What came first? Your brick and mortar business or your ecommerce business? Whichever one you chose, one thing is almost certain, if you have a brick and mortar location, you most likely have a way to sell your product or service online as well. You may have noticed some challenges with keeping both channels synchronised, whether its with inventory management, scheduling, or sales. In this month’s episode Al speaks with expert Jason Grossman, Senior Product Manager at Moneris about how you can better align both those channels. Al also speaks with Mayumi Bae, Founder of The Plant Based Workshop and winner of the Visa She’s Next Grant Program. They talk about how and why she started her business and what her plans are for the grant.
What came first? Your brick and mortar business or your ecommerce business? Whichever one you chose, one thing is almost certain, if you have a brick and mortar location, you most likely have a way to sell your product or service online as well. You may have noticed some challenges with keeping both channels synchronised, whether its with inventory management, scheduling, or sales. In this month’s episode Al speaks with expert Jason Grossman, Senior Product Manager at Moneris about how you can better align both those channels.
Al also speaks with Mayumi Bae, Founder of The Plant Based Workshop and winner of the Visa She’s Next Grant Program. They talk about how and why she started her business and what her plans are for the grant.
Also in this episode:
Links of Interest:
Allan: [00:00:00] Every year in September, we start a new school year in Canada. If only business was that predictable. Of course, it isn't. Businesses can start up at any time and with any idea, but they don't start in a bubble. They need a fertile environment to grow and thrive. This month we hear stories of startups, how they began, and how they were supported throughout their journey.
Why? Because. It's just good business.
Hey everyone, Al here flying solo this month, but that's all right, because we've got a jam packed episode for you. So I want to get to the good stuff as soon as possible. First up in the last couple of months of this podcast, we've been talking a lot about both government and corporate programs aimed at helping small businesses grow.
Well, this month we're going to hear from a few of those businesses who've taken advantage of some of these programs. First up in our featured interview, we're going to hear from Mayumi Bae. She's the winner of Visa's She's Next grant program. She'll share her experience with the program and we'll learn a little bit about her business, The Plant Based Workshop.
But we'll also hear from other attendees at last year's Elevate Festival. This is part [00:01:00] two of my on-the-scene interviews. You'll hear actual examples of how Elevate and their tech startup accelerator eCommerce North has helped entrepreneurs turn their ideas into growing businesses.
Then I welcome senior product manager Jason Grossman on as our expert to answer the question of "How can you better align your brick and mortar store with your online store?" Jason really knows his stuff, so you're going to want to hear this one.
And finally, we have our monthly visit from Sean McCormick, our resident data expert. He'll be sharing some consumer spending data from the apparel and restaurant sectors. You're not going to want to miss this one.
But first, let's begin with my chat with Mayumi Bae.
I'm joined by Mayumi Bae. She's a co founder of The Plant Based Workshop. Mayumi, thank you so much for joining me today.
Mayumi: Thank you for having me.
Allan: Where are you speaking to me from right now?
Mayumi: North Vancouver, British Columbia.
Allan: Very nice. So you co own a company called The Plant Based Workshop. Tell me a little bit about what The Plant Based Workshop is.
Mayumi: Yes. The Plant Based Workshop is an Asian inspired plant based meal company. About 10 years ago, we had lost our father [00:02:00] from early onset Alzheimer's disease and a relentless focus on growth and wellness really started around that time. Me personally as well, I really wanted to live my life with intent. And that's when I became plant based and delicious, flavorful food being the center of our family growing up, we recognize the need for more diverse choices in the plant based world. And that's how The Plant Based Workshop evolved and opened up our first flagship cafe in North Vancouver in 2016.
Allan: 2016. So you've been open now for about eight years?
Mayumi: Nine.
Allan: Nine years. You founded it along with your siblings?
Mayumi: Yes, TACC, my brother and I founded the business and shortly after our little sister, Hanneke, has joined us and she is the director of operations.
Allan: Okay. Now, what qualified you to do this? What was your background? Did you have a background in nutrition or food or cooking or something?
