Your venture needs funding, how you get there can be up to you. In this episode, Kailey shares NONA Vegan’s fundraising journey while Shelley chimes in with insight and advice for funding your business so you can grow. “Founders should put themselves first. I want to understand their judgment, I need to see that they are coachable. I love companies who marry a social impact to their business and it isn’t a trade off.” Guests: Shelley Kuipers is Co-CEO, General Partner and Growth Officer at The51, where she is transforming the status quo to create a more equitable, feminist and ecologically sus ..read more

Entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster, with high highs and low lows. Add in navigating a new country and all of the emotions and learnings that come along with it, that is a whole new rollercoaster. In this episode, we hear from two women entrepreneurs who left home and came to Canada for a new life. Through their journeys, we quickly learn that newcomer entrepreneurs are the biggest risk takers of all. Guests:  Karla Briones is a proud Mexican-Canadian entrepreneur with retail, food and online businesses such as Global Pet Foods and Freshii. She is also the Founder of KB Consulting. Vaness ..read more

When entrepreneurs hear Make Lemonade, they likely think of Rachel Kelly – but what is the secret to achieving this and how do you do it? Reagan Bradley, is a personal brand strategist, or in her words ‘a part time investigator, and part time storyteller’, guiding entrepreneurs to find their authenticity, and curate the right story so they can clearly express who they are, what they do, and how they do it.   Rachel’s Make Lemonade began as a vibrant co-working space in Toronto, and today it is a boutique floral studio that blossomed out of her desire for change and a pivot she knew ..read more

Expressing our emotions at work is not always easy, but what if paying more attention to our behaviours and emotional needs made us better leaders? Leaders who could hire according to their emotional inventory, operate in a more self aware state and create emotionally in tuned and strong teams that support business growth. Daisy Wright, who supports folks as they transition in their careers and guides them as they enter leadership roles, discusses how emotions show up at work for first time leaders – providing examples we can all learn from. Carolyn Stern, an emotional intelligence instructor ..read more

Monique Hutson is the Founder and Lead Content Producer of Dom Productions. After running the business for 6 years, her mindset and missions have changed and evolved, they have had to. Cheryl Sutherland is the Founder of PleaseNotes, a business she has built to help women step into their power by building confidence, clarity, and creativity. Together, we talk about the mindsets we must adopt to integrate new things into business, and practise being the person we want to become for ourselves, and for our companies. Resources:  Use code StartupWomen for 15% Cheryl’s courses, journals and pr ..read more

Is diversity, equity and inclusion a destination or a journey? Jess Dassanayake is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of BinoBooks. BinoBooks exists to help children understand important topics like the COVID-19 pandemic, gender, body image, and more,  through personalized e-books. With representation at its center, BinoBooks is reinventing reading. Camille Dundas is a Racial Equity Educator at The IDEA Practice, and also is the Co-Founder and Editor in Chief of Canada’s largest Black online magazine ByBlacks.com. Together, we explore the behaviors and systems that must be in pla ..read more

 Impact isn’t always a number or a dollar amount. Often it is a story. Jacqueline Sofia and Noora Sharrab are the founders of SITTI Social Enterprise, a venture that exists to improve the lives of refugees and displaced communities. Sagal Dualeh is the Senior Director of the Investment Readiness Program at Canada’s Women Foundation, supporting women and gender-diverse entrepreneurs to fund their impact-first businesses. Together, we discuss how to navigate operating as a social enterprise and how to acquire funding for important missions like this. Guests: Jacquline Sofia and Noora ..read more

It is through growth and scaling that founders continue to give their businesses life and it is how they reach the milestones they have always dreamed of. But these things can’t happen without asking yourself what you truly want and finding a sustainable pace to get there. Jenn Harper is the Founder and CEO of Cheekbone Beauty Cosmetics Inc, a digitally native direct to consumer brand that is helping Indigenous youth see themselves in the beauty industry that has lacked this representation for too long. Mallory Rowan is a serial entrepreneur, content creator and marketing educator who helps en ..read more

When founders think about marketing, they often begin to visualize their websites, and social media pages but it is equally important to think about who you are, who you want to be and how you will show up for customers once they find you.  Meaghan and Marie Wright are twin sisters and co-founders of Mirror Image Media, a full-service video production company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They wear many hats as directors, cinematographers and editors and know that their brand and customer experience is deeply felt and celebrated because of who they are as humans, first. Kelsey Reidl is a ..read more

Mystery Furtado is the mother of two energetic and vibrant African Kings by the names of Kade and Kylem. She is an internationally trained Nurse, currently preparing to sit the RN Nclex exam. Mystery is passionate about Diabetes management and prevention which is why she formed a not for profit called Type Diabeat It; which is the first BIPOC led Diabetes Organization in Southwestern Ontario. This role led her to starting the first BIPOC community Garden in London Ontario which has now grown into a Green House Project.  Mystery was featured this year in the London Business Magazine; Twent ..read more