September is a very busy time for many people, especially parents and teachers gearing up for back-to-school. It’s also a busy time for businesses, as many return from summer vacation and gear up for the holiday season drive. If you’re a Canadian technology company or a tech entrepreneur, a BIG event on your September calendar should be Elevate Festival 2022! Why? In this month’s episode, Al speaks with Gbemi Akande, Director of Innovation at Elevate. Learn about how Elevate is helping Canadian tech start-ups and fueling innovation in Canada. We also hear from a couple of those start-ups as they share their story with Al.
September is a very busy time for many people, especially parents and teachers gearing up for back-to-school. It’s also a busy time for businesses, as many return from summer vacation and gear up for the holiday season drive.
If you’re a Canadian technology company or a tech entrepreneur, a BIG event on your September calendar should be Elevate Festival 2022! Why?
In this month’s episode, Al speaks with Gbemi Akande, Director of Innovation at Elevate. Learn about how Elevate is helping Canadian tech start-ups and fueling innovation in Canada.
We also hear from a couple of those start-ups as they share their story with Al.
Also in this episode:
Links of Interest
Chapters:
Al Grego: Coming up on Shop Talk.
Gbemi Akande: In the last 18 months since we kicked up the first Accelerator cohort, we've been able to work with over 75 companies across the different programs that we're on. We've had about 50% of our cohort founders identify as women founder and about 80% representation in terms of underrepresented groups.
Al Grego: Hello everyone. I'm Al Grego.
Theresa Wetzel: And I'm Theresa Wetzel.
Al Grego: And this is the September, 2022 edition of Shop Talk with Moneris. Welcome to the Shop Talk Podcast, Theresa.
Theresa Wetzel: Thank you for inviting me, Al.
Al Grego: It's my pleasure. Now, this isn't your first time on the show.
Theresa Wetzel: No, it isn't. Do I get something for being a multi-time guest?
Al Grego: Well, that's your department, isn't it?
Theresa Wetzel: Yes, we do manage all the great promotional items you see at our events. That's just one of the many hats that my team manages.
Al Grego: So I'm thinking monogram jackets maybe. What do you think?
Theresa Wetzel: Yeah, that could be interesting. Let me take that one away.
Al Grego: Well, as a senior manager of the events and ESG team at Moneris, I always have you or someone from your team on the Save the Date segment to give a rundown of that month's events calendar.
Theresa Wetzel: That's right. Shout out to my fantastic team, Amanda, Ella, and Matt.
Al Grego: Well hear from Ella a little bit later, is we have a jam packed month on the calendar.
Theresa Wetzel: We certainly do.
Al Grego: But the reason I asked you to co-host this month is that one of the biggest events happening this month is the Elevate Festival 2022.
Theresa Wetzel: That's right.
Al Grego: And you do a lot of work with Elevate.
Theresa Wetzel: We do.
Al Grego: Can you explain to our listeners what Elevate is?
Theresa Wetzel: Yeah, sure. Elevate is a nonprofit organization that builds in Unites Innovators through tech training courses, entrepreneurship programs, and industry leading events, bringing together technology arts and social innovation. Really, their focus and their mission is to unite Canada's innovators to solve society's greatest challenges.
Al Grego: And what is Moneris relationship with Elevate?
Theresa Wetzel: Well, we're one of the founding members, and in 2021 we launched eCommerce North, which is Canada's first eCommerce Accelerator. And our president and EEO, Angela Brown, sits on the Elevate board.
Al Grego: Interesting. So what is the Elevate Festival 2022?
Theresa Wetzel: It's the largest tech and arts festival taking place in Toronto, September 20 to 22nd, featuring world class speakers, arts and culture events, and provides opportunities to grow your business and network.
Al Grego: That sounds impressive.
Theresa Wetzel: In addition to the festival happening this month, we are also really excited to be announcing that we're kicking off our third cohort for eCommerce North. This is an Accelerator that helps us grow and scale purpose driven startups, helping them build a community of founders that will have access to mentorship and executive coaching.