Mayumi: I've definitely been a foodie all my life. Um, and art. Childhood was definitely [00:03:00] rich in cultural experiences. We come from an immigrant family, originally from Japan. And when I became plant based, I still wanted to eat the delicious, flavorful, umami rich foods that we grew up with.
Allan: Right.
Mayumi: And that's when we really experimented with traditional recipes, but making them plant based, I do have background in marketing, sales, and a cook as well. And actually Tack, my brother came from chemistry, a science background, and he has definitely used those skills to apply into food science and a lot of paperwork that's needed in business as well.
Allan: So when you started, were you using recipes that maybe you learned from your parents?
Mayumi: My mother has definitely been someone who Has kept the Japanese culture alive in our family through food. She has really helped us keep those roots. From that, we modernize them, westernize them, took the best of both worlds and when my kids were young, that sort of was [00:04:00] a huge experimentation process for me where, you know, if it was a go with them, it was kind of a go in the public and, and that was where it all started. And we were quickly met with a huge demand in our community.
Allan: So what kind of services or products does The Plant Based Workshop provide?
Mayumi: One of our most popular products that we had just launched is one of our most innovative products. It's called the Nudes Ramen Kit.
Allan: Okay.
Mayumi: So it's 100 percent plant based, super umami rich, nutrient dense, and we're first to market in the way that the noodles are dehydrated.
Allan: Okay.
Mayumi: It's non fried, and it comes back at this beautiful restaurant quality texture and it comes with a beautiful broth that's already made up for you and it's made without artificial ingredients or preservatives.
Allan: That's amazing. So when you say you started off with one cafe, so first you were in the restaurant kind of sector serving food. I assume you're still doing that.
Mayumi: Yeah.
Allan: But then you eventually moved over to the prepared [00:05:00] food products.
Mayumi: Yes, into wholesale retail and we're actually also in food service. So our products are being served at universities like UBC, SFU, BCIT, post secondary institutions.
Allan: So you've really branched out to be a bit of an empire there.
Mayumi: We definitely diversified.
Allan: And when was that? What, like, when did you decide? Oh, it's not just enough to be a cafe or restaurant we've got such a great product. We need to sell it to more people.
Mayumi: I want to say it was after the pandemic and everybody's purchasing patterns had changed. We definitely knew that we needed to pivot and grow change with the industry. And that was something that was important to us. Things never stay the same for very long so we wanted to adapt to that change and offer quality products at home.
Allan: It's been a short time since the pandemic. You've done all this in the last couple of years.
Mayumi: Yes.
Allan: Amazing.
Mayumi: The last couple of years have definitely been that rollercoaster ride for us.
Allan: Wow.
Mayumi: But the nudes ramen kit product is actually up for a innovation award for BC food and beverage this year.
Allan: Oh, wow. [00:06:00] Well, good luck with that.
Mayumi: Thank you so much. And product of the year.
Allan: I can't wait to try some of this out. So like I'm in Ontario. Is there any way I can get any of your product out here?
Mayumi: A hundred percent, actually our frozen product line is available nationwide. Some products, for example, might be in Fortino's in your area, whereas our shelf stable products, everything that we've launched in the last couple of months, you can purchase those directly online and we will ship it out to Ontario, Quebec, all throughout the nation.
Allan: You say you've been in business now for nine years, but you recently won the She's Next grant program put on by Visa. How did you hear about this grant program?
Mayumi: You know, being a part of so many organizations that women are part of, uh, we usually have founders meetings or minglers and I believe that I have heard from another recipient of this program.
Allan: Right.
Mayumi: And I was very intrigued and I thought that this would be a great place to access mentorship.
Allan: Right.
Mayumi: And applied.
Allan: What did you have to do to apply for the grant?
Mayumi: It was an application process [00:07:00] where there was a lot of input as to the story of our business and what our challenges were in navigating through this landscape, really just sharing our story, I suppose.
Allan: So when did you find out you won the grant?
Mayumi: Maybe about two weeks ago. It was wonderful. You know, when selected for anything in a competitive space, it's a humbling experience.
