At a time when more Canadians are rethinking what retirement looks like, lifelong sailors and retired brand builders Sian Roberts and Kevin Dunal offer a compelling second-act founder story.
While living aboard a 95-year-old Dutch barge in the Netherlands, the couple encountered a problem familiar to many downsizing consumers: traditional cookware simply wasn’t designed for tight, modern living. Their search led them to nesto by Cook Vision, a German-engineered nesting cookware system that reduces storage needs by up to 50 per cent without compromising performance or durability.
With more than 50 years of combined experience launching and scaling brands across North America, Roberts and Dunal quickly recognized a broader market opportunity, particularly as Canadians move into smaller homes and prioritize longer-lasting household investments. Though officially retired, they made the deliberate decision to return to entrepreneurship, leading nesto’s expansion into Canada.
Today, they are building the brand around a system-based, “buy better, buy once” philosophy, positioning nesto as a premium alternative to cluttered cookware sets, and a case study in opportunity-driven retirement entrepreneurship.
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Zoey founded Tonica in 2006 as the first commercially available kombucha brand in Canada, helping introduce and build a category that is now firmly established in grocery + specialty retail nationwide. With no outside investment and no formal business training, she grew the company from small-batch brewing within Toronto’s yoga community into a national brand now available in more than 2,500 stores.
Under her leadership, Tonica became a recognized Canadian success story, including a memorable appearance on Dragon’s Den, further cementing the brand’s profile and credibility as it scaled. As a former yoga teacher with a deep interest in health and fermentation, Zoey built Tonica around traditional brewing methods, ingredient integrity, and long-term thinking.
Today, Tonica operates out of its own certified organic and HACCP production facility in Ontario and offers a diverse portfolio of bottled and canned kombucha flavours. Zoey remains the sole owner of the business, overseeing production, distribution, and brand strategy – an increasingly rare model in today’s consolidated CPG landscape.
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Dylan Munro is co-founder of Spot & Tango, a fast-growing U.S. based direct-to-consumer dog food company, which launched in Canada in March. Canada is the brand’s first international expansion and is being led by co-founder Munro, a Toronto native who is bringing the brand he helped build in the U.S., back home.
The move reflects both the growing appetite among Canadian pet owners for premium, human-grade nutrition and Dylan’s personal desire to introduce the product to his own family, friends, and fellow Canadians.
Spot & Tango delivers human-grade, vet-developed dog food through a subscription model, including its best-selling FreshDry™️ “UnKibble,” which combines the nutritional integrity of fresh food with the convenience of dry. The company has served more than 100 million meals in the U.S. and is now adapting its operations specifically for Canadian pet parents.
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A compelling story not just about what they built, but how they built it as partners in life and in business, balancing vision, execution, and accountability at the highest level.
Isaac Langleben and Jacqueline Prehogan recognized that the global food system is broken, and pet food, often overlooked, is one of its most powerful drivers of change. Their entrepreneurial vision emerged from a search for better nutrition for their rescue dog, revealing a deeper insight: pet food sits at the intersection of global agriculture, animal welfare, and consumer trust, yet is shaped by opaque supply chains and inconsistent welfare standards. Isaac and Jacqueline saw this disconnect as both a responsibility and an opportunity to challenge industry norms and build a business aligned with nutrition, animal welfare, ethical sourcing, and transparency at scale.
Founded in 2014, Open Farm develops premium pet nutrition with thoughtfully sourced ingredients. The company pioneered ingredient traceability, enabling pet parents to see where every ingredient originates, while holding partners to rigorous third-party animal welfare and sustainability standards. As Chief Executive Officer, Isaac provides the operational discipline and systems thinking required to scale a values-led global supply chain, while Jacqueline, as Chief Brand Officer, shapes Open Farm’s purpose-driven culture and consumer trust.
Today, Open Farm feeds more than a quarter of a million pets annually and is sold direct-to-consumer and via 8,500 global retail locations. As a Certified B Corporation and one of the fastest-growing brands in the category, Open Farm demonstrates that transparency and ethics are not constraints on growth, but drivers of long-term value. Through their leadership, Isaac and Isaac are reshaping expectations within pet food and influencing how responsible food systems are built for the future. They have recently been recognized as EY Entrepreneur of the Year Canada 2025 winners.
Isaac and Jacqueline’s entrepreneurial achievements have driven them to become the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Canada winners. This is a terrific achievement, and we look forward to them representing Canada in the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™️ Awards in Monaco.
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Sylvain Karpinski is Founder & CEO of SLY Foods. SLY comes from Sylvain’s own adventures: 18,000 km cycling journeys across the Americas, packrafting expeditions on Canada’s remote whitewater rivers, and two solo offshore racing seasons across the Atlantic.