Al Grego: No. Well, speaking of eCommerce North, in this month's podcast, I'll be interviewing a couple of small business founders who graduated from that program.
Theresa Wetzel: Which ones?
Al Grego: Well, first off I speak with Christal Earle. She's a founder and CEO of Brave Soles.
Theresa Wetzel: Such a cool company with a really great mission.
Al Grego: Indeed. And then I speak with Aditya Dutta. He's the co-founder of Fleur & Co.
Theresa Wetzel: Another amazing company with a very cool story.
Al Grego: And finally, I speak with Gbemi Akande. He's the director of innovation at Elevate.
Theresa Wetzel: Gbemi is awesome. You're going to have such a great chat with him.
Al Grego: But first, let's kick things off with my chat with Christal from Brave Soles.
Speaker 4: Featured interview.
Al Grego: I'm joined by Christal Earle. She's a founder and CEO of Brave Soles. Christal, thank you so much for joining me today.
Christal Earle: Thank you, Al. It's so good to be here.
Al Grego: So what is Brave Soles?
Christal Earle: I launch Brave Soles in June of 2017, and we identify as being a circular fashion company. So what that looks like for us is the Soles of our shoes are made from up cycle tires that are actually reclaimed from landfills. I worked with landfill workers all over the world, and so that's where I got the idea for Brave Soles. And then we use reclaimed materials. So a lot of reclaimed leathers from everything from plane seats to furniture off cuts and everything for all of our accessories.
Al Grego: Wow, very cool business model and idea. You were founded in 2017, so how are you doing? How's business?
Christal Earle: You know what? Business is so funny. It's so up and down. So we started as in only direct to consumer. In June, I launched with completely organic everything. I launched with $250 to be completely honest and transparent, I had no money. I was a single mom that was living between two countries. I was living every two weeks between Dominican Republic and Toronto because I was caught in a funny immigration crisis with my daughter. She couldn't get to Canada for 10 years, so I had to rebuild my life.
So when I got the idea, I was working with landfill workers in very vulnerable situations. And you work in landfills and you realize that so much in landfill reaches its end of life long before it's ever reached its end of use. That's the common story all over the world. But I just started to think about what would that look like to think about a fashion business model? So that's where the idea came from.
So when we launched, I did extremely bare bones, but I knew that I had a story. I knew that I had a strong mission and we got some good traction first with people that were already engaged with what we were doing. And then we started to move out into marketplaces and wholesale and everything, and a lot of up and downs. I mean, it's probably been the most crazy times in the last five years for everybody in business, and we were no exception to that.
Al Grego: So talk about visionary thinking. You looked at a landfill and you thought high fashion, I mean, how?
Christal Earle: I know. Yeah, it does seem like a bit of a juxtaposition. I know. Well, I'm excited. So much of innovation happens within such constraints, and so for us, really it helps us stay focused and it's exciting to think about what could we do with this to actually keep things circular and to just push ourselves to think more and more circular and better usage of what's available.
Al Grego: Wow. I love the idea. So how did you get involved with Elevate? You said you went through their Accelerator program?
Christal Earle: Yeah, this past spring we were part of what I believe was cohort two for Elevate and it was such an amazing experience. In complete honesty, it really did exceed my expectations. The access that we had to such a brilliant mentorship and advisory, the entrepreneurs and residents and the advisors was amazing and just such a great experience.
Al Grego: If you can maybe just take one or two main things that maybe you took out of that program, what would those be?
Christal Earle: Two of the things that I took out of it was the strong emphasis on creating your KPIs and measuring against them, which a lot of businesses you say in theory, but then if you actually have to have consistent meetings about them, then it changes. It lights a fire under your butt to make sure that you are staying on course. The second thing I think was that I was so pleasantly surprised at the wide diversity of people that they had in from founder stories to the actual advisors that they had. It was completely diverse in every meaning of that. And that's a really big value that we have personally. So it meant a lot to be able to be part of that, and we just learned so much.
