S2 Episode 6 The reluctant CEO: Amanda Truscott
Amanda Truscott’s company Rithmik Solutions uses AI to predict and detect faults in mining equipment, saving companies millions of dollars in downtime and repairs. And despite the fact that she’s CEO, it wasn’t always the job she pictured herself in.
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S2 Episode 5 The Indigenous social network founder: Shyra Barberstock
Shyra Barberstock saw vast Indigenous talent across Canada, but what she didn’t see was positive portrayals of her community and Indigenous business. So she launched Okwaho Network, a social-media platform that connects Indigenous entrepreneurs around the world. Based on its success, Shyra co-founded Okwaho Equal Source, an Indigenous-owned for-profit consultancy and design firm.
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S2 Episode 4 The business case for accessibility: Maayan Ziv
How do we make the world more accessible? And how can that accessibility add value to a business? These aren't questions many CEOs ask, but for Maayan Ziv, whose muscular dystrophy means she uses a wheelchair, they've been pivotal to the success of her business, AccessNow.
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S2 Episode 3 The quantum entrepreneur: Joseph Emerson
What happens when a physicist decides to start a company? As CEO of Quantum Benchmark, Joseph Emerson is melding the two very different worlds of science and business, working with companies like Google to make quantum computing a reality.
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S2 Episode 2 The fertility hacker: Alyssa Atkins
Finding out about her own fertility was taking way too long for Alyssa Atkins, so she started Lilia, a company that provides people with accessible and reliable at-home fertility testing.
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S2 Episode 1 The social case for solar power: John Paul Morgan
John Paul Morgan is the founder and CTO of Morgan Solar, and an evangelist for solar power. While he does want to help stop climate change, his main concern is trying to make the world a fairer place.
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S2 Episode 0 Coming soon: Season 2 of I'll Go Now
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S1 Episode 11 Bunz CEO Sascha Mojtahedi: Cryptocurrency, dating and having skin in the game
What once was a secret Facebook group has now grown into a multi-platform, online-bartering movement. In this episode, the CEO of popular trading platform Bunz talks about the future of bartering and Bunz' new cryptocurrency BTZ.
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S1 Episode 10 Spartan Bioscience’s Paul Lem: DNA testing, med school and Marvel comics
Your DNA holds the answer to every question you have about your body, but for the most part, those answers have been inaccessible because of cost and time. This Ottawa-based startup wants to revolutionize health care by giving providers and their patients access to affordable, on-demand DNA results. In this episode, Spartan’s CEO and founder talks about the secrets hiding in your DNA, his past career as a doctor and his love for comic books.
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S1 Episode 9 Sightline Innovation's Mai Mavinkurve: Machine learning, motherhood and misconceptions
Mai Mavinkurve knows all about how artificial intelligence can make businesses more efficient. The founder and COO of Sightline Innovation talks about the misconceptions of AI, robots taking our jobs and how she juggles motherhood with entrepreneurship.
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S1 Episode 8 Ritual’s Ray Reddy: Takeout, failure and leaving Silicon Valley
In an age of convenience, Ritual is revolutionizing the lunch rush. CEO Ray Reddy talks about the origins of his takeout app, coming to Canada as a teenager and looking at failure differently.
Suggested reading:
- The past five years have seen more tech-driven advances than in the preceding half-century.Technology, slow to the restaurant scene, is now on the menu
- Some startups flame out, but the appetite for Ritual hasn’t faded: Q&A: Why Ritual’s Ray Reddy left Silicon Valley
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S1 Episode 7 Flytographer's Nicole Smith: Selfie sticks, logging off and seeing it to be it
Sometimes the awkward travel selfies just won’t cut it. Enter Flytographer − the company that matches travellers to professional photographers in big destination cities. CEO Nicole Smith talks about how she turned her idea into an international business, what she’s learned being the only woman in the room and how PayPal almost ended her business.
Suggested reading:
- Room service at the Hotel Monville in Montreal starts with a phone call that tells the guest: Your robot delivery is outside.Travel industry brings innovative technology along for the ride
- Read more about the Nicole Smith: With startup in her viewfinder, Nicole Smith didn’t give up
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S1 Episode 6 Bruce Linton: Cannabis, partying with Snoop Dog and parenting
It seems like it’s been a long time coming, but cannabis is officially legal in Canada. In this episode we hear from Bruce Linton – the man behind one of Canada’s biggest cannabis companies, Canopy Growth. Bruce shares his experience at the forefront of a budding sector, what it’s like to party with Snoop Dog and his strange nighttime routine.