He couldn’t find freeze-dried meals that met his expectations during his expeditions. Refusing to settle for bland, unbalanced options, he began crafting his own recipes — gourmet, plant-based, and nutritious meals, designed to hold up in the most demanding conditions.
Back on solid ground, he decided to share them with the world. And so SLY was born, a line of savoury, practical, long-lasting, freeze-dried meals, made to fuel weekend adventurers, extreme explorers, and busy parents!
Sylvain is a great example of a Canadian adventurous go-getter. Already, SLY Foods are stocked in stores across Canada as well as in Europe in France & The Netherlands.
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Arshia Jahangiri is the Founder and CEO of Solenery, a Canadian clean-energy platform built to make the transition to sustainable living effortless for homeowners, builders, and energy providers. Since founding Solenery, Arshia has led its vision to simplify how people discover, compare, and act on clean-energy incentives, turning complex data into instant, actionable insights through smart technology and design.
Born with an entrepreneurial spirit, Arshia moved to Toronto with a mission to combine creativity, business, and technology to solve real problems that matter. His journey started with a high-school patent for a rooftop energy system, evolved through graduate studies in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Queen’s University, and materialized into Solenery.
Under his leadership, Solenery has developed a suite of intelligent tools, including its Energy Insights Widget, an AI-powered system that analyzes property data, ROI, and rebates for any postal code in Canada. The company is expanding its ecosystem through Builder and Partner platforms, connecting the clean-energy industry across property owners, builders, and providers.
As a multidisciplinary founder, Arshia blends design thinking, product innovation, and market strategy to bridge the gap between sustainability and adoption. Beyond Solenery, he is building a family of brands under Brinalle Group, fostering ventures that intersect design, technology, and experience.
Arshia’s mission is simple yet ambitious: to create systems that make sustainable choices mainstream, profitable, and personal. Whether through clean energy, design innovation, or business ecosystems, his work reflects a belief that impact starts with clarity, and clarity begins with design.
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Matt Giffen is the Founder and CEO of Bench Brewing Company in West Lincoln, Niagara. Matt has built an innovative brewery that prioritizes sustainability and conscious business practices within the beverage industry, these are topics that align well with your thoughtful discussions about craft beer.
Matt shares his journey from a 24-year banking career to founding a farmhouse brewery in Lincoln, Ontario, which opened in 2018. He explained how he combined his passion for beer with the local agricultural community, establishing a brewery that now ranks sixth among craft breweries in Ontario.
Bench Brewing is an award-winning craft beverage company dedicated to “craft beverages with a conscience.” Since 2018, they’ve been at the forefront of sustainable brewing practices, implementing innovative solutions like zero wastewater process and closed-loop water system where every drop used in brewing is repurposed to nourish our onsite hops and adjacent local farms. Matt would be happy to share insights about:
Matt has built a sustainable brewery from the ground up and implemented conscious and sustainable business practices in the beverage industry. Matt operates at the intersection of craft brewing and environmental stewardship.
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Calgary-based entrepreneur and University of Calgary alum, Joanna Pariseau along with her business partner, Melissa Ninaber embody both through their fast-growing food-tech venture, Taste the City.
Taste the City invites customers to enjoy a thoughtfully curated tasting experience. Text-led, each tasting allows guests to visit multiple restaurants in one evening, all within walking distance. When booking, diners do not know where they’ll be going, or what they’ll be eating, but by removing the need to decide, the experience becomes effortless and free from decision fatigue. Every stop is carefully timed, prepaid and designed to showcase the best of the local dining scene while fostering connection through food.
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Alicia Hardman grew up on a fruit farm just down the ridge from Shale Ridge Winery and always dreamed of tying her roots to a place of her own, where craft and hospitality meet. Years later, she left a full-time job and went all-in on that vision. It wasn’t a retirement project. It was an underdog leap, capital-heavy, complex, and humbling.
Alicia says starting from the bottom meant ups and downs, tough lessons, and a lot of perseverance. But when heart and vision stay aligned, you find your way. Every bottle, every table we set, and every smile at the door is a thank-you to the people who believed with us, and to you for being part of it.
Alicia didn’t arrive with all the answers. She learned fast, sought out seasoned growers and makers, invested in the right equipment, and kept listening, to the land and to the guests. The result is a Shale Ridge Winery, Cidery and Spa. A place that feels personal: with swings, sunshine, seasonal plates, and glasses that tell the story of where they came from.
From the beginning, Alicia carried with her a deep respect for the rhythm of the land—an instinct shaped by early mornings in the orchard and long afternoons watching the seasons shift across the ridge. That upbringing taught her that good things grow slowly, with intention, and only when nurtured with patience. It’s a philosophy she wove into every decision, from the varieties planted to the way guests are welcomed through the gates. She wanted Shale Ridge to feel like the kind of place where people could breathe a little deeper, settle into the moment, and reconnect with something real.
