Kevin Sullivan has a storied history as a founder and investor in Canada’s modern entrepreneurship story.
An early backer of Blackberry, Sullivan was part of GMP Capital from its inception and went on to serve as its President and CEO. In 1995, He co-founded one of Canada’s leading independent investment dealers, GMP Securities LP.
In this episode, Sullivan shares stories from his 30-year-long career, discusses changes in the investment landscape, and answers difficult questions on what the future holds for entrepreneurs and investors in Canada.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
The global video game industry is a behemoth that is worth more than the music, television, and film industries put together. That’s not bad for a sector that was considered niche before the 2000s.
As the former President of Digital Extremes, Michael Schmalz had a front-row seat to these seismic changes. The London, Ontario-based game studio started by his brother, James, rose to prominence with international hit games like Warframe and Unreal.
With a background in business and technology, Schmalz was able to ride the waves of uncertainty and opportunity to build a thriving company that not only delivered iconic games but also shaped the way the industry managed projects and people.
In this episode, Schmalz gives us a window into the gaming industry, its history, and what lies ahead.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
Entrepreneurship is often viewed as a discipline within business and that makes sense. Entrepreneurs are dealing with finances, crunching numbers, raising money, and balancing payroll.
But Entrepreneurship is more than business. It’s an art.
Entrepreneurs build products, services, companies, and brands that carry a piece of who they are. It’s a form of expression that reflects who they are; just like a painting that gives a window into the innermost thoughts of the painter.
On this episode, we talk to two founders who embrace both titles and have joined their love for music and business, to create an international music act that might be on your party playlist.
Andrew Fedyk and Joe Depace are Loud Luxury, a Canadian DJ Duo that rose to fame through their 2017 releases "Body" and a remix of the Martin Garrix and Dua Lipa single "Scared to Be Lonely".
In this episode, I sat down with Andrew and Joe to discuss their story of how a business and political science major at Western University ended up selling-out dance clubs across the world.
This summer season of The Entrepreneur Podcast kicks off with international DJ duo, Loud Luxury, talking about their origins, partnership, and the intersection of art and business.
We speak to Michael Schmalz, former President of Digital Extremes, on how a Canadian gaming studio, based in London Ontario impacted the global gaming industry. Then, we explore the future of entrepreneurship and investing in Canada with legendary founder and investor, Kevin Sullivan.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Quantumshift 2008 alum, Connie Clerici and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group. To ensure you never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player or visit entrepreneurship.uwo.ca/podcast.
A Technology sector deal maker, entrepreneur, diversity advocate, and community builder. These are some of the terms that describe Mona Sabet.
A Silicon Valley veteran, Sabet combined her expertise in engineering, law, and business to forge an impressive career that has included 100s of tech deals and nearly 50 acquisitions.
Sabet served as Chief Corp Strategy Officer for UserTesting and played a pivotal role in the company’s acquisition in 2022 for 1.3 billion. Most recently, she co-authored Sail to Scale, which examines common mistakes made by entrepreneurs from start-up to exit.
In this wide-ranging discussion, we cover Sabet’s entrepreneurial journey from Canada to California, and uncover insights from her latest book.
Google, Microsoft, Twitter and The Weather Network, Rory Capern has really done it all. But while he has built a career with some of the most exciting brands around, the art of the possible keeps drawing him back to the world of entrepreneurship.
An alum from Ivey’s HBA and MBA programs, Capern currently serves as the Chief Operations Officer at Redbrick, a B-Corp Certified firm that has built and acquired an impressive portfolio of companies to inspire innovation, encourage sustainable business, and support digital entrepreneurs.
In this fascinating discussion, Capern walks us through his career between start-ups and the world’s largest tech corporations, the importance of mentorship, and how his people-centric view of business has shaped his career.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
A pioneer, and legend in the banking industry, Arkadi Kuhlmann first introduced the world to direct banking when he founded ING DIRECT Canada in 1996 and ING U.S. in 2000. As Chairman, President & CEO, Kuhlmann created the largest savings bank in the U.S., with more than $88 billion in deposits and 8 million customers. Since then, Kuhlmann has gone on to launch six startups in the banking sector.