Allan: Right.
Mayumi: Winning the She's Next grant is really a validation of our mission, you know, and I love that it appreciate and empowers women for us to potentially expand our reach, innovate further, and inspire more people to embrace a plant based lifestyle and this is a great opportunity being a female entrepreneur comes with its unique challenges and navigating the landscape of not just being a woman, but all of that comes with that journey has been definitely marked by resilience and determination, grit, and, you know, a little bit of ego and the weight of expectation to excel while often facing under representation can be immense. [00:08:00] But there's wins like these that definitely validates that mission and hopefully empowers others as well.
Allan: What is it that you win with this grant?
Mayumi: Mentorship as well as funds to allocate towards growing the business.
Allan: And do you know how many winners there were this time around?
Mayumi: I believe there were 10.
Allan: So what do you think you're going to do with your funds?
Mayumi: Our vision for The Plant Based Workshop. extends beyond our current offering. And we envision a world where plant based options are accessible, desirable to everyone, regardless of dietary preferences. To achieve this, we really plan to expand our product line, strengthen our brand presence and explore international markets.
Allan: How long have you been with us with Moneris?
Mayumi: Oh, I think since the beginning, nine years.
Allan: Yeah. And what's, what's your experience been?
Mayumi: Absolutely amazing. It's very easy to use. We have integrated a lot of other platforms with Moneris. We've been very happy with Moneris.
Allan: Well, congratulations on the grant win and we appreciate you being a long time Moneris merchant. Where can folks learn more about The Plant [00:09:00] Based Workshop?
Mayumi: Our instagram. TikTok handle is at plant based workshop website, plantbasedworkshop.com. And I'm happy to connect on LinkedIn as well. Mayumi Bae.
Allan: All right. Great. Thank you so much for your time today. I'm going to post links to both The Plant Based Workshop and Visa's She's Next program in the show notes for anyone who wants to find those.
Mayumi, thank you so much for your time today.
Mayumi: Thank you so much Al.
Allan: I'm joined by Jason Grossman. He's a senior product manager at Moneris. Jason, thank you so much for joining me today.
Jason: Yeah. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me now.
Allan: Now, I've got a question here from one of our listeners and they want to know, is there a way I can better manage my inventory between my brick and mortar store and my ecommerce store? Now, this is something that's happened to me in the past where I find something really cool online to buy and I go to buy it and I check out only to find out that the shop that I tried to buy it from doesn't have it anymore because they sold it in their store, which it's a pain point. And you'd think there'd be an easier way maybe to manage inventory between both online and brick and mortar. We're going to talk today about, maybe a solution that'll help with that.
Jason: Yeah, absolutely. We recently launched Moneris Total Commerce. And [00:10:00] so I think that addresses exactly one of the pieces that you've identified here, which is, you know, customers and merchants alike, both get so frustrated with trying to shop at their favorite stores, both online and in store and having frustration that sometimes they're getting different pricing, a product may be available that they buy it and they turn out it's not there. And for a merchant trying to keep track of in store online altogether. And so with Moneris Total Commerce, it does offer the ability to have a unified commerce solution. So we've partnered with Wix from a web building perspective, where you can have a one of a kind website built just for you and have in store payments on a state of the art POS hardware that's all integrated and synchronized in one place. So one product category, you can decide, I want to sell in store and online one or the other. And synchronize your inventory. So if someone comes in and picks up a new baseball hat in your store, then no one's going to be buying that same hat online later on that day. So that's one of the ways that we can address that. It
Allan: makes sense. Yeah. Now you bring up Wix, and I just want to [00:11:00] remind folks, if this is your first time listening to this podcast, we had a five part series. That goes back and takes you step by step. If you're a new online merchant with the Wix website, how easy it is to set your online store up with Moneris as your payment processor, because we have this great partnership with Wix. I really suggest you check it out because part of it is web design. Like we have a team that'll help you create your store and make it look like your website and it's seamless. So. Pairing that now with this Moneris Total Commerce, it makes sense, right? To have just like one system that can manage your inventory, but with the payment processing online and in store.