Al Grego: So you're in the cohort last spring. You were already in established business then when you went through the Accelerator program?
Christal Earle: Yeah, we were already in business for four years at that time, but had a lot of ups and downs. So the timing was excellent because they met with us and after we were accepted, they met with us and it was catered. It was very individualized to the company's needs and it really helped move the dial for us.
Al Grego: That's amazing. So Christal, thank you so much for the time you spent with me today. And where would people find Brave Soles?
Christal Earle: BraveSoles.life or if you're in Canada it's braveSoles.ca, it all goes to the same place.
Al Grego: That's where they would find all information and also if they wanted to purchase your product. And socially, where can we follow you?
Christal Earle: At braveSoles.life actually is also our handle for Instagram and for all things social, and they can find me in LinkedIn and Brave Soles.
Al Grego: Amazing. Thank you so much, Christal, for your time today.
Christal Earle: Thanks.
Speaker 4: Featured interview.
Al Grego: I'm joined by Aditya Dutta. He's the co-founder of Fleur & Co. Aditya, thank you so much for joining me today.
Aditya Dutta: Thank you, Allan, for having me over.
Al Grego: So let's talk about Fleur & Co for a bit. What exactly is Fleur & Co?
Aditya Dutta: Well, we are an online plant retailer in Canada. We started about 18 months ago selling plants, household plants to people. You don't have to go to a store anymore and you can just purchase and get it delivered to your house.
Al Grego: That's amazing. Where are you based out of?
Aditya Dutta: We're based Calgary, but we have two locations now in Calgary and next to Toronto and Mississauga.
Al Grego: And you said you started up 18 months ago?
Aditya Dutta: That is correct.
Al Grego: And how are things going?
Aditya Dutta: Well, in just 18 months we have become Canada's top online retailer for plants. So it's going wonderful. People are loving the service. More importantly, for the first time, people are not killing their plants and they love the fact that there's someone to help them take care, not just sell them plants.
Al Grego: So primarily, I'm guessing that you're competing with traditional greenhouses and stuff like that, but what makes you different is your online only?
Aditya Dutta: That is correct. We are online only, but what really makes us different is that we are not a sell and forget model like a greenhouse would be. When you walk into a greenhouse, you just don't know what to purchase. It's such overwhelming process. Whereas we have a plant quiz you can take online, which allows you to find plants that match your lifestyle. And then there's a dedicated person towards people who certain lifestyles to help them take care of plants, very different model.
Al Grego: So with your help, I can actually maybe keep plants alive in my house.
Aditya Dutta: Yeah, absolutely. I can tell you, I used to kill plants all the time, but now I'm bombarding the team with questions with all the plants that I keep purchasing.
Al Grego: What was your involvement with Elevate? You went through their Accelerator program?
Aditya Dutta: Yes. The involvement with Elevate was as their second cohort member, they picked 10 companies they wanted to support. We were one of those 10 companies, part of the Accelerator program. It was a lovely experience. They wanted founders who were forward looking. We had an interview process, couple interviews in fact, and after a successful round we were brought into this cohort.
Al Grego: All right. So if you were to pick maybe one or two main points or main lessons that you got out of this program, what would they be?
Aditya Dutta: I would say number one, access to professionals to help you in the thought process as a founder. It is a pretty lonely place up there when you have 10 decisions a day to make and you don't know where to go, having those professionals around experts who have done this before was incredible. Number two, having a nice community of other founders was incredible. We were able to not just chitchat during our coffee discussions, we used to call it, even though it was online. We were also able to support each other with whatever services or products we were offering. We ended up using one of the delivery service providers, for example, from our cohort.
Al Grego: So you were able to connect with some other companies that would help you along the way as well?
Aditya Dutta: Absolutely.
Al Grego: Now, you mentioned there was an application process to join the Accelerator program?
Aditya Dutta: That is correct.
