Founder Spotlight: Michelle Caers

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Founder Spotlight: Michelle Caers

Entrepreneur-in-Residence turned founder Michelle Caers has been on both sides of the DMZ accelerator offer. An expert in user experience design, she has been a resident coach to our startups for the past three years, while simultaneously working on getting her edtech company Crowdmark on its feet. Her mission – to enrich the learning and teaching experience for students and educators by transforming assessment into a dialogue for improvement.

Technology is changing the face of education at a rapid pace.

With the availability of ample information online and various emerging educational institution models, it is becoming difficult for students to see the value of HigherEd. Universities must re-evaluate the ways they can change the educational experience in order for them to keep up with innovative trends and for students to see the true value of accredited degrees.

A catalyst for that change is in the feedback loop provided for students; a byproduct of time-savings.

Originating with UofT mathematics Professor James Colliander, Crowdmark provides a solution to a real life problem. Faced with grading 5,000 exams by hand during the 2011 Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge, Colliander realized there needed to be a more effective practical marking process instead of the cumbersome red pen on paper approach.

Crowdmark’s artificial intelligence analyzes vast datasets generating unparalleled insights into teaching and learning. These insights help drive innovation in grading for educators and support personalized learning for students.

Rooted in the belief that teaching and learning are fundamentally a human-to-human exchange, the grading platform focuses on automating repeatable actions, eliminating pain points that educators experience when marking student workpapers and providing rich, formative feedback on exams and assignments. The tool increases educator’s productivity by 75%, allowing more time to focus on providing meaningful, constructive feedback to learners. It further provides a direct positive impact on students as it allows for electronic submissions, reducing paper waste and the anxiety of meeting tight deadlines.

“AI shouldn’t replace human interaction, it should enhance people’s experience. You can automate a spreadsheet or anything that’s repetitive and predictable with machine learning, but you cannot replace human judgement in high stakes decision making situations,” Caers says.

Time-savings, increased productivity and more meaningful connections with learners are only a few of the highlights in Crowdmark’s value proposition, and for some educational institutions, it’s even changed their pedagogy. “At McGill University, they used to do a lot of multiple choice exams, but once they implemented our application, they now have a more robust assessment strategy.”

Caers has shared a wealth of advice as a resident DMZ EiR and she is definitely not a stranger when it comes to closing large sales deals. “To close impactful deals, you need to understand the buying processes and security regulations in the industry you’re operating in. We supported our champions by listening to what our organizations want, and delivered accordingly.”

With 37 million papers already graded and institutions like the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo and University of Southern California using the platform, Crowdmark is using insights to continuously build more features to enhance their offer and continue to lead improvements for educators and learners.

To have an edtech company excel in our space as a university-backed accelerator, confirms our impact and mission.

Learn more about the company: @crowdmark | crowdmark.com

How VanHack attracts global tech talent

Canada is in dire need of more talent, with tech vacancies poised to reach 200,000 by 2020 nationwide. If Canada doesn’t bring in more high quality talent into the national startup ecosystem, our cities won’t be positioned to grow into true tech powerhouses. According to a recent CBRE report, a lack of available tech talent is a major issue for many cities with burgeoning tech sectors.

Fortunately, VanHack, a startup headquartered in Vancouver focused on recruiting tech talent, is picking up the slack to help develop tech clusters in cities across Canada. “We bring the world’s best tech talent to you,” says Ilya Brotzky, founder and CEO. Since launching in 2015, VanHack has helped nearly 600 individuals find work in Canada, growing over one hundred percent year-over-year in the process.

But VanHack isn’t just your typical recruiting service. The company brings international tech talent to Canada. As an immigrant himself, Brotzky understands just how transformational living and working in Canada can be to a newcomer. “As an immigrant from the (former) Soviet Union, this is really personal for me,” says Brotzky. “It’s great to help other people have the experience I had.”

Focusing on helping immigrants find work in Canada is at the core of what VanHack does. In fact, the majority of VanHack’s clients comes from countries that aren’t as economically developed as Canada. In other words, VanHack is helping skilled workers come to Canada and not only improve their quality of life but contribute to impactful growth for our ecosystem.