Jason: A hundred percent. So if you think about any modern business, particularly in the retail space these days, it's not enough to just open up a store on your local block and start selling your wares and see where that takes you. Almost everybody is selling online as well today. And so I think. It was a pretty natural progression to bring the two together and offer solutions that help people manage both.
So what we are going out there with is, you know, building a website can be daunting and can be [00:12:00] intimidating. You know, if I'm someone who I'm an expert at building products and selling them to people, but I don't know the first thing about building a website. Well, We have experts that can come and build you the website of your dreams.
So we're also trying to take the intimidation and the scaries away from building a website. Right. We'll hold your hand through that. And that goes all the way through to setting up in store as well. Again, if I'm used to designing custom purses, for example, I don't know how to set up a payments terminal in my store. We can help you with that. And so that's, that's part of why we do things a little bit differently is, you know, making things simpler for people.
Allan: Amazing. Now, what type of business would you say would kind of benefit from something like this? You already mentioned if you've made purses or something. So I guess crafty kind of businesses for sure, like stuff that you make yourself. That would be one business that would benefit. But what else would you say?
Jason: You know, we could play in a lot of different industries, but Particular focus has been placed on retail industry. And the reason being is we found a lot of similarities between, a clothing store and, a home goods store, for example, those are two that, maybe have a similar number of SKUs or different products that they want to [00:13:00] sell are used to, selling in person and online and we see a ton of new businesses opening up in that space and more and more people want to get involved there. But I'd say if you want to manage inventory, if you want to take bookings or appointments, if you want to have, aggregated reporting and selling store and online. Really the world is your oyster so we'll be happy to take on businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Allan: Now, theoretically, if you were like a local shop that maybe I frequent, could I, in theory, buy something online, but then go pick it up at your shop? If let's say that was something that I needed to do.
Jason: Absolutely. As I mentioned, when you're thinking unified commerce, one of the lessons we all learned from COVID is, Hey, I still want to do, in store pickup to collect my things, but now I'm just going to go straight to the register or meet someone out in the parking lot and so that's. 100 percent one of the elements there you can buy online for in store pickup. And there's also integrations to say, okay, someone bought something online, now I have to also sell it and ship it out to them. I can grab their shipping address, loyalty rewards programs. All that stuff is all in one system.
Allan: That's Moneris Total Commerce. If somebody wanted to learn more about that, where would they go? [00:14:00]
Jason: Moneris has our whole dedicated webpage and tons of information come to the Moneris.com website. You can even Google Moneris Total Commerce or Moneris Online Moneris Retail POS. We will be all around on the Moneris website as well.
Allan: Amazing. Thank you so much for your time today, Jason.
Jason: Yeah, pleasure to be here. Thanks again Al.
Mat: Are you a small business looking to get organized? Say goodbye to overwhelming inventory and manual order management. With Moneris Go Retail, point of sale system.
Keep a real time eye on your stock levels, track your sales performance and manage everything from purchases to refunds and discounts. All for as low as $39.95 a month when combined with a Moneris Go device. Check out Moneris.com/goretailPOS to learn more.
Allan: I'm joined by the VP of business development for Moneris Data Services, Sean McCormick, Sean, thank you so much for joining me today.
Sean: Pleasure to be here again, Al.
Allan: Now, Sean, I just saw my daughter off to her first day of sixth grade, back to school. There's back to school shopping. You have some consumer spending data around apparel and around restaurants to share. Why don't we get to that?
Sean: Well, first of all, I'm surprised you didn't take the day off and just [00:15:00] enjoy a day of peace and quiet. I am in your boat as well. My son left for school this morning. I can't believe how quiet it is around here.
Allan: I know it's great.
Sean: But yeah, we're looking at a lot of data very closely right now related to year over year dollar volume growth. And I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer here, Al, but it's not looking real good. I've talked to some economists, friends of mine, Clients and friends about this and they concur that we're just going through a really tough time right now in the Canadian economy. So one of the measures that we look at and that economists who use our data look at economic development Professionals as well.