Al Grego: What was that process like?
Aditya Dutta: We first had to apply online with the full form in which you had to put your performance metrics, what aims you have as a vision of the company. And then we were invited for around face to face interview with Gbemi. Actually, he was incredible. And then there was a third round where we would meet the rest of the team of Elevate, specifically people who are running the eCommerce North Accelerator program within Elevate team and questions pertaining to why did we start our company? Where we want this to go? Why do we want it to go that way? How do we see this performing? All of those questions were asked to us and we were able to answer and then successfully make it.
Al Grego: Well, it certainly sounds like the Accelerator helped your company flourish.
Aditya Dutta: That is correct. We got help, not just through expertise but they went above and beyond and helped us in opening other avenues and gates for us to ex-founders, to current founders who are spearheading certain companies in Canada with lots of funding, with lots of support from his customers. And since it's ended in June, we are still getting support from the likes of Gbemi, Blake in this team at eCommerce North. So I would say this was not a closed ended program. It's a unique model where they're there with you forever.
Al Grego: Wow. We're going to hear from Gbemi a little later on in the podcast, but I want thank you for taking your time to talk to me today. Aditya, where can we learn more about Fleur & Co?
Aditya Dutta: You can go to our website at www.fleurliving.com or follow us on Instagram @fleurcollaborative.
Al Grego: Thank you very much Aditya for taking your time today.
Aditya Dutta: You're welcome, Allan. It was a pleasure talking to you.
Speaker 7: This podcast is brought to you by Moneris. Today has shown us, tomorrow has changed. Changed how we'll live, work, and do business because now we're more open to what's possible. Open to contactless payments, online bookings, curbside pickups, and more. Open your business tomorrow opportunity with solutions to help you succeed online, in store, or on the go. To talk to one of our business advisors, call 1-866-Moneris or visit moneris.com today.
Speaker 4: By the numbers.
Al Grego: I'm joined by Gbemi Akande. He's the director of Innovation at Elevate. Gbemi, thank you so much for joining me today.
Gbemi Akande: Thanks for having me, Al. Nice to be here.
Al Grego: Director of Innovation, that sounds like a fun title. What do you get to do?
Gbemi Akande: So as Director of Innovation at Elevate, we work with several startup companies through our programs. And what our programs really entail is that we help companies that are innovative, that are pushing out innovative products and services or platforms in the market to grow and scale their businesses to become even bigger and better. So my role as director of innovation is really to help design those programs and also help to support the companies that are going through the program to achieve the outcomes that have set out at the beginning of the program.
Al Grego: When was Elevator founded?
Gbemi Akande: It was founded in 2017. It grew really quickly. In 2017 when it launched, within 90 days we had to put together a large tech festival. We had about 5,000 people in our 10 downtown, 95 partners. So it was off to a very big start in 2017 when it kicked off.
Al Grego: You mentioned the festival, this year it's September 20th to 22nd. What can we expect at the festival this year?
Gbemi Akande: The festival this year will be big and also the first one in person since the pandemic. So we are expecting to bring back that in person experience, have different stages that are focused on different themes and topics. And also from an innovation angle, we are bringing an investor zone, which allows innovative companies that have been through our program or that are part of our network, meet investors that can help them grow their businesses. So it's going to be bigger and better and that we're looking forward to it.
Al Grego: Now you say bigger and better, can you give me just an idea of the numbers maybe we can expect in over those three days?
Gbemi Akande: We're looking to have about 10,000 people in attendance, a little bit more than that is possible.
Al Grego: It's amazing and quite a bit of growth since the year one when you had what, you said around 5,000?
Gbemi Akande: Well, 5,000 year one. Correct.
Al Grego: So let's talk about how things are going. How are they going? How are you guys tracking to your mission?
Gbemi Akande: At the Innovation team, our mission is really to create programs that support creators and innovators. And we're tracking towards that really, really interestingly in the last 18 months since we kicked up the first Accelerator cohort, we've been able to work with over 75 companies across the different programs that we're on in terms of diversity, which is something that we take very seriously at Elevate and also in the innovation programs that we're on.
