Queen's Return on Innovation Podcast Queen's Partnerships and Innovation

From Queen's chemical engineering to podcast host!  Listen to Steph Smith's career journey from working at an engineering consulting firm to present day, as the host of the A16Z podcast.  Along the way, Steph has worked as a marketer at companies such as Trends.co and The Hustle. In this interview, Steph shares a wealth of advice for navigating one's career by being curious, travelling, constantly learning, and the valuable role of having a side hustle (or two).
Follow Steph Smith on Twitter - @stephsmithioCheck out the A16Z podcast here.Lastly, be sure to have a look at Steph's book "Doing Content Right" here.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Shyra Barberstock one of the co-founders of Okwaho Equal Source - an Indigenous social purpose enterprise on a mission to fuel social impact through human-centred design, innovation, and Indigenous-led research. Hear about Shyra's journey building a business while being a full time student and her 'Why' for starting and running a business. Shyra also shares some of her PhD research related to procurement practices in Canada.
To learn more, please see the following links and social media accounts:
Okwaho Equal Source (website)Shyra's Twitter account (link)Shyra's LinkedIn account (link)For more information on the partnerships and innovation support available at Queen's University, please see the following links:
Queen's Partnerships and Innovation (link)

In this episode, we chat with Rob Baker from Kingston's own The Tragically Hip.  We talk about The Tragically Hip through the lens of a startup, growing into a fully fledged company that had a significant impact on the lives of millions of music fans in Canada and around the world.
Rob talks about the 'Why?' of starting band. He provides insights into team dynamics and making decisions unanimously amongst the 5 band members. Learn where The Tragically Hip played their first gig! Rob provides a fascinating account of how the band developed a following (hint - the Kingston, Ontario advantage) and the 'product' they were refining in the early days. Listening to feedback from the fans was paramount from day one!  And, networking to find people to 'join them in the boat'. The Tragically Hip had an infinite mindset for goal setting - Rob describes their journey as always looking forward and being mindful of their activities to grow the band 'their way'. 
Follow the The Tragically Hip on Twitter @thehipofficial
Learn more about research and innovation at Queen's University:
Queen's Research (link)Queen's Partnerships and Innovation (link)Dunin Deshpande Queen's Innovation Centre (link)Centre for Business Venture - Smith School of Business (link)

In this episode we interview MaxSold CEO Sushee Perumal (whom holds an MBA from Smith School of Business at Queen's). MaxSold, with operations across North America, is in the re-commerce space (for customers downsizing their home, for example, MaxSold will photograph contents to be sold via in on-line auction process).

Hear Peter van der Velden (2x Queen's grad - M.Sc. in pathology and an honours B.Sc. in life sciences), the Managing General Partner, share the story of Lumira Ventures. Lumira Ventures is a North American healthcare venture capital firm with a two-decade track record investing in transformative biomedical companies.

In July of 2021, Lumira announced a $225M (US Dollars) fund, the largest life sciences focused venture fund ever raised in Canada. Lumira also recently launched the Lumira Ventures Venture Innovation Program (Lumira VIP).

The Lumira VIP is designed for a select and highly qualified group of Canadian students from leading academic institutions who want to gain exposure to life sciences venture capital and start-ups, and are committed to pushing the future of life sciences innovation forward.

For more information, please follow Lumira Ventures and Peter van der Velden on Twitter (@LumiraVentures and @Petervencap, respectively).

Hear Neil Wainwright (Queen’s Engineering & Applied Sciences grad and 8x startup founder) share the founding and growth story of Nexonia – a Software as a Service to track and submit expense reports. Follow Neil on social media: @neildwainwright