One of the really key measures is year over year percent dollar volume growth. And what we're measuring there Is the current week this year versus the current week one year prior. So when we do that, when we measure year over year, comparing the same week in 2024 to the same week in 2023, what we're doing is we're removing any seasonality.
Allan: Right
Sean: Like you can't compare first week in February of 2024 to, [00:16:00] you know, the third week in December of 2023. That's not a fair comparison because. That's holiday season versus a really low period in the shopping season.
Allan: We're comparing apples to apples. And for example, right now, back to school would be this year versus back to school last year.
Sean: Exactly. And what we're seeing in apparel for year over year percent dollar volume growth is concerning. Year over year dollar volume growth has been down 10 percent or more in 15 of the last 20 weeks. So put another way, that growth has been negative. At least 10%. Versus the same week last year in 15 of the last 20 weeks, that is almost unprecedented... well, it is unprecedented as long as we've been measuring data here at Moneris for the last six years.
Allan: Right.
Sean: We've never seen anything like it. And there's a reason that the Bank of Canada is starting to get aggressive on reducing interest rates. That's just one insight that definitely aligns with that.
Another measure that we look at. Is average transaction size. So that is the total transaction size on [00:17:00] checkout. So you're tapping your card. What's the total transaction size? Average transaction size for apparel has been down in 19 of the last 20 weeks. Currently, average transaction size for apparel is $105. This time last year, it was $111.
Allan: That's crazy. And I mean, that's taking into account inflation. Not only are they spending less, but they're also purchasing fewer items then because inflation would drive those numbers up, but instead we're seeing lower ATS.
Sean: Yeah, definitely. And we are seeing actually in some categories we are seeing deflation, right? One of the things that we do is we measure inflation by category from using some StatCan data and we compare it against our own. And what we are seeing in some categories is deflation. We've seen deflation in hotels over the last six to eight months. And there is some deflation actually in the apparel segment as well so that's playing a role there.
Allan: I think that's kind of offsetting some of the hyperinflation we saw the last couple of years, right? So. Even though it might not be good [00:18:00] for the economy, it's not bad for the consumer maybe if prices are coming down a bit more to reality.
Sean: Definitely. If you take a really microscopic view of it, you know, a household view, yes. Things in certain categories, you hope that things will cost less, but from a macro view and the total economy. It's not a good thing when you have deflation, ideally, what you want is that target inflation rate of about 2%, which consumers can manage. And that indicates that the economy is growing when the economy is not growing, that's not a good thing because that means that people are losing their jobs.
It's not a good business environment for entrepreneurs to be starting businesses. So yeah, deflation within a category for a short period, maybe as a correction isn't awful for the consumer. Yeah. But it's not good for the economy.
Allan: Right. Now, is the same story in the restaurant sector.
Sean: Yeah. Restaurants actually, they've been beaten up even more than apparel stores have. Restaurants, we've had negative year over year dollar volume growth for 23 consecutive weeks in [00:19:00] 2024. That again, put that in perspective in 2023, there were only 16 weeks of negative growth in that category the entire year.
Allan: Right.
Sean: And we've had 23 in a row. And by the way, 16 weeks in a year is actually a lot!
Allan: Right.
Sean: And this year. For the last 23 consecutive weeks, we've had negative year over year dollar volume growth.
Allan: I guess the optimism we can maybe pull from this, and you'd mentioned it earlier, the bank of Canada is starting to drop interest rates to help consumers with saving more money so they can spend more and I read somewhere that prediction is probably two more drops by the end of this year. I mean, that change though, is going to take a while to see.
Sean: Yeah, well, because the effect on consumers is this, if you're renewing your mortgage, And if your mortgage is up for renewal, let's say in the next six months or eight months, it's encouraging that interest rates are coming down, but that's not going to impact your disposable income, your discretionary spend until your mortgage renews. Then [00:20:00] once your mortgage renews, you might have a lower mortgage payment, but it's going to take you some time to adjust to having that extra cashflow.
