Welcome to What The Tech from Boast AI, where we talk with some of the brilliant minds behind new and exciting tech initiatives to learn what it takes to tackle “technological uncertainty” and, eventually, change the world.

Today we welcome VentureX Principal Sydney Wong onto the show! Sydney is an exited tech founder turned early-stage investor with 10+ years of experience in venture capital, startups, and management consulting. She currently leads investments at VentureX Capital and built their venture studio from the ground up as a first hire. Her expertise spans deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio support, with a track record in PreSeed to Series A.

On top of all that, Sydney is passionate about building high-impact startups and fostering a strong VC community as Chapter Lead for Women in VC. It’s an incredible mission, and we pick her brain on her experiences to date in the startup space, what’s on deck for the rest of 2024, and her take on the tech and startup ecosystem heading into 2025.

Boast AI accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence.

Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth.

Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

On the latest What The Tech podcast we welcome CTO and Co-Founder of Adauris Ve Sharma. Adauris is a B2B SaaS narration tool for publishers that enables written content to be instantly transformed into rich audio experiences. As an audiophile himself, Ve is passionate about Ad Auris’s mission to help publishers & content creators create greater value from each piece of their writing, increasing accessibility and driving content engagement throughout the day through audio.

Their platform combines synthetic narration with a suite of features designed to drive engagement, deliver the best audio experience, and provide rich insights into listeners’ behavior.

It’s some very cool tech with a great mission behind it, and I’m excited to pick Ve’s brain on Ad Auris’s success to date, working with partners throughout the North American tech and startup ecosystem, and what’s on deck for the future.

Boast AI accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence.

Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth.

Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

On this latest episode of What The Tech, we welcome seasoned product executive and award-winning founder of Lodestone, Dennis Chow!

At Lodestone, Dennis and his team have built a product management software platform that helps busy product teams move faster and get more of their product work done. Ultimately, Lodestone helps teams drive towards comprehensive discovery and successful delivery of the right thing, for the right customers, at the right time.

Recently, Lodestone’s bona fides were on display when they took home the Judge’s Choice award at the 2024 CodeLaunch Accelerator event in Toronto, where our team was absolutely pumped to cheer on Dennis from the front row!

But this is hardly Dennis’s first go-round as an entrepreneur or lending support to the Canadian tech ecosystem. He’s currently on his fifth year as a Volunteer Advisor for the MaRS Discovery District out of Toronto, and has played a part in numerous successful startups over the course of his career to date.

I can’t wait to pick Dennis’s brain on his path into entrepreneurship, his philosophy as a product developer and creator, and what’s in store for 2025.

Boast AI accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence.

Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth.

Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

Driving innovation that truly revolutionizes sectors is a team effort. That’s exactly what Acto Co-Founder and CTO Kumar Erramilli is looking to do in the realm of biopharma, and he’s working with the team here at Boast to maximize his innovation potential and build one of the fastest-growing startups in all of Canada in the process.

ACTO is an AI-powered Intelligent Field Excellence (IFE) platform built for Life Sciences that helps Sales, Marketing, and Medical teams improve customer engagement and brand performance by turning field professionals into “Masters of the Message” who engage HCPs and their support teams with authority and impact.

With ACTO, biopharma companies can ensure field professionals are always competent, confident, and credible, delivering the right message to HCPs in face-to-face interactions, while providing senior leaders and frontline managers with the insight they need to drive continuous field force effectiveness.

While all of this is impressive on its own, Kumar has a wealth of experience across the North American tech ecosystem, having played a role in numerous startups and tech-centric organizations in his career to date. He’s a passionate inventor of AI and software technologies that are looking to change the way Life Sciences industry consumes technology, and I can’t wait to pick his brain on what’s in store for Acto and his take on the state of startups in 2024.

Boast AI accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence.

Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth.

Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

Today’s guest on What The Tech is Styx Intelligence Co-Founder Santosh Nair! Styx Intelligence is a next-generation platform helping organizations manage Digital Risk. In his role at Styx Intelligence , Santosh leads the overall product vision and long-term strategy and development of its StyxView platform.

Their Mission is to protect organizations’ digital assets and data with a platform that provides visibility while actually supporting remediation against threats. Their platform is also key to helping businesses manage risk associated with digital transformations across various areas including cyber, privacy, regulatory compliance, third party, and brand.

Along with founding Styx Intelligence, however, Santosh has a lengthy background in the Cyber Risk space, as well as a founder building new solutions in Canada and beyond. We at Boast first met Santosh through our friends at GetFresh Ventures, and I can’t wait to hear from Santosh the role that community connections can play in building great products and achieving growth.

Boast AI accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence.

Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth.

Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

Building a purpose-driven business isn’t easy. But when you start developing new technology that tackles a specific, pressing problem with a focus on the customers who most acutely need your solution, a wealth of support systems will open up to help your product take flight.

To share their journey through Canada’s innovation ecosystem, we welcome onto the podcast Climative CEO Winston Morton.

Climative is a clean tech company using AI-assisted digital energy assessments and blockchain to accelerate the decarbonization of the built environment. They create low-carbon plans for every building, which can be securely shared and updated by homeowners and those who support them to make better, faster decisions to reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment.

Winston started as Climative’s CTO before taking on the CEO mantle almost 2 years back, but his experience and expertise in the tech space is extensive. He’s an active member of the Futurpreneur and Volta communities, for instance, serving as a mentor for founders out of Halifax and beyond, while helping steer the tech trajectory of many innovative businesses over the past two decades.

It’s an impressive track record, and we pick Winston’s brain on what it takes to build a successful cleantech business in 2024 and what’s on deck as Climative grows!

Boast AI accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence.

Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth.

Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

At FMRK, Faisal and his team are developing a Rapid Urinary Tract Infection Antibiotic Susceptibility Test for the elderly and people with spinal cord injuries. Their technology is rooted in decentralized diagnostic testing solutions, making medical diagnostics easy to use, quick, and reliable.

Their first-of-a-kind, near-patient Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing Device was designed exclusively for community healthcare settings—deriving results in 6 hours or less—making the entire process easy, simple and faster than the traditional methods.

Along with driving this incredible diagnostic innovation, Faisal is also a member of the GetFresh Ventures community and has been making his mark in the BC tech and startup ecosystem. I’m excited to pick his brains on what’s next for FMRK, hear about his path as an entrepreneur, and learn about what’s in store for the rest of 2024.

Boast AI accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence.

Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth.

Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

On the latest episode of What The Tech we welcome Hudhaifah Zahid, Co-Founder and CEO of econommi.

At econommi, Hudhaifah and his team are building a new generation of interest-free models that revolutionize private markets by digitizing real-world assets. Their unique technology can tokenize almost any asset — that includes cars today, and maybe rockets tomorrow.

With over a decade of experience in economics, finance, and blockchain technology, Hudhaifah has a proven track record of developing cutting-edge risk scoring algorithms and creating efficient, debt-free financial systems, with expertise in enhancing liquidity, transparency, and returns for investors.

He is passionate about transitioning to an asset-based economy, addressing wealth inequality, and leveraging technology to create sustainable financial solutions.

It’s quite the mission, and I’m excited to pick his brain on what it takes to build a successful business in 2024! Without further ado, welcome to the show!

Boast AI accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence.

Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth.

Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.