A painter, poet, and prolific author, Kuhlmann has gained a reputation for putting together effective teams through his focus on culture and leadership.
In this episode, we explore his illustrious career, lessons learned, and the new challenges he is tackling in today’s business environment.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
Welcome to a new season of The Entrepreneur Podcast featuring the likes of Arkadi Kuhlmann of ING Direct Canada and US, Silicon Valley veteran Mona Sabet, and tech entrepreneur Rory Capern, whose career has included stints at some of the biggest brands in the world.
In a world filled with information, there’s always something to learn. But how can we learn to learn?
That is a topic right in Scott Young’s wheelhouse.
Young is the author of The Wall Street Journal Best Seller, Ultralearning, and you can discover more insights in his most recent book, Get Better at Anything - 12 Maxims for Mastery.
A blogger, entrepreneur, and author of the Wall Street Journal Best Seller, Ultralearning, Young joined Ivey Professor Eric Janssen to talk about the process of learning new things. Young also addresses his unique career path which he often describes as a “controlled accident.”
We hope you enjoy this episode. To catch more insights from Young’s work, check out his most recent book, Get Better at Anything - 12 Maxims for Mastery.
https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/getbetter/
Entrepreneurs are always at the forefront of change and innovation, and Ray Sharma certainly fits that billing.
Graduating from Ivey in 1996 Sharma went into the world of investment banking and became the top-ranked technology analyst in his first year after securing the title for five of his eight eligible years, Sharma joined the startup world and set up extreme Venture Partners. Over the years, Sharma firm has led, funded or founded more than 100 startups with exits to a who's who of brands like Apple, Google, Google Electronic Arts, McKesson and Salesforce, with a career spanning the early days of the Internet and the rise of social media.
Sharma joins Ivey lecturer Eric Janssen to discuss his entrepreneurial origins and shift away from the corporate world, how AI will Change what types of skills are important, and other major trends that students and entrepreneurs should note in this season of disruption.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
In our continuing series spotlighting female entrepreneurs, we wanted to talk to a few founders who are just beginning their journey.
Part of the Summer Entrepreneurial Internship program at Western University, Lily Yang, Maura Selvakumar, and Madeline Noftle are current students who are spending the summer working on elevating their start-ups.
Ivey entrepreneurship faculty member Janice Byrne sat down with the three of them to uncover their journey into entrepreneurship, and the unique challenges they navigate as women and student founders.
Lily Yang is the founder of BsafeKC, which creates stylish and discreet non-lethal safety products designed for daily wear or carry.
Maura Selvakumar is the founder of Masca Vintage, a sustainable fashion brand specializing in women’s vintage clothing and accessories.
Madeline Noftle is the founder of The Starfish Studio, which creates nature-inspired handmade art pieces typically made out of resin and pressed flowers.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
Building a high-growth business is like launching a rocket! The founder is the engine builders and venture capital is the rocket fuel. It is a two-sided relationship where priorities are different, but the goals are the same. But what does it take to get lift off and break through the atmosphere? How can entrepreneurs and investors work together to discover the full potential of their ventures?
In this special episode recorded at the Western Angels’ Demo Day, we hear from two Western Alumni on both sides of the table.
Entrepreneur Navin Kaminoulu, and Investor Scott Kaplanis have worked together for the past five years, building ventures, raising capital, and exiting.
Kaminoulu was the co-founder & COO of INDUS.AI, a computer vision & machine learning company that interprets construction documents and images to provide valuable insights for builders. The company raised $11M in venture capital and was acquired in 2021 by Procore Technologies, the world’s largest construction SaaS company.
Kaplanis played a major role in that story as the managing partner of Groundbreak Ventures, a seed and series A property technology fund that focuses on finding the next generation of founders in the industry.
Together, they discuss what to look for in a company and investment firm, the do’s and don’ts of raising capital, what keeps them up at night, and the process, pros and cons of the exit.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
Kristine Beese of Untangle Money talks about her experience pitching at CBC's Dragons' Den.