Allan: Yes.
Sean: Consumer behavior, it's going to lag the interest rate adjustment.
Allan: Well, hopefully, you know, when we talk about this next year, around this time, we'll be talking about positive gains and it'll be interesting to see going into the holiday season, what this year's holiday season looks like compared to last.
Sean: Yeah, I know last year, retailers were hopeful that it was going to be a better season. I don't think it was. Well, I know that it wasn't. And I know that a lot of retailers were disappointed. So I would definitely share the hope that this year will be better. But I think that we're probably looking at holiday season 2025.
Allan: Yeah.
Sean: Once those interest rates have, you know, taken hold in the economy, that's probably room for some optimism looking to next year.
Allan: All right. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Sean.
Sean: Thanks, Al.
Allan: And now for the second part of my on-the-scene interviews with attendees from last year's Elevate Festival. Here's some of those conversations.
I'm joined here by Stephen B. Sutherland from Trellis. [00:21:00] Stephen, thank you for joining me today.
Stephen: Thank you.
Allan: So tell me a bit about Trellis. What do you do?
Stephen: Well, Trellis is an answer to the whole climate crisis, circular economy transit situation, which ties into well being as well.
Allan: Okay.
Stephen: So we need a transit system, which is both low energy, which runs 24 hours a day, which is a matrix. In other words, most people are familiar with corridor transit.
Allan: Right.
Stephen: Like if you're going from point A to point B, you usually have to go up and connected D and then to F and eventually to C and eventually get to D.
Allan: Yeah, I've done that many times.
Stephen: Exactly. Cars, are a great thing because they work on a road network, which is a matrix. So when you get in your car, everyone's equal. It doesn't matter if you have a Mercedes or a Chevette or something.
Allan: Right.
Stephen: You're going to drive on the tarmac and you're going to go to the little league game where you'll pick up the groceries at the pharmacy or drop a friend off at the medical point. So trellis, imagine an elevated rail made of composites. So, you know, Canada has all this oil.
Allan: Right.
Stephen: Well, Instead of shipping it to be burned, we could actually turn it into [00:22:00] composites, and then you put a rail that's at the second story, so it's just above, as you see on the back of my card, it's just literally just above all the streets.
Allan: So it's almost, I mean, the image on the back of your card, it looks like a gondola system almost.
Stephen: Yes, except that there's no moving wire, because gondola systems are corridor systems too. Oh, I see. Trellis has switches everywhere. One of the big inventions is a switch that doesn't move.
Allan: Okay.
Stephen: Imagine a rail. It's just like the tarmac doesn't move. You drive on. It doesn't move.
Allan: Right.
Stephen: So imagine a rail at the second story. It's literally static. It can be there for we estimate at least 80 years potentially hundreds of years, And then pods private and public move on it. So whether they're delivery or people they're moving autonomously on that rail.
Allan: Interesting So has this Concept been tested anywhere?
Stephen: Not yet. We've been working on it. Our first presentation was to Hamilton.
Allan: Okay.
Stephen: That was a written proposal. And so instead of the $3. 4 billion LRT, Right. Which is 14 kilometers, Yeah. He said, we'll give you [00:23:00] 150 kilometers.
Allan: This is interesting. So, you're at Elevate Festival today looking for investors, I guess?
Stephen: Investors. I just got back from Mexico. We were, you know, the Ontario trade. They're actively helping us set up meetings in other countries because we've almost burned out in Canada, unfortunately. We've talked to many of the organizations and the challenge we have in Canada, quite frankly, is if nobody really believes, I hate to say this, but nobody believes that there's really a climate crisis. It's business as usual. Have you noticed? Our transit is all just business as usual. So we come along and say, Hey, look, you know, you can do it for $20 million a kilometer. Dedicated bus lanes like they put in Markham, that was $40 million a kilometer to build that. And it cut the use of the streets down to 25 percent of their former capacity, created traffic jams, to build the bus lane.
