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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Today, we meet Ben Taylor, the founder behind the marketing and business growth of the Beachman. It’s a great Canadian entrepreneur story. Ben is the Co-Founder of Beachman e-bikes. In 2019, Beachman’s two founders Ben Taylor and Steve Payne had a chance encounter at a coffee shop. Ben is the creator of the Beachman name with the dream to build a wildly new electric cafe racer, and Steve, the cafe racer builder who could bring that dream to life. Ben comes from an entrepreneurial family, with parents that were co-founders of the now famous SteamWhistle Brewery. In the fall of 2020 Steve completed work on the first prototype, a modified 1979 Kawasaki KZ200, which they refer to as “Zero”. With a battery system hand-built by Steve, a modern electric drivetrain, and authentic café racer styling, the pair knew they had something special, so let’s find out more.
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Ana Romaniv is the founder of Eight Station, a Vancouver-based boutique rendering studio. The company turns design into photorealistic 3D content.
After relocating to Canada, she built the studio from the ground up. Today, Eight Station is a more than 15-person team that has visualized more than 100 architectural, interior, and real estate projects – all before a single brick was laid.
The studio collaborates with leading clients such as MLA Canada, Frank Architecture, Green Theory etc. Ana’s work lies at the intersection of design, storytelling and emerging technology such as AI tools. Her goal is to push creative boundaries without losing the sense of realistic renderings.
What makes Ana’s story particularly compelling is the way she translated personal ambition into a thriving creative ecosystem. Arriving in a new country meant more than just adapting to unfamiliar surroundings—it required rebuilding a professional network from scratch, earning trust project by project, and navigating the cultural nuances of the Canadian design industry. Instead of seeing these challenges as obstacles, she treated them as catalysts for innovation. Each early project became a stepping stone, allowing her to refine her process, elevate her standards, and assemble a team that shared her commitment to excellence.
Eight Station eventually grew into a studio defined by curiosity and precision. Ana instilled a culture where artists, designers, and technologists work together not simply to replicate reality but to enhance it—to present spaces with a kind of emotional resonance that helps viewers feel as though they’ve stepped into a future home, a future lobby, or a future neighbourhood. The team’s renderings often capture intricate textures, subtle light behaviour, and atmospheric mood in ways that invite clients and stakeholders to imagine possibilities before construction ever begins. This forward-looking approach has set the studio apart in an industry where visuals are no longer just supporting material but foundational decision-making tools.
Ana’s leadership also emphasizes the artistry behind technological mastery. While the studio embraces cutting-edge software, generative tools, and emerging workflows, she reminds her team that technology only becomes powerful when paired with a thoughtful, human touch. Her philosophy blends craft with narrative intent: every rendering must tell a story about how people will eventually live, gather, or move through a space. This philosophy resonates with developers and architects who seek more than technical accuracy—they want images that build anticipation, spark imagination, and communicate identity.
Beyond the daily production work, Ana invests heavily in mentorship and ongoing learning. She encourages her team to explore new visual languages, study global design trends, and test experimental methods that might later become part of their signature process. Through this openness, Eight Station has cultivated a reputation as both a dependable partner and an inventive creative lab. Clients often return not only for the high-quality imagery but for the collaborative experience, knowing the studio will bring clarity, passion, and fresh perspective to each project.
As Ana continues to guide Eight Station into its next phase, her vision remains rooted in expanding what visualization can achieve. She sees the future of rendering as an increasingly immersive practice—one that merges artistry, digital craftsmanship, and intelligent tools to transform how people understand space. Her journey from newcomer to industry leader stands as a testament to resilience, imagination, and the power of building something meaningful from the ground up.
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Anslem’s insightful and deeply thoughtful perspectives for engineering entrepreneurs are absolutely terrific, offering valuable, experience-based guidance for those aspiring to navigate complex technical and business landscapes. What it takes to step out of multi-national engineering companies to start up your own venture… so interesting, especially when viewed through the lens of someone who has actually lived through the intense pressures, difficult crossroads, and exhilarating opportunities of such a transition.
Anselm Viswasam graduated from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) with a degree in Electrical Engineering and is a professional engineer licensed in the province of Ontario. This strong and academically rigorous foundation provided him with the technical depth, analytical discipline, and professional credibility necessary for a successful engineering career. He also holds an MBA in Technology Management and New Ventures Development, from Queens University, in Canada, a program that equipped him with comprehensive business strategy skills, innovative leadership training, and entrepreneurial awareness that would later support his transition into the startup world.
