About Season 6

We’re excited to partner with Ag-West bio and present a special episode for Global Biotech Week 2020!

To celebrate Global Biotech Week, we’ve interviewed three biotech entrepreneurs, based here in Saskatchewan, to learn more about what they do, and what makes biotech different from the typical startup experience.

First in today’s episode, we talked with Shawn Ritchie, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Med-Life Discoveries, a leader in developing novel treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons, MS and more.

Next up is Masood Rizvi, Head of Genomics at NRGene Canada, a biotech startup that’s optimizing crop production through genomic AI solutions.

Last but not least, we talked with Brent Zettl, a pioneer in the Canadian medical cannabis industry, having co-founded CanniMed Therapeutics that was acquired for 1.2 billion dollars, who has since started his new venture, ZYUS, harnessing the power of cannabinoids to develop treatments that improve quality of life and well-being for patients.

For more information on Global Biotech Week and the amazing virtual events from Ag-West, visit globalbiotechweeksask.ca/.

We talked with Kirk Morrison and Gillian Delgaty of Krugo. As you might remember, Kirk joined us on the show earlier this year just prior to the world as we knew it shutting down, including everything Krugo had been working on up to that point as a travel and entertainment app that helps people find unique, in-person experiences.

It would have been easy to throw in the towel, as an early-stage travel startup facing up to a year or even longer without recreational travel and large in-person experiences. Instead, Kirk, Gillian, and their team drilled down to the core of why Krugo exists in the first place, helping people find unique experiences wherever they go.

So, they made the ultimate COVID pivot to launch KrugoFest, a unique music festival using hotel balconies for the perfect socially distant staycation experience. We talked with Kirk and Gillian about why a tech startup would organize a music festival, how they pulled it off in a matter of weeks, and what made it.

We talked with Justin Holmes, VP of Growth with 7shifts, one of Canada’s fastest growing tech startups helping restaurants to be more efficient, and better engage their workforce.

What do you do when your entire customer base is forced to shut down? In the face of a global pandemic, restaurants everywhere had to pivot their businesses like they never had before, so we talked with Justin about the many ways in which the industry has been impacted, and how 7shifts has stepped up to help their customers keep moving forward during unprecedented times.

We talked with Ryan Quiring, co-founder and CEO of SafetyTek, a platform that helps companies create accountability and engage their workforce around safety.

SafetyTek has been through a lot since we last talked with them in our first season. So we talked with Ryan about their experience in Alchemist Accelerator in Silicon Valley, refining their sales funnel, and how they’re helping their customers return to work safely in the wake of COVID-19.

We talked with Melanie Morrison, founder and CEO of Bettercart, an app that helps save consumers the most money at the grocery store.

Melanie has a very unique founder’s story. So we talked with her about what drove her to start Bettercart, and she’s encouraging others to take the leap.

We also dove deep into her startup, and how she’s working with her team to try and make a big wave in the grocery industry, a notoriously competitive market.

We’re having conversations with tech leaders on how they’re facing the COVID-19 crisis head-on, how startups and tech companies can approach the challenges ahead, and how the world changing before our eyes will present unique opportunities for startups and innovators.

We talked with Alicia Soulier of SalonScale. This time, she’s joined by her new co-founders, COO Kim Badiuk, and CTO Tyler Gatehouse.

Since we last talked with Alicia in Season 3 of the show, they have been a startup powerhouse, successfully raising their first major round of funding and fueling massive growth. This includes growing by 101% since March of this year, when most salons in North America were forced to temporarily shut down.

We talked with the three of them about how they have managed to sustain this rapid growth during what is perhaps the hardest time in the history of their industry, by streamlining their efforts and doubling down on their commitment to help salon owners succeed.

We talked with Jeff Tomlin, the Chief Marketing Officer of Vendasta. Vendasta is a platform for selling digital solutions for local businesses and is one of Canada’s fastest-growing tech companies.

Last summer, Vendasta closed a $40 million dollar round of fundraising, the largest venture capital raise in the history of Saskatchewan tech. So needless to say, they were on a tear, fueling massive growth coming into 2020

And then a global economic crisis happened. So we talked with Jeff about how this impacted the Vendasta rocketship, and how they’ve positioned themselves to continue growing. Vendasta sells digital solutions to small businesses in an age where small businesses are moving online faster than ever. So Jeff shared some incredible insights from their team on some of the trends that will emerge from the pandemic, and how they are working hard to help small businesses not only survive but thrive in 2020.