We say we're less money. We run 24 hours a day. But you need a change in mentality and it's very difficult in Canada.
Allan: Yes. I mean, it's a very futuristic looking system and I think it looks interesting and exciting. So I wish you really good [00:24:00] luck with it. If folks wanted to learn more about Trellis, where would they go?
Stephen: Well, trellistransit.com is a website. There is a line out on that site and a lot of prescriptive materials. The 1:6 scale model that we have today, which we don't show on our website, that's not a decorative model, but we want to make a very decorative one for Expo 2025 Osaka, because that's all about sustainable and well being and if we had a sponsor, we would also build one full size pod. Now we won't be able to be certified. People won't be able to ride a pod yet at that point. But we'd have an integral model.
And by the way, you haven't asked the question, because I think you're being friendly. A lot of people say, well, pods running 24 hours a day, that sounds like a lot of racket outside my window. These things will be extremely quiet. There's no metal on metal. It's composite on rubber. And they move slow. Now, we can go up to 80 kilometers an hour if there's a straightaway. Yeah. But normally you're moving 20, 30 kilometers an hour. Because you know the way the streets are. Sure. We don't want people to feel like they're on a roller coaster.
Allan: How many people can fit in one of these pods?
Stephen: Up to four, so it's [00:25:00] two and two. If it's a public pod. Now, if you have a private pod, you can lay it out differently. If it's a delivery pod, or a fire pod, an ambulance pod, they would all be laid out differently. But you can have a private one.
Allan: It's a really cool futuristic looking idea and design that, sadly, we probably need sooner rather than later. So I wish you luck with that and the website again is com for anyone interested in learning more.
Thank you so much for your time, Stephen.
Stephen: Thanks, Alan. Take care.
Allan: All right, now for something a little different. I'm joined by Simone Kang. She's not a business or a startup. She's a student. But Simone, tell us why you're here today.
Simone: Hi guys, I'm Simone Kang. I am here today to just expand my market and expand my, general network of people also interested in environmental science, sustainability, but also, the whole encompassing just, tech, innovative and emerging technologies is like a huge part of this conference and it's what people are talking about. It's what these startups are about.
Everyone that I've talked to who has like a really interesting startup is somehow intersecting that with AI and finding ways that AI can actually play a part in entrepreneurship and their new business [00:26:00] startups. And I think that's really interesting. Obviously AI is going to have to integrate itself into every single business that's going to actually be successful. And have a large scale, so it's been really interesting, you know, seeing how people are actually integrating that now and all the new startups that have just come up because of AI, like, because we have this new scalability with AI, I've met people who have started, like, really cool initiatives that help, you know, immigrants come to Canada from Bangladesh.
I've met people who have started AI so they can actually scale and give proper law resources to underprivileged people who might need those. You live in a really, really interesting time where AI is making so many resources accessible and it's opened this field for entrepreneurship. It really has. It's made people actually have their entrepreneurial goals achievable through AI. So I think that we live in a really interesting time right now.
Allan: So you're a student right now. What are you studying?
Simone: So I'm actually in high school.
Allan: Oh!
Simone: Yeah. But I'm planning on going into a dual degree at U of T, in environmental science and finance.
Allan: So you're playing hooky to come to the [00:27:00] Elevate festival.
Simone: Oh, very much so.
Allan: That's amazing.
Simone: Yeah . You really have to start early, you know, I think that like, I'm not going to wait until I'm older just so I can talk at a conference and be, Amazed by what these people are doing.
Allan: I feel like I'm going to be interviewing you within the next five years about whatever your startup is going to be.
Simone: Oh, I sure hope so. I definitely would be super open to doing that.
Allan: Thank you so much for your time today, Simone.
Simone: Yeah, thank you so much.
Sumera: It's been a long day for both of us.
Allan: I'm a little punchy and I can tell you are too. It's all good. It's all good. So I'm joined by Sumera and she's from Glow Ritual. Sumera, thank you for joining me today.
Sumera: Thank you for having me, Allan.