That’s why many of VanHack’s clients are willing to relocate to smaller Canadian cities. Whereas most Canadian software developers will head to Toronto or Vancouver, VanHack brings folks to smaller cities like Kamloops, B.C. “It can be a win-win-win. Win for the company, win for the candidate, win for the city” says Brotzky. “If we bring 50-100 hires to a city, that’s 50 or 100 families that are now contributing to the local economy.”

Shaking up its approach to recruitment in new and successful ways, VanHack brought a group of 20 female senior developers from all around the world to companies based in Toronto and Waterloo as part of their new recruiting initiative “Leap.” VanHack’s video coverage of the event showcases how it is a far more dynamic recruitment style than the typical “see job post, contact company” approach.

Creating more in-person events is a top priority for 2019 with a focus on bringing companies to tech talent, not the other way around. “We’re seeing it as a new way for international recruiting,” says Brotzky, “the next way to hire.”

The Future of Sales with GrowthGenius

Familiarity and a fresh perspective are key elements to the success of GrowthGenius, a Toronto-based scaleup that automates B2B prospecting.

GrowthGenius uses data-driven AI to generate more outbound sales. But Will Richman and Brandon Pizzacalla, co-founders of GrowthGenius, never had any past experience in sales.

Initially an obstacle, the longtime friends (since high school) now see their unfamiliarity with traditional sales-culture as a reason for GrowthGenius’s success.

“A big hurdle that gave us an advantage early on was that we started with a completely fresh understanding of how to connect with someone through cold outreach” said Richman, CEO and co-founder of GrowthGenius.

“A lot of sales organizations are broken. They get caught up on the terminology, the process, and how things have been done… We don’t focus on how things have been done in the past. We want to help folks out and bring immediate results”

Taking a counter-culture approach to sales has led to a few disagreements between the company’s founders and more traditional sales teams, including some GrowthGenius employees.

But the approach seems to be working.

In a little under a year, from September 2017 to July 2018, GrowthGenius grew a customer network of two in to 40, generating an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of over $1 million.

Solving a major pain-point for companies (in their case it’s helping businesses reaching the ideal customer) is another element to the company’s growth.

“Helping people close deals is so valuable and it’s something so many companies have trouble doing”

GrowthGenius does that by acting as an extension of a business’s sales team. After analyzing past sales data, GrowthGenius can extrapolate that information to create and send one-to-one email copy for targeted audiences, an entirely automated process.

From there, all the sales team has to do is focus on positive responses rather than waste time with prospecting.

Pizzacalla describes the process as “the future of sales” because now, and definitely in the near future, “no one is going to be doing the work that can be done by machines.”

Solving a particular pain-point and learning to sell their product at an early stage are two key lessons Richman and Pizzacalla would impart to other entrepreneurs.

Another is building your business with the right team members.

“The earliest people in the business” said Pizzacalla, “you should know them for a long time.”

That’s exactly what Pizzacalla and Richman did with GrowthGenius. Duncan McCall, head of customer team, partnered with Richman in a past business venture. Ryan Nahas, head of sales, was Pizzacalla’s roommate.

Doing so ensures you know how a team member will likely react in all sorts of situations, both good and bad.

It’s also important to onboard people who have a different set of skills, adds Richman.

As a business grows “you’re going to be doing very different things” said Richman, “and if you have the same skillset you’re going to fight over the same turf.”

Building a business solely with close friends isn’t exactly scalable, of course, so GrowthGenius’s founders recommend hiring through referrals.

About fifty percent of the 24-person GrowthGenius team were recommended by friends or current employees.

“If you’re bringing on awesome people they’re going to bring in other awesome people”

Bouncing back from startup setbacks

Marie Chevrier spent years building DropGift, a startup that allowed users to send gift cards through Facebook, pouring her heart and soul into the project.