Anselm co-founded Hyperion in July 2015 – with the intention of developing the first implementation of a distributed sensing solution for the electric grid. This bold and forward-looking vision was rooted in his commitment to improving grid reliability, efficiency, and intelligence. Essentially, Hyperion brings assets to life by taking each of the elements that comprise a high voltage asset and adding intelligence to it, enabling real-time monitoring, data-driven insights, and predictive capabilities. In essence, a smart grid is smart because it is made up of smart assets, and Hyperion’s transformative approach helps utilities modernize their infrastructure with cutting-edge, field-ready technology.
Prior to this, Anselm successfully led ABB’s Substation Automation Products Division for North America and in this role, he was responsible for sales of Transmission and Sub-transmission products to Utilities in Canada, the US, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. This demanding leadership position required a deep understanding of complex power systems, cross-border market dynamics, and customer-specific technical needs. Anselm spent over 14 years at General Electric (Multilin – substation protection and control products) holding positions in engineering, operations, marketing and in new product development. These diverse roles allowed him to build a well-rounded professional portfolio and understand how engineering innovation moves from concept to commercialization. He was an integral part of the team that developed the world’s first microprocessor protection relays – which are now ubiquitous across the power grid globally, marking a groundbreaking technological shift. He also worked in GE’s Wire & Cable group and developed cables for niche applications such as mineshaft power cable, cable buses and high performance fluid filled cable systems, showcasing his technical creativity and problem-solving capabilities.
Anselm prides himself on being a true “international” Canadian. Born in Sierra Leone, West Africa to parents of ethnic Sri Lankan origin, his first ten years were spent growing up in Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Tanzania, immersing him in diverse cultures and global perspectives. After a short stint in boarding school in the United Kingdom, his father retired from the United Nations and moved back to Sri Lanka. The ensuing civil war in Sri Lanka forced Anselm and his parents to immigrate to Canada in 1989 – 35 years and counting as a Canadian!
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Shawn Freeman is the founder of Impactful MSP, a coaching business dedicated to helping Managed Service Providers scale, lead, and grow beyond seven figures. After building and successfully exiting his own MSP and then partnering to build a second one, Shawn now coaches other MSP owners to create businesses that are not only profitable but also truly impactful. He believes an exceptional MSP business empowers its owner, uplifts its team, delivers real value to clients, and strengthens the community it serves. With deep experience in technology, leadership, mentorship and entrepreneurship, Shawn provides the strategic insight MSPs need to shift from overwhelmed operator to confident, visionary leader.
Shawn Freeman helps owners build a scalable MSP with proven systems and coaching. He shows you how to run an impactful MSP without stress or second-guessing, offering clear guidance and steady growth. This provides a path to becoming a better leader, achieving steady growth, and leading your business confidently. If your days are filled with client issues, staffing problems, and nonstop firefighting, you’re not running a sustainable business.
You may be running yourself into the ground, a common problem where effort is not lacking but the model doesn’t give you room to lead. Staying in that unsustainable loop isn’t just exhausting; it is also tremendously expensive. It costs valuable time, energy, and momentum that could be used for scaling. Your competitors are refining their systems, winning better clients, and scaling teams that operate successfully without constant intervention. They are moving forward while many owners find themselves standing still, and the longer this continues, the wider the competitive gap becomes. The Impactful MSP Coaching Program is built for owners who are done spinning their wheels on low-value activities. Participants receive a clear, proven framework to regain control of their time and install the necessary systems that truly scale. This approach allows them to create a thriving business that doesn’t rely entirely on the owner to function.
Success translates directly to more freedom, better-fit clients who appreciate value, and higher margins for the MSP. It cultivates the confidence to lead with purpose instead of managing crises under pressure. You are capable of so much more, and you can build the MSP you deserve through strategic action. Scaling your Managed Service Provider doesn’t have to mean more chaos and longer hours of work. With the right plan and expert coaching, you can streamline operations and accelerate forward like never before seen. What is holding you back is often getting caught in the weeds, managing day-to-day tasks instead of driving strategic vision.
Many realize they are not growing or simply don’t have a clear vision for the business that excites them. Here is the truth: you need to learn new skills to get to the next level of profitability and leadership. Until you acquire those essential skills, you will be spinning your wheels, which costs more than just revenue; it costs time, energy, and confidence. The Impactful MSP Coaching Program offers a smarter way to scale your MSP, focusing on building a business that empowers your team. It gives you the freedom to focus solely on what matters most for long-term strategic success. We help you grow your leadership skills through the implementation of proven systems.