Allan: So, tell me a little bit about Glow Ritual.
Sumera: Glow Ritual essentially started as a company to, honor, time honored rituals that were inspired by my South Asian heritage. We started as a hair wellness company. That changed around Christmas time when our, fragrance line took off. Essentially, we had a pop up and we sold out so fast that we realized that the bigger demand exists in the area of wellness fragrances. And so we've just been formulating, going back and forth with our organic [00:28:00] perfumer, trying to perfect the scents and Elevate is really exciting because it's our pre release to the public, essentially.
Allan: Wow. Interesting. So you're a brand new company.
Sumera: We existed as a hair wellness companies, but as the, um, when it comes to fragrance, yeah, definitely stepping into a new space over here.
Allan: So is that why you joined the eCommerce North Accelerator? Because you were pivoting,
Sumera: I actually joined pre pivot and it was such a tremendous experience, such a wonderful community. I continue to stay on because of the community aspect. I've, you know, gained lots of great collaborations. I've been invited and folks reach out and extend opportunities. And so yeah, that was one of the reasons is that we were very new at the time and it gave us a really good grounding and how to build and scale our business.
Allan: So what do you think of this festival? First of all, is this your first time at Elevate?
Sumera: It's not my first time. Actually, last year I was on stage sharing my story of how I built Glow. so that was a tremendous experience, reaching out and meeting people live. Elevate tends to be my favorite festival because it's not just about the tech, it's about bringing the art um, and the creativity and joining that with tech and that's what I appreciated [00:29:00] about it.
What I also love about Elevate is just the energy. It's so different from a typical tech conference, right? That people are just joyful and it's vibrant and the conversations are flowing and they're so genuine. And I think it's that sort of spirit that makes Elevate what it is. So we're super thrilled to be here. Just to talk to you. Super thrilled to be well received and everyone's just been coming in sporting and it's got such a vibe. It's hard to sort of replicate that.
Allan: Well, thank you so much for taking some time today because it's been a busy day.
Sumera: Yeah, it's been busy. Thanks for having us.
Allan: All right.
I'm joined by Matt Rovet. He's a senior events producer at Moneris and future Sleepless new father. Matt, thank you for joining me today.
Matt: Thanks for having me Al.
Allan: We're talking about the September calendar of events at Moneris. What do you have for me?
Matt: We are sponsoring FinTech Forum on September 11th in Montreal, where Mark Hollenberg, Moneris COO, will be moderating the vertical FinTech to the service of SME's panel. You can find more information at forumfintechcanada.com/en/home
Allan: Very good. And I hear we have a [00:30:00] new cohort for the e commerce North coming up.
Matt: Yeah. Applications for the e commerce North innovator challenge opens September 19th. If you're ready to embrace expert mentorship, join a vibrant community of like minded entrepreneurs and pitch for a chance to receive one of three $1,500 grants. Be sure to apply at https://elevate.ca/ecommerce-north-innovator-challenge.
Allan: And last but certainly not least, one of my favorite events of the year, that's Toronto Oktoberfest.
Matt: We are the official payment solution partner of Toronto Oktoberfest happening September 27th, 2021. To the 28th and you can find more information at torontooktoberfest.ca that's Octoberfest with a K, not a C.
Allan: And I'll share links to the FinTech Forum, eCommerce North and Oktoberfest in the show notes.
Thank you so much for your time today Matt.
Matt: Thanks for having me Al.
Allan: That's all we have time for this month. Did you learn anything new? I know I did.
I really enjoyed speaking to all the entrepreneurs at the Elevate Festival, but I was really impressed with Simone Kang, the high school [00:31:00] student I interviewed. From her, I learned that our future isn't as dark as it can seem at times. The kids are all right. They've got this.
Now, before I sign off, I'll post links to everything we talked about in this podcast in the show notes. If you're listening right now, and you have any questions about anything business related, you can email us at podcast@Moneris.com, and we'll try to answer them in future episodes.
Now on behalf of myself and the rest of Moneris, it's just good business saying thank you for listening. See you in October.