We talked with Jeff Dyck, Director of Engineering with Mentor, a Siemens Company. He was involved in the largest tech acquisition in province history when their startup Solido was acquired by Mentor in late 2017, and since then they have continued to grow their team. Jeff has been an invaluable mentor and thought leader for early-stage startups in the Saskatchewan tech community.

We had a great conversation with Jeff about many things. Like breaking down the last half year from pre-pandemic, to the massive shift to working from home in March, and on to what he describes as a new “golden age” of tech and innovation, spurred on by the pandemic. We also talked about some local examples of startups that have stepped up to the challenge, and he gave his thoughts on how the acceleration toward more globalized, decentralized workforces can impact both employees, and employers.

We talked with Tom Ross, CEO of Andgo Systems, who make smart absence management software, creating efficiencies and improving the lives of everyone involved.

Andgo is focused on helping essential industries like healthcare manage their staff scheduling in a time where this is more important than ever. So we talked more about how they’ve adapted to serve an industry moving headlong toward digital transformation, and what this has meant for their own strategic direction. We also talked about their recent decision to invest in re-branding and positioning the company for success moving forward.

Today we’re talking with Monique Simair, Founder & CEO of Maven Water and Environment, her second clean-tech startup in Saskatoon that’s applying the best of modern technology to water treatment in industrial sectors.

We talked with Monique about her journey in founding, building, and selling her first startup, and how she’s taken everything she’s learned into building her next company. Monique has flipped conventional norms on their head multiple times, so we talked more about her thoughts on disruption, how she’s has brought her innovations to market, and how her team has been working through the new normal to continue their growth.

Today we talked with Pablo Listingart, Founder and Executive Director of ComIT, a charity that is helping solve the tech labour gap by teaching the software development and soft skills that are needed by Canada’s growing tech sector, at no cost to the student.

We talked with Pablo about his journey to start ComIT to help improve access to careers in tech in South America, and how he has grown their programs both in South America, and now in eight Canadian cities. We also talked about how the COVID crisis has impacted the employment market, and how Pablo and ComIT are working to help give more people access to successful careers in tech, where talent is still in high demand.

Today we talked with Shawn Hazen, Founder and CEO of Lumeca a virtual healthcare startup based in Regina. In the face of the COVID crisis, Lumeca made a bold pivot to alleviate strain on the healthcare system and provide people with safe and convenient access to care.

We talked with Shawn about how Lumeca is playing this crucial role during the COVID crisis, and how virtual healthcare can serve an important role in the overall healthcare system moving forward. We also talked about how they have built a solid foundation for their startup, assembling an impressive team of healthcare professionals, as well as seasoned tech veterans.

Today we talked with Jordan McFarlen, Business Incubator Manager with the Cultivator tech incubator in Regina. The Cultivator’s mission is to help founders launch, grow, and scale innovative high-growth companies in the province of Saskatchewan, and it has quickly become a major hub of activity in the burgeoning Regina tech scene.

We talked with Jordan about the challenges the sector is facing, and how they’re continuing to support tech startups through the crisis, including running a fully virtual program, complete with the large startup events that the Saskatchewan tech scene is known for.

Today we talked with Darcy McLane, Executive Director of SaskInteractive, an industry association that represents the interactive and digital media sectors, a big part of the overall tech sector. SaskInteractive recently completed a Labour Market and Economic Impact study, in order to quantify the recent growth in the Saskatchewan tech sector, and set a baseline measurement for future growth.

The study’s results will be released very soon, so we talked about some of the implications of this information, and how the tech sector can continue to move forward in the months ahead.

Today, we talked with Karen Churchill, Bev Stangeland, and Brad Bly of Ag-West Bio, Saskatchewan’s bioscience industry association and bioeconomy catalyst. In their role helping to move research to market and growing biobusiness in the province, they have a close connection to the bioscience startup community.

We talked with them about how the COVID crisis has impacted the bioscience and agri-food sectors, and how investment in bioscience over the decades has helped build the resilient food supply chain that has been largely unaffected through all of this.

Today, we’re talking with Jordan Dutchak from Co.Labs, Saskatoon’s tech incubator, about the implications of the new paradigm we’re now entering, and the opportunities that presents.