Watch her pitch on Dragons' Den here:
https://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/pitches/untangle-money
Catch the full episode with Kristine Beese here:
https://entrepreneurship.uwo.ca/services/ondemand-learning/podcasts/2024/06/untangling-the-gender-wealth-gap-with-kristine-beese/
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
While there has been rising awareness of the gender wage gap over the past few years, another important gender issue - the wealth gap between men and women – often goes unacknowledged.
In 2020, for every 1 dollar men had in Net Wealth, women had only 32 cents.
Financial plans are an option, but they are expensive and out of reach for many women. More importantly, most plans are created without taking the life trajectory of women into account. That is where Untangle Money comes in! Led by Kristine Beese, Untangle Money creates financial plans for women and helps them figure out how to optimize their finances in line with their life goals and personal plans. Untangle Money is a tool that Beese hopes to get into the hands of a million Canadian women in the next four years.
In this conversation, Beese talks about how the magnitude of the gender wealth gap became real for her, the company's unique women-centric approach, and the struggles and joys of building a venture that isn’t all about the money.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
Jaymie Crook didn’t start off thinking he would be an entrepreneur. He married one.
But even the two of them couldn’t have guessed that their luxury dog kennel would branch off to a dog cookie empire stretching across the United States.
Co-Founder of Bosco and Roxy, Crook has had to learn entrepreneurship on the go; from pivoting during a pandemic, and building a corporate culture, to taking the leap to expand operations - this episode has all of that and more.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
CEO of Hotspex, Shane Skillen, HBA '00, talks about the importance of partnering up well in business and in life.
To view Brene Brown's list of values from "Dare to Lead," visit:
https://brenebrown.com/resources/dare-to-lead-list-of-values/
Catch the full episode with Shane Skillen here:
https://entrepreneurship.uwo.ca/services/ondemand-learning/podcasts/2024/05/improving-your-luck-with-brand-guru-shane-skillen/
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
Whether you’re talking about Greek philosophers or Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs, success can often hinge on luck.
But what if you could improve your luck? What if you can bend the forces of fortune just enough?
That’s exactly what Ivey HBA 2000 grad Shane Skillen was eager to share with our community of entrepreneurs.
For over 20 years, Skillen has been leading the award-winning market research firm, Hotspex. Working with a who’s who of international brands, Skillen and his team have been helping companies connect better with their target audience through decades of change that have seen the rise of the internet, social media, and now artificial intelligence.
In this episode, Skillen shares lessons from his journey, and what we can do to improve our chances in an increasingly competitive world.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is launching a new series, handing the microphone to women entrepreneurs doing exciting things in a wide array of industries.
In this series, we hand them the microphone to share their stories, experiences, trials, tribulations and successes.
And we kick it off with Bryn Davis Williams and Jessica Bosman, two Ivey HBAs, who’ve joined forces to disrupt the women’s undergarment industry. Their venture, DOUBL is driven by the conviction that women’s shouldn’t have to settle for “good enough.”
With the help of technology, and recycled material, DOUBL offers women custom bras that are made to fit just right! Williams and Bosman talk about balancing their careers, reframing their brand to male investors, and the importance of a supportive community.
Find out more about DOUBL's Kickstarter Campaign starting on April 30th at https://www.mydoubl.com/
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
Entrepreneurs are at the forefront of innovation. They change the way industries work and impact the global, the local and the personal.
Christopher Misch embodies that innovator ethos. As the CEO of ChargerQuest, a pioneer in the electric vehicle industry in Canada, Misch is on a mission to change how Canadians travel and impact their world.
In this episode, discover Misch’s surprising late entry into the world of entrepreneurship and how he has been able to tie his passion for sustainability and innovation to change the world, one charging station at a time.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
Most kitchen experiments end up as unedible dead ends.
But every now and then something new captures a niche and graduates to grocery stores all across America. That is the story behind Margaret Coons, founder and CEO of Nuts for Cheese. Coons, an English literature grad talks through her journey with Ivey faculty member Dave Simpson, on how a young vegan chef selling products at farmer's markets grew to managing Canada's leading artisan organic plant-based dairy manufacturing company, which recently became the second best-selling plant-based cheese in the United States.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.