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TechTO Firesides feature deep chats with some of the most prominent names in Canadian Tech.

Today's episode features a conversation with CEO and Co-Founder of Pine, Justin Herlick.



Here's what you can expect:


His journey from Canada to Silicon Valley
Lessons learned in the US
Returning to Canada
How he built Pine
The current market, and how that has challenged the business 



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TechTO Firesides feature deep chats with some of the most prominent names in Canadian Tech.



Today's episode features a conversation with CEO and Co-Founder of DealMaker, Rebecca Kacaba. 

Here's what you can expect:


How they landed their first customer
Advice for other Founders trying to raise on the platform 
What sort of customer feedback should you care about
Best takeaways and lessons learned

To hear more insights, Founder stories and get more content like this right to your inbox, subscribe to TechTO newsletter: www.techto.org/newsletter



Follow us on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts

On April 7th, the Safe x Connected Accelerator Demo Day, in partnership with TechTO and various industry leaders, explored the redefined potential that our cities hold through new ways of connecting people, things and technology. We’ll also take a deeper look at some of the opportunities and challenges that we could be facing along the way and how technology is making a difference. 

 Speaker(s):  ‍


Nicole LeBlanc is a partner with 2150, an urbantech & sustainability focused VC fund tackling  major unsolved problems across the ‘Urban Stack’, from the way our cities are designed, constructed and powered, to the way people live, work and are cared for. Prior to this Nicole was the Director of Investments and Partnerships for Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs that works with developers and cities to build more sustainable, innovative, and equitable places. Before joining Sidewalk managed a portfolio of 150+ seed stage startups with Director roles at BDC Capital and NBIF. Nicole began her career as a CPA, including roles as a controller at Ganong Bros, an East Coast family-run confectionery manufacturer that invented the chocolate bar. She stays active in the community through board roles at Innovacorp, Propel and Brilliant Labs, as well as actively mentoring with Creative Destruction Lab and Next Canada.  

Paul Fletcher joined Aviva Canada in 2001, having previously worked at Aviva in the UK. Paul serves as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, leading Distribution Operations, Marketing, Sustainability, Communications and Government Relations. Prior to this role, Paul held many senior leadership positions including in Regional Training, Strategy and Business Transformation, Broker Distribution, and Commercial Lines. Paul has an Honors Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics from Warwick University, as well as a postgraduate diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He also holds an MBA from Cranfield University, and the designation of Chartered Insurer as a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute.  

Valerie Swatkow is Chief Development Officer at Highline Beta, a hybrid corporate venture studio and VC firm that works with global enterprises including RBC, Intuit and AB InBev, and invests in startups that pilot with corporations to drive growth innovation. Before joining Highline Beta Valerie launched a $5M corporate venture fund with the mission to invest in and accelerate early-stage technology companies in the martech/adtech space, brought NewCo to Toronto, a festival celebrating emerging purpose driven businesses and was also a co-founder of Elevate, Canada’s innovation festival. Valerie started her career in advertising in Toronto, but grew her skills outside of Canada working with global corporate clients like McDonald’s and Procter & Gamble. She is an active mentor for Next Canada.  ‍

This session of Intuit Prosperity Accelerator: AI Demo Day features Michele Romanow, Co-Founder & CEO at Clearco, discusses the in's and out's of her entrepreneur journey and the trial and tribulations that sprouted growth, success, and many valuable lessons.  

On March 8th, 2022, TechTO hosted another segment of International Women's Day with DevTO.  Director of Software Engineering, at Loblaws Digital, Lubna Khader, is overseeing the technical development on Loblaw's Retail Media Platform, working towards building a best-in-class advertising solution. She has spent her entire career in Adtech, after getting her master's degree in applied computing at UofT, she started as a data scientist working on a Demand-side platform for a startup. When that startup was acquired by The Weather Network, Lubna led Machine Learning and Big Data efforts to increase the platform’s optimization and intelligent targeting.

On March 8th, 2022, TechTO hosted another segment of International Women's Day with DevTO.  Maria Hristova has close to 20 years of software development experience ranging from quality assurance to operations and development.  In her current role as the VP of Engineering, Maria leads the Firmex development team and is responsible for the technical deliverables of the organization.  Prior to Firmex, she worked at Microsoft, Blue Yonder and a number of startups. Maria focuses on building diverse organizations and works on attracting and retaining talent from groups that are under-represented in the tech world.  Maria holds degrees in Computer Science and Math from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, USA.