Soon after (and rather suddenly) a leading competitor to DropGift was acquired by tech giant Facebook. Chevrier and her team were left with no real future opportunities in the space. Startup setbacks, like what happened with DropGift, can happen at any time. An essential skill for entrepreneurs, then, is being able to bounce right back.

“For me, that first business was kind of like my MBA” said Chevrier, now CEO of Sampler, which helps brands distribute physical product samples to digitally targeted customers.

DropGift may have failed, but, as Chevrier now understands, the experience gave her the core skills necessary to launch Sampler. Understanding that failures are part of the entrepreneurial process is essential to keep in mind when building up a startup. Sampler, for instance, faced more than a few setbacks early on.

In its infancy, Sampler used Facebook as its sole platform to connect audiences with brands. But, as the Sampler team soon found out, being beholden to Facebook caused some problems.

“Every time Facebook changed their policies, we would have to jump through 20 hoops” said Kelly Stewart, head of marketing at Sampler.

Eventually, after growing increasingly frustrated, Stewart, Chevrier, and the Sampler team decided to change their operation entirely. To remove the obstacle of Facebook entirely, Sampler created their own platform to connect with audiences.

An ongoing issue became an opportunity for growth.

“Don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board, no matter what stage you’re at… It can be a huge payoff if you’re willing to take that risk.”

Setbacks in a startup setting can, of course, come in many forms. Problems can be tangible, like a software glitch, or a valued employee may suddenly leave the team. The latter situation is something Chevrier dealt with recently at Sampler, when a key operations employee decided to start their own entrepreneurial venture.

“Instead of looking at it as an ‘oh crap we’re screwed’ situation… I decided to make it into an opportunity and go deeper into their role.”

So, before the team member departed, Chevier spent time working alongside them, gaining a newfound understanding of the business, especially aspects she hadn’t paid attention to in a while. The lessons learned were also invaluable when rewriting the position’s job description, which had evolved drastically since the initial hire, something other startup executives should consider doing, says Chevrier.

Finding the silver lining isn’t always an easy task, especially when your business is on the line.

When facing a serious problem, one that you don’t think can be remedied, Chevrier has a strategy for that, too: get some rest.

“Everything is better after a good night’s sleep… Give yourself the trust that you’ll figure it out once you’re well rested.”

3 must reads about tech’s gender discrimination problem

In recent weeks dozens of women have shared their stories about the abuse they encountered while working in Hollywood. Many of these victims — actresses, producers, and editors — disclosed how disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein exploited women for decades.

Since then the scandal has launched a national discussion about sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace. For those working in tech, the issue is nothing new. The industry’s problems are well documented.

Of course, harassment in tech — like in other spaces — is complex and daunting, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t solvable. Here are three must-read articles on the subject by those in the industry and what can be done to change things for the better.

Cultivate stories, create a paper trail

After Weinstein’s harassment became public other women around the world began speaking up about their own encounters with the film executive. The moment served as an important reminder about how powerful it can be for victims to speak out in large numbers.

“When one woman breaks the silence, others are empowered to tell their stories,” @SoniaoSsorio, president of @NOW_NYC.

When it comes to tech, a groundbreaking exposé by about investors accused of harassing women had a similar effect. It led to more stories (notably, one by the NYT) on the subject and more women publicly coming forward.

Later as a result industry heavyweights, like 500 startups founder Dave McClure and Lowercase Capital’s Chris Sacca, apologized and resigned from their positions. The Informant’s report (and the others that followed it) showcased what can happen when abusers are held responsible. More importantly, it put a brave face on a pervasive issue that transcends companies and cities.

Ensure accountability is the norm

Holding offenders accountable is important. However, creating a space where individuals aren’t given the freedom to abuse people is even more crucial.

Popular podcast Too Embarrassed to Ask tackled this issue in its summer episode. Paradigm CEO Joelle Emerson and Evertoon CEO Niniane Wang discussed how stakeholders create safe work environments by encouraging diverse voices at all levels.

“It’s not about those individual harassers, it’s about creating a culture where there’s accountability for that type of thing. When a culture is created by any homogeneous group, there’s going to be less,” @joelle_emerson of @prdgm.