This focus includes market differentiation, delivering stand-out results your clients will notice and truly love. It ensures simplified growth using proven tactics that help you scale your entire team without significant burnout. The program includes the freedom to lead, implementing methods that work without micromanagement, a key component to achieving your goals.
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Dan Swayze is a seasoned executive leader with over 20 years of experience driving growth, innovation, and transformation in high-tech companies. Renowned for defining and executing technical strategies that enable cloud migration, automation, and data-driven decision-making. Adept at aligning business and technology goals to deliver scalable, secure, and high-performing solutions. Dan is passionate about mentoring talent, fostering a culture of innovation, and building high-performing teams. He thrives at the intersection of technology and strategy, driving measurable results and sustained business success.
Dan Swayze’s strategic focus is heavily aligned with providing Strategy and Execution for Startups Ready to Scale, ensuring businesses are Moving Fast and Smart. His leadership enables companies to Ship Value Fast by aligning product, people, process, and strategy to unlock significant market traction. He champions the philosophy that Moving Fast is good, but Moving Smart is better, and the goal is always to do both. Specifically, he excels at structuring engagements that accelerate ROI, reduce costs, and secure capital, ensuring that strategy, product, and technology are working together for faster, de-risked growth.
His background includes a deep specialization in complex Secure SaaS at Scale implementations. A prime example of his impact involves the redesign of SaaS security platforms utilizing scalable serverless architecture, which has successfully cut onboarding friction by 60% and simultaneously reduced operational costs while restoring critical investor confidence. This approach often involves re-architecting platforms using a multi-tenant serverless design, streamlining client onboarding processes, and thoroughly embedding scalability and security protocols directly into the delivery model. This hands-on capability ensures platforms are positioned as investor-ready with a clear, reliable path to scale.
Beyond architectural transformation, he provides crucial Startup Advisory services, particularly focused on AI Startup Funding Readiness. He helps founders refine their validation and Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy, crafting an investor-ready narrative that significantly accelerates fundraising and secures vital investor interest. This meticulous work involves helping teams clarify their problem–solution fit, define their ideal customer profile (ICP), and construct an investor-ready GTM narrative supported by demonstrably measurable traction levers.
Furthermore, he has a proven track record in Business Growth, enabling regional services businesses to expand their offerings and optimize marketing performance, leading to quantifiable improvements such as a 20% boost in customer acquisition efficiency within short six-month cycles. This success is achieved through introducing tailored service-line strategies, piloting targeted local marketing experiments, and structuring foundational operations for systemic scale.
For investors and Private Equity (PE) firms, his expertise includes detailed Investor Product Diligence. He conducts rigorous product audits, uncovering technical risks prior to acquisition deals, which effectively prevents overvaluation and strengthens negotiation terms. This due diligence involves a detailed codebase and product audit to surface hidden technical and operational risks, delivering actionable remediation recommendations that protect investor value and reduce post-acquisition uncertainty.
Dan Swayze is committed to Transforming Vision into Execution, offering Strategic Advisory for Founders and PE Firms Ready to Scale. His proven methodology systematically combines strategic thinking with rapid, hands-on execution to consistently deliver measurable, tangible results for growing businesses. His consultative solutions include MarketSync for GTM Strategy and Product-Market-Technology Alignment, ensuring synchronous growth strategy, product roadmap, and technical execution with strong investor-ready positioning. He implements ProductPath for Agile Product Strategy to Scale Smart, defining adaptive roadmaps that ship high value fast with outcome-driven prioritization. His TechStack Advantage service focuses on Technology Stack Review and Optimization, designing revenue-ready, scalable tech stacks that incorporate cost control and essential compliance from the outset. He drives InvestorReady strategies to ensure clients show up prepared for diligence and their next capital raise, equipped with GTM clarity and the right corporate governance checklists. Finally, his PE Advantage framework offers an Operational Audit and Efficiency Roadmap, providing faster ROI with systematic leakage find-and-fix across product, process, and operational spend. These engagements are guided by core Value Pillars: Clarity, providing actionable roadmaps; Execution, accelerating plans without sacrificing precision; Scale, building a foundation for sustainable growth; Risk Reduction, ensuring foresight to identify technical and operational gaps; Investor Readiness, preparing clients to face investors with confidence; and Efficiency, helping clients to modernize and streamline operations while reducing costs. This comprehensive approach ensures a clear path from initial guidance to sustained growth for all clients.
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Sameer Dhar is a serial entrepreneur and healthcare innovator passionate about using technology to create social impact. He is the CEO and Co-Founder of NiaHealth, Canada’s leading proactive health platform, helping people live longer, healthier lives by combining advanced biomarker testing, personalized clinical insights, and expert guidance.