As the dream took shape, the landscape itself became a silent partner in the journey. Rolling rows of vines and fruit trees framed the horizon, while the textured shale of the ridge—once a familiar backdrop from her childhood—began to inspire the identity of the winery. Its layered, resilient character mirrored her own path: strong, weathered, and quietly beautiful. Alicia often says that the land tells its story to anyone willing to listen, and she built spaces that invite guests to do exactly that—spaces meant for lingering, laughing, and letting the outside world slow down for a while.
Guests who visit today often describe the experience as warm, effortless, and immersive. The swings overlooking the vineyard aren’t just a novelty; they embody the playful spirit Alicia wanted to preserve, a reminder that joy and craftsmanship can coexist. Seasonal plates arrive at the table with colours that echo the nearby orchards and gardens, creating a seamless link between what’s poured, what’s plated, and what’s grown just steps away. And every glass—whether wine or cider—carries a sense of place shaped by years of dedication, risk, and unwavering belief.
In many ways, Shale Ridge stands as both a tribute to her roots and a celebration of what can happen when someone chooses not only to dream, but to follow that dream into the unknown with courage and heart.
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Monika Jensen is a chef, author, and creative force passionate about bringing balance, joy, and flavor to everyday living. She is the author of a new cookbook called The Balanced Plate: Healthy Recipes with Keto Alternatives, a 265-page cookbook designed to make nutritious eating approachable, colorful, and full of flavor. Each full-color recipe includes nutritional information and practical tips for living a low-carb lifestyle without sacrificing taste. Now available on Amazon and in bookstores this November, the book reflects Monika’s belief that healthy food should be both satisfying and exciting.
Her love for food goes beyond creating recipes, it’s about turning healthy cooking into a celebration. By offering simple keto alternatives and approachable guidance, Monika helps home cooks discover meals that fuel the body while still bringing joy to the table.
For Monika, the kitchen has always been more than just a place to cook, it’s been her anchor. During challenging times, cooking gave her purpose, comfort, and a sense of calm. That personal connection to food continues to shape her work today, inspiring her upcoming second cookbook, The Spiced Plate: Savor the Spice of Global Cuisine, which explores the joy of nourishing dishes infused with global flavors.
Monika Jensen is a celebrated, innovative, and visionary chef, author, and creative force, deeply passionate about bringing balance, joy, harmony, and vibrant flavor to everyday living, wellness, and nourishment. She is the proud, accomplished, and dedicated author of a groundbreaking new cookbook called The Balanced Plate: Healthy Recipes with Keto Alternatives, a comprehensive, inspiring, and beautifully designed 265-page cookbook created to make nutritious eating approachable, colorful, accessible, and full of flavor, energy, and delight.
Each stunning, full-color recipe thoughtfully includes nutritional information, practical guidance, and insightful tips for living a sustainable, enjoyable, and empowering low-carb lifestyle without ever sacrificing taste, satisfaction, or creativity. Now available on Amazon and in bookstores this November, the book reflects Monika’s heartfelt belief that healthy food should always be both satisfying and exciting, nourishing and celebratory, flavorful and fulfilling.
Her genuine love for food goes far beyond simply creating recipes; it’s about turning healthy cooking into a joyful, meaningful, and memorable celebration of life, culture, and connection. By offering simple, practical, and delicious keto alternatives alongside approachable, encouraging, and supportive guidance, Monika helps home cooks everywhere discover meals that fuel the body, energize the spirit, and still bring joy, laughter, and togetherness to the table.
For Monika, the kitchen has always been more than just a place to cook; it has been her anchor, her sanctuary, her creative studio, and her source of inspiration. During challenging, difficult, and uncertain times, cooking gave her purpose, comfort, resilience, and a profound sense of calm, grounding, and renewal. That deeply personal connection to food continues to shape her work today, inspiring her upcoming, eagerly anticipated, and imaginative second cookbook, The Spiced Plate: Savor the Spice of Global Cuisine, which beautifully explores the joy, artistry, and adventure of nourishing dishes infused with diverse, colorful, and aromatic global flavors.
Her culinary philosophy emphasizes balance, creativity, and joy, blending wellness with indulgence, tradition with innovation, and simplicity with sophistication. Monika’s recipes highlight vibrant ingredients, bold spices, and thoughtful techniques, encouraging cooks to embrace mindful eating, flavorful exploration, and cultural appreciation. Through her cookbooks, teachings, and creative projects, she continues to inspire individuals to celebrate food as a source of health, happiness, and connection, proving that cooking is not just about sustenance but about living fully, joyfully, and deliciously.
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