She’s not wrong. A 2017 study from Pew Research found that while women viewed gender discrimination as a problem, men were less likely to agree. If the industry is to create sustainable change it will need input from all individuals, not just those at the top.

Concentrate on finding supporters

In 2015, Ellen Pao sued her employer, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, for gender discrimination. The trial grabbed headlines and pushed the industry’s bro culture into the spotlight.

In an interview with Time magazine she described what women dealing with harassment in the workplace can do. When encountering sexism or racism sometimes leaving is the best thing an individual can do for their career, she advised. Look for allies that will support you and your career goals.

“Get out. These are people who are just not going to accept you. You’re not going to get promoted. You don’t have to prove yourself because there’s no way to do that. If you don’t have other opportunities, try to find someone else to work with within the company.”

The ability to quit and start a new job is a financial risk, not every person can take. If it’s not possible to leave, here are organizational allies that can help you in working towards better goals. Some of these organizations include Project Include, Code 2040, Paradigm and Ally Skills Workshop.

Five startups that will help you reach your 2017 resolutions

Know where you stand financially

Do you know your credit score? If not, making large financial goals like saving for your first home or a shiny new car can be challenging if you don’t know how banks or financial lenders view you. The good news is you no longer have to pay $40 or more just to find out what could be an eye opening three digit number. Since June 2016, DMZ alum, Borrowell, has partnered with Equifax to bless Canadians with free credit scores. So take a deep breath, head over to Borrowell’s website and see how likely potential lenders will want to take the risk of giving you a loan. If your credit score is a less than a flattering number, don’t fret! Borrowell provides free tips on how you can reach your credit score goal.

Already know your score? Take things a step further by opening a Registered Retired Savings Plan (RRSP). In your 20s, covering your basic needs often takes priority over longer term goals such as saving for retirement. Investing in RRSPs will reduce your taxes – your future self will thank you. Borrowell and Wealthsimple have partnered to help people make their RRSP’s contributions if they don’t have the cash on hand to do it. So take the leap of faith because Borrowell and Wealthsimple will have your back.

Moving? Don’t forget a thing!

Moving is one of the few things in life you just can’t turn into a fun task. And to be honest… it’s dreadful and there’s really no way around that. But it can be a lot more tolerable and a lot less stressful when you use MoveSnap. If you’re planning to change addresses in 2017, this Toronto-based startup allows you to complete all your moving-related tasks on one easy-to-use platform. What does this include exactly?

Transfer utilities: MoveSnap identifies your current and future providers and quickly guides you through transferring or disconnecting utilities
Change your address: easily notify businesses, governments (driver’s license, health card, you name it!) and even your favourite magazine about your upcoming move
Stay in control: always know what needs to be done next with MoveSnap’s clean and intuitive layout so you never miss a thing.

Got 2017 summer body goals? Don’t we all…

Remember- this year you won’t abandon your health goals by April. Thanks to Optimity, you’ll increase your chances for long-term success in achieving your fitness goals. The platform provides productive 30-second to two-minute micro-breaks that help you rejuvenate and refocus your health efforts. The app helps you cover all bases by managing and centralizing your healthy initiatives from work to home.

Need the daily push and accountability of a trainer? Get on Trainer+. Their new program provides a fitness plan tailored to your needs and delivered by a personal trainer through your phone. Trainer+ allows anyone to receive the support from a fitness professional without breaking their post-holiday bank account. Something those pricey gym packages know how to do a little too well.

Battle your urges with Urbery

Okay, so you’re walking through the aisles of your local grocery store and you’re doing great so far. You’ve got some fresh produce, whole-wheat grains, grass-fed meats and even a couple of those new protein bars everyone at your office is raving about. Then, you find yourself in what feels like the never ending salty snack or bakery aisle and you’re fighting urges that are making your palms sweat. We’ve all been there before, but you no longer have to. Save yourself the battle of possibly losing to the sight of a big bag of Doritos or a six pack of red velvet cupcakes and just get on Urbery. This grocery delivery platform uses a fleet of crowd sourced personal shoppers so you can go online, click the food items you need (not crave) and never have to see those sweet or salty aisles again.