Sameer’s entrepreneurial journey began in high school when he co-founded GEOMEER, a charitable organization focused on poverty alleviation. He later launched Sensassure, an elder tech startup that reimagined incontinence care, an effort so hands-on that Sameer lived in a nursing home for a year to design solutions that truly worked. Sensassure was later acquired by global hygiene leader Essity.
A Schwarzman Scholar, Sameer has also worked at Morgan Stanley, AIMCo, and Clairvest, and has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 20 Under 20, Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40, and a Satchu Prize Recipient through Canada’s Next 36.
At NiaHealth, he’s on a mission to extend healthspan and democratize access to high-quality, preventative healthcare.
NiaHealth, under Sameer Dhar’s dedicated leadership, functions as Canada’s preeminent proactive health platform, meticulously designed for modern life and backed by insights from world-leading scientists. This sophisticated approach to longevity and healthspan utilizes advanced clinical-grade testing, examining over one hundred and fifty biomarkers in the comprehensive Optimum plan. These extensive panels are often up to four times more inclusive than typical annual checkups, revealing vital data points concerning cardiovascular health, metabolic function, liver performance, and essential micronutrient levels. The platform’s scientific foundation draws from thousands of peer-reviewed papers, ensuring every piece of advice is robustly evidence-based and science-backed.
NiaHealth is dedicated to the early detection of hidden risks, an ambition achieved through detailed analysis and personalized guidance. Members often receive at-home testing services, where a professional phlebotomist collects the necessary samples, streamlining the experience for maximum convenience. Within days, typically as fast as five, members gain access to a powerful digital dashboard that intelligently combines lab results and can seamlessly integrate with personal fitness wearables. This integration provides real clarity, delivering precise, actionable insights right to the user’s fingertips.
The results are translated into a comprehensive, hand-written report crafted by specialized Canadian clinicians, never relying on generic AI-generated advice. This personalized report is a cornerstone of the service, detailing the member’s current standing across key health domains like heart, liver, and metabolism, while also meticulously considering family history and unique lifestyle factors. Following the report, a one-on-one virtual consultation is scheduled with a dedicated longevity-trained clinician. This essential consult helps co-create a custom health plan that truly sticks, focusing intensely on optimizing critical pillars of wellness: activity levels, specific nutrition strategies, and high-quality sleep hygiene.
The commitment to preventative health is powerfully exemplified by the available statistics: a significant ninety percent of NiaHealth members uncover an unknown health risk that is addressable and actionable, such as silent diabetes risk or an undisclosed genetic marker for serious heart disease. The service empowers individuals to take decisive control, not just by providing raw data, but by delivering clear, step-by-step next actions rooted firmly in the latest longevity science. Annual memberships include subsequent re-testing to track tangible progress effectively, ensuring continued health optimization and supporting a much longer, better life for its users. The platform offers various membership tiers, from the accessible Essentials with over forty clinically-validated biomarkers to the highly comprehensive Optimum. Sameer’s compelling vision successfully democratizes access to this high-quality, preventative model of care across numerous Canadian provinces, confirming NiaHealth’s place as a truly trusted partner for peak performers and proactive health seekers alike in modern society.
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With a combined 40 years in Business and Healthcare Comms, Lorie and Carolyn witnessed the challenges facing the industry. This ignited their passion to bridge the gap between the industry and patients. Bridge’s vision is to empower healthcare professionals to optimize patient outcomes through innovative communication tools, creative solutions, and strategic collaboration. With their unique expertise.
The fundamentals of evidence-based medicine have the power to improve and change lives dramatically. Bridge’s core focus is to optimize the impact of medical innovations with specialized communications that are clear and impactful. They strive to make a positive and enduring impact on patient-centred care, helping their clients excel in our “new normal” with virtual education and engagement strategies. Bridge Medical Communications was founded on the fundamental belief that medical innovations and the established principles of evidence-based medicine possess the power to save and change countless lives for the better. Through over thirty years of collective experience within the specialized healthcare space, the founders observed complex challenges facing a quickly evolving industry; these issues could no longer be ignored or simply tolerated. Consequently, Lorie and Carolyn set out intentionally to address these persistent challenges by starting a dedicated boutique medical communications consultancy back in 2012.