Suggested reading:
- More from Bruce: Q&A: Bruce Linton of Canopy Growth on being a nerd and cannabis ‘spokesman’
- Canada has an opportunity to finally dominate a global industry: How Canada’s cannabis industry can avoid the BlackBerry curse
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S1 Episode 5 Will Richman: Couch surfing, burnout and living with your coworkers
Every founder knows someone in the tech industry who has experienced burnout, but Will Richman isn’t afraid to talk about it. The CEO of AI-assisted sales-prospecting service GrowthGenius shares how he recognizes and tries to mitigate stress. He also gets candid about measuring up to the pressure of an incredibly entrepreneurial family and the pros and cons of living with your coworkers.
Suggested reading:
- How to take boss-employee bonding to the next level: Recipe for startup success: Live with your staff
- Read more about the AI shakeup: Retailers build sales – and smarts – with artificial intelligence
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S1 Episode 4 Solon Angel: Racism, fraud and Star Trek
Solon Angel might live in Ottawa now, but his journey to get there was anything but average. The founder of MindBridge Ai opens up about his tumultuous childhood, his personal connection to fraud and his thoughts on Canada’s tech industry.
Suggested reading:
- A Q&A: AI startup founder Solon Angel thrives amid chaos
- We asked leaders in the AI industry what they think should happen next: Startup CEOs on how to keep the artificial intelligence ball rolling in Canada
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S1 Episode 3 Huda Idrees: Skydiving, Saudi Arabia and digital health care
She’s been building companies since she was 12-years-old in Saudi Arabia. Now, Huda Idrees is tackling Canada’s arcane health-care system with her latest company, Dot Health. The founder and CEO talks about immigrating to Canada, jumping out of planes and her journey as a woman in the tech industry.
Suggested reading:
- "I imagined that health-care systems would have this already," says Idrees: The startup CEO dragging Canadian health care into the future
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S1 Episode 2 Cole Diamond: Fatherhood, forking and the cryptocurrency market
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple − it’s a complicated new world and Cole Diamond is in the middle of it. The CEO of digital currency trading platform Coinsquare shares his outlook on the market, and reveals how fatherhood changed him.
Suggested reading:
- Read last week's interview with Cole Diamond here: Q&A: Cryptocurrency pioneer advises HODL: ‘hold on for dear life’
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S1 Episode 1 Geordie Rose: Powerlifting, money and robots of the future
The robots are coming. In this episode, we hear from Geordie Rose, founder of Sanctuary AI – an artificial intelligence company attempting to make machines that are indistinguishable from humans. A Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion with a unique perspective on money, Geordie shares his hobbies, what life was like growing up, and why he isn’t afraid of a future where robots can do what we do now.
Suggested reading:
- Sean Silcoff reports on how Geordie Rose plans to take AI to the extreme: She looks like a human. Can she be taught to think like one too?
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S1 Episode 0 Coming Soon: I'll Go Now
What is it like to be the first startup in your industry? The first to disrupt? The first to see the problem and know that you can fix it? In this new podcast from The Globe and Mail, tech journalist Takara Small takes us on a journey to find out.
Suggested reading:
Want a sneak peek of the first episode? We interviewed our first trailblazer Geordie Rose about his scarily lifelike robots here: Q&A: Tech visionary Geordie Rose is wired to build robots
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About I'll Go Now
What is it like to be the first startup in your industry? The first to disrupt? The first to see the problem and know that you can fix it? I’ll Go Now (previously known as The Globe and Mail's I'll Go First podcast) takes us on a journey to find out.
Takara Small is a Toronto-based tech journalist and the founder of Venture Kids Canada, a non-profit organization that encourages children from underserved communities to pursue the skills they need to launch their own tech startups. Follow her on Twitter here.
I'll Go Now is hosted by Takara Small. The show is a Vocal Fry Studios production. Its producer is Jay Cockburn, with research by Cecilia Keating. The show's executive producers are Kiran Rana and Katie Jensen. Art was created by Jeanine Brito.
Have a question? Email the show at podcasts@globeandmail.com.