If you use these five startups, you’ll never understand why you thought it would be so hard to stick to your new year resolutions. But if you don’t, you’ve been warned.

Swift health care is at the heart of this Toronto company’s plans

“The minute you make a nurse’s life easier is the minute you start to gain critical acclaim and support from that community.”

Traditionally, doctors, nurses and health-care professionals working in wound care management have been forced to manually study and describe patients’ wounds. This process is complicated by the fact that the wound itself can change rapidly and quick response and treatment is crucial to effective healing. As such, it is difficult for patients to get the care they can both trust and understand.

Fortunately, one innovative company has found a way to simplify and improve wound care management. Founded in 2015, Swift Medical aims to bring automation and standardization to visual health-care assessments on a global basis. Their latest product, Swift Wound, allows doctors, nurses and patients to easily measure and assess chronic wounds using their smartphone.

Using a phone’s camera, users can scan a wound and the Swift Wound app will detect and capture an image of the wound as well as measure the wound and provide details on its size, dimensions and shape. With additional assessments, users can visually and numerically examine exactly how the wound is changing over time. This information can then be viewed by a single user or team of users working within a medical facility.

“People could have these wounds for years and they would never go away,” said Swift Medical’s Founder, Carlo Perez. “It’s a problem that just shouldn’t be happening, and we’re passionate about making a change.”

But just how can technology, especially from within an app, actually improve wound care management – something that, until now, has been primarily a manual process?

“Ultimately, it means better care, faster care and more connected care,” said Perez. “For the patient, the most important benefit is that the clinicians that you’re interacting with actually know if you’re healing or not. It’s really scary to think that leading up until now they didn’t know, or rather they didn’t know in such a precise fashion.”

Perez and his team come from both medical and non-medical backgrounds.

“I think where we came into the medical space, we actually came at it with engineering first and foremost,” he explained. “We have clinical members on the team and we also have team members who have deep backgrounds inside of visioning and computer vision, and what we decided to do was apply that in as many ways as we could to various different challenges.”

It started with dermatology and quickly transitioned into wound care, something they realized was a much bigger problem. In fact, Perez says that when they looked into the statistics “it was 40 per cent error from one measurement to the next on average.”

With this knowledge and unsolved challenge in front of them, Perez says, “We had the skills and background to be able to solve it, and we had a clinical team that was absolutely insanely passionate about it and had been working on this for years.” The rest was history.

Now, Swift operates within a software as a service (SaaS) model – per-bed or per-practitioner, per-day, depending on whether it is being used in an in- or outpatient setting.

Current projections have Swift being used in thousands of facilities by the end of the year. Evidently, doctors, nurses, health-care professionals and their patients have recognized the benefits of Swift.

Looking forward, Swift Medical is in talks to enter into several exciting partnerships – including a recently announced relationship with leading North American electronic health record (EHR) provider, PointClickCare, powering their Skin and Wound app – and will also be introducing new technology to the Swift platform. In other words, this is just the beginning.

“We recently did a stage demo and had 1,500 nurses standing and clapping for what they were seeing on stage,” Perez said. “I think by and large Swift’s been received incredibly well and I think ultimately it comes down to the fact that this has been hard for them to do forever and now they can do it with not a $25,000 device but the smartphone in their pocket.”

How two DMZ startups are bringing tech to the food industry

Canadian foodies, rejoice. These startups, Pass The Table and Urbery, are reshaping your dining experience.

Pass The Table connects diners with unique, memorable and meaningful out-of-house dining encounters. Launched in September 2014, the startup gives exclusive access to curated and tailored restaurant menus in Toronto, such as 10-courses of Japanese tapas at Hapa Izakaya or a pig’s head dinner at Farmhouse Tavern. You may even find a chef who wants to have you over to their own home for a personalized dinner.

The idea for Pass The Table came very naturally to founder Jason Finestone, an established professional food writer.