The business is, genuinely, at its heart, about bridging the critical gap between the innovative industry and the actual patient population. The team believes wholeheartedly that specialized communications directed toward healthcare professionals play an absolutely pivotal role in successfully optimizing the potential impact of medical innovations across the entire healthcare landscape and—ultimately—on the individual patient’s life and health journey. Their defined mission is to transform the entire healthcare landscape through specialized communications delivered precisely to healthcare practitioners and purposefully make change through comprehensive information, essential education, and proactive engagement. Their defined purpose is to bridge the inherent gap between emerging industry innovations and frontline healthcare professionals to make a deeply positive and enduring impact on patient-centred care practices.
The dedicated specialists come from strong medical and science backgrounds, ensuring they completely “get” the technical, complex side of the client’s work and support it robustly with highly-trained, articulate communications specialists. This comprehensive approach is designed to achieve the necessary, measurable effect and desirable outcomes, effectively working to inform, educate, and truly engage the target audience. They are connected and fully informed, knowing all key stakeholders in the dynamic healthcare ecosystem: including practicing physicians, influential key opinion leaders, regulatory bodies, important patient associations, and necessary media organizations. Bridge is further supported by an established team of expert advisors and reliable partners working across a multitude of diverse therapeutic areas, including life-saving oncology, critical respiratory care, vital cardiovascular health, specialized medical cannabis therapies, and many more key areas. With deep access to critical, proprietary insights, current data, and fundamental research materials, the entire organization effectively has its finger securely on the pulse of modern healthcare practice.
The team prides itself on being astute and adaptable. They know exactly when to be technical and when to adopt a more creative approach. They know precisely when to optimize a strategy and when to minimize complexity. This vital quality allows the firm to make substantially more accurate decisions, execute all campaigns effectively and efficiently, reliably increase margins of success for their clients, and ensure a genuinely greater, lasting impact. When a client needs to reach their specific healthcare practitioner audience to fully optimize the significant impact of their medical innovation and valuable solutions—they can confidently turn to Bridge. From high-level consultancy and essential education programs to targeted, professional communication tactics, their proven, customized solutions are specifically designed and tailored to perfectly fit all client needs and desired goals. They boast a great, diverse portfolio of satisfied clients, spanning many critical industries: including major PHARMACEUTICAL corporations, advanced BIOTECH firms, influential MEDICAL & HEALTHCARE ASSOCIATIONS, respected MEDICAL SOCIETIES, and key THERAPEUTIC PATIENT ASSOCIATIONS. The team members engage daily with patients and healthcare professionals to navigate deeply complex challenges through innovative medical communications tactics, always employing a human-centered approach. They deliver science-driven communications that effectively support healthcare professionals, strongly empower individual patients, and reliably spark better outcomes through absolute clarity and genuine connection, fostering creative thinking, innovative problem-solving techniques, and a relentless pursuit of improvement for all tools and solutions offered.
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Toronto-based KnowMeQ Founder and CEO Matt Foran knows how AI can address two emerging and linked issues in Higher Education. KnowMeQ is the leading AI enabled, web-based workforce diagnostic & up-skilling assessment tool that identifies real skill gaps to make predictive decisions to improve your company’s workforce skill, performance and agility. KnowMeQ is an Adaptability Quotient (AQ) indicator tool. AQ is regarded as the most important measure for success in today and tomorrow’s world of work. It provides the ability for employees and companies to adapt and thrive in rapidly changing environments. Matt holds a Masters of Education from the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Adult Education with a specialization in Workplace Learning and Social Change. He is a published researcher and in 2010, founded the world’s first fully online adult literacy program for Deaf and Hard of Hearing adults.
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The combination of getting fired shortly after a failed marriage made Vera Ilnyckyj feel like a complete failure, purposeless, disconnected and stuck.
She’s grateful for this challenging time because it was the start of discovering her purpose – helping other women get back on track after a major life change.
Ultimately, it led Vera to leave her corporate job and step into her business full time. While she had no training on how to run a business and no formal plan, what she did have was a deep desire to help and inspire others, create belonging, and empower people to take action towards their goals.
A major learning that Vera has had as an entrepreneur is the realization that intense inner work is required to step into a new version of yourself. As a result, she’s developed tools, resources and practices that support self-trust, confidence, resilience, mindset and intuition, along with strategies to support discipline, consistency, goal-setting, marketing, sales and business growth.
Today, Vera’s approach combines the spiritual and the material in order to create impact and income. Her mission is to help women solopreneurs live a genuine, fulfilled and positive life through their business. Vera believes we’re not meant to be on this journey alone which is why she’s committed to uplifting others in community – through her mastermind success collective, in-person and online workshops, retreats, speaking, her podcast, blogs, videos or social channels.
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