We've had about 50% of our cohort founders identify as women founders and about 80% representation in terms of underrepresented groups [inaudible] and so on. So we really consider that to be a big achievement and we want to keep doing that and even do it better over the coming years.
Al Grego: Yeah. I mean, I just interviewed a couple of the companies that came out of your Accelerators and very high praise from both of them as to what Elevate helped them achieve.
Gbemi Akande: Absolutely. We consider found our satisfaction rating we do. So we are the end of every cohort and we've had very good ratings. I think our founder satisfaction now stands at about 90% or nine out of 10. And this is across 75 companies that we've work with. So the 75 companies spans across different programs. In the Accelerator alone, we've worked with only 20 companies but in other earlier stage programs, we've worked with over 55 companies. So we're really proud of that, but also really aware of the fact that we need to keep up the momentum and even do better over the coming years.
Al Grego: And you mentioned that this month, not only is there the festival, but the third cohort starts up this month, correct?
Gbemi Akande: That is correct. Every cohort lasts for about 12 weeks, which in every cohort we have about 200 plus hours of one on one coaching with the founders about 10 hours of workshops. So all of that is going on in every cohort. In every cohort, we're bringing 10 companies that really going to benefit from the cohort program and the resources that we provide in the cohort. So yeah, we're kicking up this third cohort in September, it's going to run until December. And also looking forward to achieve those kinds of milestones also that we've set out in the previous two cohorts.
Al Grego: Some of our listeners who might be entrepreneurs or small businesses themselves, if they were interested in maybe getting in next year for the next cohort, what's the process there?
Gbemi Akande: Typically, our cohort recruitment process is pretty standard across several other Accelerators. But what we do is to ensure that we are able to hear from the founders. So there's an application form that goes out a few weeks before the cohort kicks out. And the application form is the initial intake from which we pick how the companies that would think will benefit most from the cohort program. And then we schedule interviews that can last from 10 minutes to 45 minutes just to listen to the founders, understand the pinpoint and see where we can help them. And if there's a need for a second call or second meeting to deep dive into certain details in the company, we do that. But typically one meeting or one or two meetings is enough to be able to understand where we can help the founders and then bring them into the program.
Al Grego: If I want to learn more about Elevate or eCommerce North, where can people learn more?
Gbemi Akande: You can learn more about Elevate by going to elevate.ca. If you're interested particularly about the Elevate Festival, you can learn more about Elevate festival at elevatefestival.ca. And to learn more about the Accelerator program, which is a program we are kicking off next score in September, you go to ecommercenorth.ca.
Al Grego: And where can folks follow you guys socially?
Gbemi Akande: They can follow us on Twitter on, @elevatetechca.
Al Grego: Thank you so much Gbemi for your time today.
Gbemi Akande: Thank you so much. It was great being here and looking forward to learning more about Shop Talk.
Speaker 4: Save the Day.
Al Grego: Joined by Ella Urquhart, she's a senior communications specialist for the event in ESG team. Thank you for joining me, Ella.
Ella Urquhart: Thanks for having me, Al.
Al Grego: So sounds like September's a busy month. What do we have for the calendar?
Ella Urquhart: Yeah. September is definitely a busy month for Moneris and the events team. Starting off September 11th, Moneris is proud to sponsor Bear's Liar, which is a new TV series that will be airing on APTN on September 11th. And it's showcasing the diversity, resiliency, and strengths of indigenous entrepreneurs. So like Dragons Down and Shark Tank, the Bear's Liar will see 18 emerging and established indigenous business owners from across Canada compete for their share of $180,000 in prize money.
Al Grego: I read all about that. Sounds like a really cool event.
Ella Urquhart: Yeah, it's going to be amazing.
Al Grego: So where can we learn more about that?
