckle up and get on the roller coaster with eyes wide open. Enjoy and celebrate the wins, but never let them give you a fake sense of security or take you off your grounding – ‘cause no one’s too big, good, or smart, to fail. Relish the learnings from the lows, allow yourself space to reflect, and then rise up fast and cherish the gift you just received. It will come in handy when you try again.
Ask from the community
To date, we’ve built Halo Ai through bootstrapping. We plan to kick-off a seed round soon in order to scale faster than we could on our own. Any fundraising advice from others who’ve been through the journey ahead of us is welcome and greatly appreciated.
Alexandra Kapelos-Peters
Company website: https://www.cansulta.com
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
We provide business leaders with easy & affordable access to world-class support. Think freelancer marketplace—but with expert consultants.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
It’s a familiar Founder cliché: I wanted to solve my own problem.
As a management consultant who loves working with diverse clients across industries and regions, and tackling a myriad of challenges—but who hates selling myself and performing tedious admin tasks—I was searching for an online “home” from which to offer my services. Frustrated by the few options available, I started Cansulta to make it easy for businesses to collaborate with independent consultants like me.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Sales! As I am genuinely 100% confident that our platform adds great value to any business; it didn’t initially occur to me that it would take time and effort to spread the word and for customers to be willing to try our different approach and earn our trust. As we onboard new clients, the results are reassuring: to date, 100% of our clients are repeat users.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Do it! But, be warned and prepared: you must be strong, resilient, and your own champion. It can be the most rewarding experience, but is also often lonely and exhausting. Build a great team and network, and be fair and genuine. Most importantly: stay focussed and business-minded—you can’t help others unless you are successful yourself.
Ask from the community
We need new users, testimonials, and feedback. Take us for a spin! You can sign up for free in seconds, then browse our consultants profiles, send messages to learn more about them, and even book free intro sessions to learn how you could collaborate (and maybe steal an insight or two). No purchase, no commitment. You’ve nothing to lose!
Janessa White
Company website: https://simplyeloped.com
Describe what you do in 140 characters or less.
I’m the CEO of Simply Eloped. Simply Eloped specializes in meaningful, intimate and gorgeous small weddings. We place a lot of pride in ensuring each ceremony is personalized and high quality. I’m so lucky to be continually launching new destinations, programs and partnerships while also leading the helm of the ship for the whole company. We’re six years into it and I really can’t think of anything else I’d be happier doing.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
You know how they say entrepreneurs make the worst employees? I’m definitely the embodiment of that. I tried my darndest at every job (and my managers always appreciated my hard work ethic) but just the number of jobs I’ve had from ages 14 to 29 speaks for itself: I worked 35 jobs in those years. Wowza! I bounced around a lot and sometimes worked 2 or 3 jobs at one time. I always had the entrepreneurial itch and when the opportunity presented itself to try an elopement company I just jumped! Two weeks after my business partner and I launched our brand we had our first customer and the rest is history.
What was the biggest challenge you have had to overcome?
Do I really have to pick just one? Being a new founder I think I’ve made almost every mistake in the books. From not putting much thought or attention into our culture from the onset, to hiring family and friends, to lacking infrastructure in each department, we’ve been through the gamut. If I had to choose just one though I would say owning a wedding company during the early days of COVID was extremely tumultuous and uncertain. In March 2020 we had thousands of cancellations and postponements, not to mention our bookings completely froze. We were very generous about giving deposits back so it was difficult to be doling out money that had already been spent while not bringing in any additional capital. Our savings plus two rounds of PPP are the only way we didn’t have to lay off our entire team. To say it was rough is an understatement. It’s truly something I hope no other business owner ever has to experience.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
The small stuff means more than you can know. Celebrate the small wins. Understand the importance of the small steps. Take pride in the happiness of just one customer. If you have one small event happen per day, that adds up to big things over time.
Ask from the community:
If you know anyone engaged or getting married, mention Simply Eloped to them!
Rand Abou Ras
Company website: https://ucast.xyz
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
uCast is a marketplace and ad management platform that helps the 97% of podcasts monetize through Ads.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I’ve always loved product and entrepreneurship, transitioning into tech was very natural for me. When I graduated during the pandemic, I was faced with the decisions every new grad makes, that’s when I decided to embark on the startup journey. I also happened to be a podcaster and involved in the audio community, I understood their pains and where I can provide value. It honestly started with creating product mock-ups on Figma and sharing them on different communities and somehow uCast was born, we are now a team of 6 with a product on the market.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
I knew the challenges of building a startup were not lacking, but what I didn’t fully comprehend was how much more difficult the challenges of building a marketplace were. We are a B2B2C and building our flywheel to create a sustainable business was vey challenging.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Just do it, fail doing it, and do it again better.
Ask from the community
If you are a Brand looking to explore alternative methods to distribution, you should reach out to us!
Allison Braund-Harris
Company website: https://hardly-work.com
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Hardly is a free career development platform. Users are guided to better understand themselves, set goals, and “level up” in the communication skills needed to succeed.
What made you decide to start your own startup? What was the inspiration?
A speaker came to speak to my MBA class about the skills needed to be an entrepreneur. As I listened to him, I immediately knew that I was meant to be a founder— I thrive in chaos and I’m a natural problem solver. After the speaker was done, I remember turning to the woman next to me and saying “I was born for this.” In hindsight, I laugh at how intense I must have looked.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Two of our products failed before they even launched. And with our current product, we’ve known who our user is, but our target customer has shifted a couple of times. Patience and focus haven’t always been my strong suits, but I’m developing these skills more every day.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
It’s a marathon and not a sprint. It’s easy to be fueled by passion at the beginning, but you must be prepared for the long haul. Also, your network is your biggest asset and deserves your active attention. Give to others first and good things will come when you need them.
