Draft Canada

CREATIVE ECONOMY

Limited by time? Here’s how Lumen5’s Michael Cheng broke the cycle

Jackie Gill - Oct 21, 2019

After starting several small businesses, Michael Cheng was frustrated: they just didn’t grow. Everything changed when he saw how artificial intelligence could change the way we make videos.

Drew Taylor, CEO of Acorn Biolabs, transitioned from a career in baseball into medical entrepreneurship where he cryogenically stores cells for future medical treatments

SCALE-UPS

Acorn Biolabs saves lives one hair at a time

Jackie Gill - Oct 15, 2019

Acorn promises to collect and store stem cells that can save your life in the future in a way just as painless and convenient as plucking a few hairs

Rego Realty's grown a lot since it began 16 years ago with Cliff Rego as a real estate agent

SCALE-UPS

How Rego Realty became an award-winning team in 16 years

Jackie Gill - Oct 9, 2019

Cliff Rego earned his real estate license in 2003. Now he has a brokerage that does things like no other. Here is Rego Realty's journey from one-man operation to team success.

DRAFT VIDEOS

Narbé Alexandrian, CEO of Canopy Rivers, helps the companies in his portfolio deal with changes in regulation, competition and markets every day

SCALE-UPS

How to grow with the flow with Canopy Rivers

Jackie Gill - Oct 18, 2019

In cannabis, change is always happening, says Canopy Rivers CEO Narbé Alexandrian. Here's how they help their portfolio companies keep up – and how they keep up themselves.

Jon Worren, who runs venture and corporate programming at MaRS Discovery District, solves the problem of delivering high-value programming to startups across industry and size

CORPORATE INNOVATION

How MaRS makes a little go a long way

Jackie Gill - Oct 11, 2019

When you support 17 regional innovation centres and with 6,000 startups registered in Ontario, designing programs everyone can use is an everyday challenge, says MaRS’s Jon Worren.

Cliff Rego, founder and broker of record at Rego Realty, relies on exceptional service to delight customers and keep them coming back

SCALE-UPS

Rego Realty explains: Why clients come back

Jackie Gill - Oct 7, 2019

Too often we rush to make a sale when we should be slowing down and asking more questions to make sure the quality’s there, says Cliff Rego, founder and broker of record at Rego Realty.

Cliff Rego, founder and broker of record at Rego Realty, says Waterloo Region real estate is hot, but the locals need to pay more attention to it.

SCALE-UPS

Rego Realty explains: buying local matters

Jackie Gill - Oct 7, 2019

Investors know Waterloo Region is hot in real estate, but locals are missing out on the opportunity - something Cliff Rego, founder and broker of record at Rego Realty, struggles with.

Cliff Rego, founder and broker of record at Rego Realty, makes sure everyone on his team dabbles in different areas of the company.

SCALE-UPS

Rego Realty explains: Uniting an expert team

Jackie Gill - Oct 7, 2019

Every member of Cliff Rego's team has a chance to try their hand at the four divisions they support, building knowledge and landing on the thing they love to do most.

SCALE-UPS

Carol Leaman, CEO of Axonify, started out as the lone female in a sea of male leaders. Things are different today, she says.

Axonify explains: supporting female leaders

Jackie Gill - Oct 4, 2019

When Axonify CEO Carol Leaman first stepped into her first leadership position, she was the lone female in a sea of men. Today, she’s glad to see more programs in place that support women in business.

Carol Leaman, CEO of Axonify, says training impacts everything a business does, from sales and service through to safety

Axonify explains: training for real results

Jackie Gill - Oct 4, 2019

In some industries, training is life-or-death, says Axonify CEO Carol Leaman. It also impacts how your employees reach your business goals, from safety through to sales and service.

Carol Leaman, CEO of Axonify, is all about helping companies engage and excite their employees through training - her own included

Axonify explains: keeping employees excited

Jackie Gill - Oct 4, 2019

Sure, Axonify uses its own platform to keep employees learning, but they also go all-out on social events and regular feedback to make work a seamless part of employees' lives, says CEO Carol Leaman.

Terry Stuart, Chief Innovation Officer with Deloitte Canada, brings innovation and technology to life through his Greenhouse space.

Deloitte masters the “art of the possible”

Jackie Gill - Oct 2, 2019

There’s something about being able to see, touch and feel technology, says Terry Stuart, Deloitte Canada’s Chief Innovation Officer. That’s what brings it to life at their Toronto Greenhouse.

Terry Stuart, Chief Innovation Officer at Deloitte Canada, has the resources in-house to make innovation happen - and he knows who to reach out to if he needs outside help

Deloitte explains: Strength in numbers

Jackie Gill - Sep 16, 2019

Deloitte's ranks might be huge - they count almost 300,000 employees worldwide - but that puts them in a unique position to lead the charge on innovation, says Terry Stuart, Chief Innovation Officer at Deloitte Canada.

Terry Stuart, Chief Innovation Officer, hires artists, storytellers and more in addition to the traditional STEM fields

Deloitte explains: Putting the “A” into STEM

Jackie Gill - Sep 16, 2019

It's not enough to hire engineers and computer scientists to build tech, says Terry Stuart, Chief Innovation Officer at Deloitte Canada. That's why he and his team hire artists, storytellers, psychologists and more.

Alexandra Pokras, co-founder of Zizzlelab, saw an opportunity to help kids learn about STEM topics when her own son asked her an easy question that was tough to answer

PORTRAITS

Alexandra Pokras’ son asked an easy questio[...]

Jackie Gill - Oct 17, 2019

How does a snowblower work? Like many parents, Zizzlelab co-founder Alexandra Pokras didn’t have a good answer when her then four-year-old son asked her. Today, she’s dedicated to helping kids learn about STEM.

Mark Doble, co-founder of Alexsei, started his company to help lawyers find fast answers to legal questions

PORTRAITS

Surprise! Mark Doble was about to be a father

Jackie Gill - Oct 16, 2019

What happened to Mark Doble two weeks after he co-founded Alexsei? He and his wife found out she was pregnant. That's why he says there’s never a “right time” to start a company.

Cameron Mills, COO and co-founder of Terrene, loves science but decided to follow a different path when it came to his career in AI, data and machine learning

PORTRAITS

Science was too structured for Cameron Mills

Jackie Gill - Oct 10, 2019

Cameron Mills was dead-set on becoming a scientist - that is, until his first day of university when he unexpectedly started his first company. That's when he decided to pursue business instead.

Alex Qi, founder of Mercku, always wanted to make something tangible that had direct impact on peoples' lives.

PORTRAITS

Alex Qi wants to make change he can touch

Jackie Gill - Oct 8, 2019

As a consultant, Alex Qi couldn't always touch the products he helped build. With Mercku, he finally got his chance to make something tangible that directly impacts peoples' lives.

Nour Hachem-Fawaz, founder of Build a Dream, started her non-profit to help women find work in the skilled trades after watching her mother struggle to work in a male-dominated industry

PORTRAITS

Who is Nour Hachem-Fawaz’s hero? Her mom

Jackie Gill - Oct 3, 2019

Nour Hachem-Fawaz, founder of Build a Dream, started her non-profit to help women find work in the skilled trades after watching her mother struggle to work in a male-dominated industry.