“I had a lot of amazing experiences, and I wanted to give that type of experience to the general public and connect people more deeply with the restaurants that host them, the chefs that are cooking for them, the producers of their beverages and the growers of their ingredients,” said Finestone. “With us, you’re always getting a VIP treatment.”

Pass The Table also organizes large-scale events and dinners at exciting and innovative venues, such as the Toronto Island and the Dock Ellis brewery, and custom curation events, like anniversary dinners or wedding parties. Whether you’re a single diner or part of a big group, there’s a culinary adventure waiting for you.

Pass The Table offers experiences ranging from $35 a person up to $160 a person for more premium, one-off events. Most bookings are paid partially in advance, and the remainder is due in house. The startup’s revenue comes from the booking fee built into the price of the experience.

To the diners’ benefit, Pass The Table offers incredible experiences that can’t be replicated but are exclusively accessible through the platform. “It’s something that nobody else in the restaurant is having, so people walk by and say, ‘Oh my gosh, how did you get that?’ It’s like, ‘Ah, man, you have to go to Pass The Table.’

In the immediate future, Finestone’s eyes are set on Vancouver and Chicago for expansion. But ultimately, he intends to reach even further afield.

More in the mood for dining in? Urbery has you covered: they’ll bring you all the grocery and alcohol items you need to fire up an awesome meal at home, all within as little as two hours.

Since the spring of 2015, Urbery has catered to everyone looking to find ways to save time with grocery shopping and preparing food – young millennials, busy parents, working professionals and persons with a disability. Customers can contact Urbery’s Grocery Guru in real time via a simple messaging system that allows them to track or make changes to their order.

The Urbery team, including founder and CEO Mudit Rawat, comes from a strong retail background. This has enabled them to integrate a rewarding loyalty program based on points that can be converted to order discounts or charitable donations (coming soon) and a freshness guarantee policy that further ensures full customer satisfaction.

Urbery’s revenue model is two-fold. For one, any order under $65 is charged a delivery fee that ranges from $5.99 to $9.99, while orders over $65 are given free shipping as an incentive. If alcohol is ordered, there is an additional $10 fee to cover legal delivery restrictions. Secondly, Urbery’s price markups range from 15 to 20 per cent, depending on such factors as market demand and whether the product is in season. A third aspect of the model, which is still in the planning stage, is a brand partnership strategy that would see targeted advertisements to customers and, eventually, product promotions funded by the brands.

Using targeted data analytics, Rawat says Urbery is also about to launch recipe integration. As Rawat explains,

“What if you were buying certain products and the platform understood that and automatically sent you recipes saying, here’s what you have and here’s what you can make and here’s how to do it?” he asked, adding that the customer experience is Urbery’s biggest priority. This mindset has gotten them far to date, with their average user rating being a 4.8 out of 5.

Unlike their competitor Grocery Gateway, which operates their own warehouse, Urbery cuts costs by using an Uber-like, crowd source model.

“There’s a reason why grocery delivery hasn’t picked up [in Canada] even though e-commerce has exploded all across the world. It’s just because financially it’s very hard to operate,” said Rawat. “We don’t hold inventory, we don’t have warehouses, and we use existing infrastructure with amazing grocery stores and liquor suppliers like Loblaws, Sobeys, Whole Foods and LCBO. People are buying from other people and doing it at their time and it becomes a complete variable cost of business.”

Right now, Urbery typically defaults to Loblaws to fulfill orders as their stores are best placed within the Toronto delivery zone, but if a customer requests their groceries from another store, the Grocery Gurus are able to accommodate. Rawat says that the door is open for partnership opportunities with any GTA grocers.

Also on Urbery’s agenda is expansion across the province and throughout Canada.

“Six months back, we were learning how to crawl. I think we’ve learned how to crawl and now we’re walking. Next steps, we’ll be running,” said Rawat about the company’s growth.

So, whether you’re looking for a special dining extravaganza, or added accessibility and convenience in making a delicious dish at home, Pass The Table and Urbery are ready to help.

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