Ask from the community
We are looking for…
20-minute interviews with early-stage professionals
Connections to the career center at universities
Signing up is always a big help! (https://app.hardly-work.com/)
Introductions to angels or VCs interested in EdTech
Sokmean Nou
Company website: https://calixa.co/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
As a solo founder, I am involved across the board, whether it’s fundraising, customer relations or deep diving into our codebases.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
To be frank, I think the stars just aligned and decided for me! I was a consulting software developer at the time and took part in the Google Sprint AI/ML hackathon with the aim of learning more about GCP and its AI APIs. The idea I pitched landed on the podium and I had so much fun prototyping it, I thought it was worth exploring further.
During the same period, I was also mentoring at Cooperathon, one of the largest open innovation hackathons. At the closing event, I met a director at NEXT AI who highly encouraged me to apply to their inaugural cohort in Montreal because I “had the profile”. I didn’t have a startup yet, but saw it as an opportunity to form a team through their founder networking.
I went for it without much expectations, and a few weeks later, got the news that Calixa had been selected for the program, and that kick started this adventure.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
The pandemic and macro-economic environment was (and still is) certainly a huge curveball. It’s important to keep our eyes on what we can control to best respond to the changing market conditions.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Don’t be afraid to talk about your ideas early. Most of the time, IPs and competitive edge lies in the how you do it, and not the what it is. It always takes a village, so surround yourself with the right people and trust the process.
Ask from the community
We’re actively looking for a founding full stack engineer (node-react stack, and knowledge of Shopify APIs a plus!) and a video content producer to join the team!
Alize Bhatia
Company website: https://www.superpawbox.com
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I started Super PawBox to help puppies through puppyhood. After bootstrapping Super Paw to $100k+ in annual revenue, I pivoted the business model to create content around the different stages of puppyhood, partner with small businesses, and provide a platform to sell products. Website: https://www.superpaw.co/
What made you decide to start your own startup?
After I bought Kayo (our pup) home, I was really overwhelmed and stressed about training him; what are the right toys and treats to give him – there are so many choices, how do you pick the right one? This is when I came across subscription boxes and realized that there were boxes for dogs, there wasn’t one specifically catered to puppies. I saw this as a huge market gap and knew it was an opportunity worth digging into.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
The biggest challenge was bringing something new into a market and establishing trust between my customers and myself.
What advice do you have for those starting a startup?
Starting something can be stressful, and you may not know where or how to start, my advice is to take that first step, and things will slowly start to fall into place.
Amanda Zhu
Company website: https://recall.ai
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I’m a startup founder, which means I do a bit of everything. I build the product and also sell it.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
To be honest, my current co-founder was the one who convinced me to leave school to join his new startup as a co-founder.
I’ve always wanted to build something I could call my own, so I decided to go for it.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
The biggest challenge I’ve had to overcome is definitely learning to do sales. It forced me to get out of my comfort zone.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Make sure you love the problem you’re solving for and surround yourself with positive people.
Ask from the community
If you or anyone you know is building on top of meeting platforms like Zoom, check out https://recall.ai!
Nancy Soni
Company website: https://www.pathmatch.com
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
PathMatch is a mobile career advisor for Gen Z. We’re helping students learn what it means to be “hireable” in the modern workforce.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
I spent 20 years helping companies hire top talent and saw massive skills gaps largely created by the disconnect between what students learn in university and what employers are looking for. 50% of graduates end up unemployed for almost a year after graduation because they lack the modern skills companies need. All of this starts with poor decisions made as early as Freshman year. University career centers do not have the ability to scale and personalize each students’ college-to-career journey.
We can solve these problems through software. PathMatch is launching a mobile app that matches students to their best-matched modern careers. Based on a students’ career matches and life goals, our software personalizes their journey through university, helping them make intelligent decisions regarding what majors and classes to select, skills to learn and list on their resume, who to network with, and when to apply to relevant opportunities so they can build their dream career.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Learning the nuances of fundraising and how to navigate the VC/investor world has been my biggest challenge to date.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Invest in yourself and your relationships. Scaling a startup requires founders to be able to scale themselves quickly and effectively. You’re never going to be great at everything and you don’t need to be. That’s where your network comes in. Being great at building relationships will help you scale your team effectively.
Ask from the community
We’re closing our pre-seed, so intros to angels/VCs who are interested in investing in impact-oriented companies would be amazing!
Donna Litt
Company website: https://uvaro.com/
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I serve as the integrator on our team— it’s my responsibility to make sure that we’re set up to deliver on our company strategy and goals.
What made you decide to start your own startup?
Raised by entrepreneurs, it was more natural for me to start my own business than anything else. Also, being a professional in this industry kept me close to my family. When the opportunity to start a business presented itself I saw it as a chance to create real value and drive meaningful impact with people I care about and trust deeply. It was an experience I couldn’t miss out on.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Finding balance. Priorities are always changing and resources are finite. As my professional responsibilities increase, the commitments I make in my personal life suffer. Re-drawing those lines and finding balance is an ongoing challenge.
What advice do you have to those starting a startup?
Pick what you are going to do in a 24 hour period. For me, I must move my body, eat good food, move my business forward, move my personal life forward, be good to my people, and get a good sleep. (In fact, I give myself permission to get a good sleep if I do those 5 things.) Decide on how you’ll split your time (resources are finite, remember) and live by it.
Ask from the community
How do you manage and measure change across your organization? I want to know! Stories, strategies, experiences, books, frameworks, tips, etc. are all welcome.
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