Ella Urquhart: If you'd like to learn more details, you can visit bearsliartv.com.
Al Grego: Great. What else do you have?
Ella Urquhart: On September 13th, Second Harvest is hosting their Hero Truck Pull at Nathan Phillips Square, downtown Toronto. It's a fundraiser to support Second Harvest and their goal is to raise $50,000 to provide over 100,000 meals for families and agencies in need. And Moneris will be putting a team forward this year.
Al Grego: So a Truck Pull in downtown Toronto, that's that's going to be quite the spectacle.
Ella Urquhart: Absolutely. It's both a feat of strength and a feat of generosity. So we're looking forward to participating.
Al Grego: Where can we learn more about that one?
Ella Urquhart: You can check out Second Harvest's social channels for more details.
Al Grego: You have anything else?
Ella Urquhart: On September 14th, eCommerce North is launching their third cohort supporting 10 companies over the next three months. So you can check out ecommercenorth.ca later this month for the list of companies participating in that cohort.
Al Grego: And that's an Elevate program?
Ella Urquhart: Correct, yes.
Al Grego: Excellent. What else do you have?
Ella Urquhart: So as you've already discussed, on September 20th to 22nd, Elevate Festival is returning back to Toronto.
Al Grego: Yes. We've heard of all the great things happening at that festival. What else do you have?
Ella Urquhart: On September 21st, the Women in Payments Conference's taking place and Marta Rzeszowska, the Vice President of Products at Moneris will be speaking on the panel post pandemic digital payment trends. You can check out canada.womeninpayments.org for more details.
Al Grego: Okay, perfect. Anything else?
Ella Urquhart: On September 28th, Moneris will be hosting a webinar discussing Canadian consumer behavior, which is led by Moneris's data expert Sean McCormick, and he'll be explaining how you can make more informed business decisions with the use of customer and industry payment data.
Al Grego: Where can we learn more about that one?
Ella Urquhart: You can check out our social channels to sign up later this month.
Al Grego: Is that everything?
Ella Urquhart: One more. September 29th, you can join Moneris experts, Sean McCormick and Patrick Wilshire speaking at the World Trade Center of Vancouver's Digital Transformation Workshop. Check out the events calendar on the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade website for more details, and that's at www.boardoftrade.com.
Al Grego: Wow. Ella, you weren't kidding. September's jam packed.
Ella Urquhart: It will be a very busy month.
Al Grego: And not to mention the back to school and everything that goes around with that.
Ella Urquhart: Exactly. Lots going on.
Al Grego: Well, thank you so much for joining me today.
Ella Urquhart: Thanks for having me.
Al Grego: That's all we have for this month. I hope you found this episode informative. Before we sign off, I'm thrilled to announce that our other podcast Yes, We Are Open, has been nominated for outstanding business series and outstanding branded series by the Canadian Podcast Awards. Season three starts up in October, but for now, here's a look back at season two. Right now you can binge season two of the Yes, We Are Open Podcast. Eight Canadian businesses with eight stories of perseverance.
Speaker X: Yes, were open. Yes, we are open. Yes, we are open. Yes, we are open. Hell yeah, we're open.
Al Grego: Drive now to, Yes, We Are Open, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker X: Yes, we're open and we're not going anywhere.
Al Grego: I love it. That's great.
Speaker X: We're here to stay.
Al Grego: Perfect.
Theresa Wetzel: If you haven't already, you can subscribe to this podcast and yes, we are open wherever you get your podcast.
Al Grego: If you'd like to support the show, share this podcast with your network or reviews on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. And finally, if you have a payment related question you'd like to submit to one of our experts, you can email us that podcastmoneris.com.
Theresa Wetzel: Join us again next month for more expert insight and data to help grow your business.
Al Grego: Theresa, thank you so much for co-hosting.
Theresa Wetzel: It was my pleasure, Al.
Al Grego: On behalf of Theresa, myself and the rest of Moneris, thank you for listening to Shop Talk. Talk again in October.