Tyler began his career as a mechanical engineer building multi-billion dollar infrastructure and energy projects, and shifted his focus to building businesses. Tyler has 10 years of experience helping businesses and their processes achieve operational excellence, and has spent the last 7 years focusing on building and mentoring emerging technology ventures that are shaping the built environment.

Scott Kaplanis is the Managing Partner at GroundBreak Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Toronto committed to finding and funding early stage property technology companies. Scott is an active venture investor and capital markets professional having spent nearly 20 years evaluating and supporting emerging businesses.

He has worked in both origination and asset management and has experience across industries and throughout the business lifecycle. Scott has worked alongside dozens of entrepreneurs and has provided guidance on areas including company and capital formation, C-suite recruitment, resource planning, corporate governance, M&A assessment and exit evaluation. As an entrepreneur and a father, he is well aware of the support needed – both practical and emotional – to create something great.

Crafting business cases and strategies for real estate portfolios and infrastructure projects
Communicating the value of real estate innovations through strategic storytelling
Real estate project management planning, funding and execution

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Nerys Parry is a seasoned strategic real estate consultant with over 20 years of expertise in managing large, complex portfolios and delivering innovative infrastructure strategies. A published and award-winning author of fiction and non-fiction, Nerys leverages her storytelling expertise to craft persuasive business cases that drive transformative solutions in real estate.

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As Business and Portfolio Strategy Practice Lead at Tiree, a leader in real estate advisory services in Canada, Nerys leads an analytical team focused on business case and real estate strategy development including greening and climate resiliency planning for public and private sector firms.  

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Previously, Nerys led project management offices for multi-year real estate initiatives and directed strategic communications for a global $4B design firm, aligning strategic visions with operational goals. She also co-led a North American funding program that secured billions in infrastructure financing for clients across Canada and the U.S., empowering innovators, non-profits, and developers to leverage funding for infrastructure developments.

Fundraising
Strategy
GTM
Sales
Product Strategy

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Navin Kaminoulu is a seasoned entrepreneur and leader at the forefront of applying artificial intelligence to revolutionize the construction industry. In 2017, he co-founded Indus.ai, a pioneering company that rapidly scaled under his leadership before being acquired by Procore Technologies (PCOR: NYSE), the world’s largest construction SaaS platform ($12B market cap), in 2021. Navin’s experience spans successful ventures and significant growth. Prior to Indus.ai, he directed hypergrowth at GreenOwl Mobile, leading to its acquisition by Arcadis IBI Group (TSX: IBG) in 2014. At Indus.ai, he secured multiple rounds of venture capital, spearheaded hypergrowth, built and led key functions including Product, Go-To-Market, Customer Success, and Finance, and ultimately orchestrated the company’s successful acquisition by Procore.

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During his time at Procore, Navin led a 500M+ ARR product line, contributing significantly to the company’s market capitalization growth from $3B to $10B. Currently, Navin serves as a Corporate Development Partner at Groundbreak Ventures, a leading proptech investor. He also serves on the board of directors for PLOT Communications and Sitemax Systems Inc. Passionate about fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, he mentors at StartX (Stanford University’s technology accelerator), and sits on the advisory board for Western University’s Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship, Powered by Ivey. Navin has advised numerous early-stage software companies on fundraising, product management, and go-to-market strategies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Liberal Arts from the University of Western Ontario.

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Public Relations and Media Strategy
Founder Storytelling and Executive Visibility

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Jodi Echakowitz is founder and CEO of Boulevard Public Relations. She launched the PR agency in 2001 to work with technology startups, scaleups, and VC firms throughout North America. Under her leadership, Boulevard is recognized as one of the top technology PR firms in Canada, is valued as a strategic partner by clients, and has grown consistently through referral.

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A tech geek at heart, Jodi’s passion for technology began at age 11, when she used BASIC programming to create simple games. It extended to her first full-time job in her native South Africa, where setting up computer networks was among her many responsibilities. Since landing in Canada in 1994, Jodi has been fully immersed in the world of public relations. Prior to Boulevard, she held progressively senior in-house public relations roles at startups and emerging growth companies.

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Jodi is an angel investor in women-founded startups and an advisor and mentor to startups through technology accelerators. She volunteers with causes close to her heart, is an LGBTQ ally, and mental health and autism advocate.

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Product Commercialization

Product-Market Fit Strategy

Go-to-Market Planning for B2B Startups

Startup Growth and Demand Generation

Chris Bardos is a product commercialization and growth expert with 14 years of experience helping early-stage, B2B venture-backed founders achieve product-market fit. His approach shifts startups from pushing their product to creating market demand, driving sustainable growth. Teams he has worked with have landed on Deloitte’s Fast 50 and raised over $53M in funding. He works with pre-seed to Series B startups across multiple verticals, including Cleantech, foodtech, proptech and fintech.

Product Development and Innovation

AI/ML

Go-to-Market Strategy

Startup Growth and Exit Strategy

Alnur Ismail is a seasoned entrepreneur and senior executive with over 20 years of hands-on experience in product development, driving remarkable business success. In 2016, Alnur co-founded Fourwalls, a leading real estate technology SaaS platform for residential real estate agents and brokerages across Canada. He shapped the company’s value proposition, product offerings, and go-to-market strategy which was instrumental to its success. Alnur possesses a unique ability to strike the perfect balance between technology investment and fulfilling the needs of the business.

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Under his leadership of the product and engineering teams, Fourwalls achieved an impressive 65% profit margin and pioneered significant IP developments that propelled them to the forefront of the industry. In 2021, Fourwalls underwent a strategic acquisition, and Alnur remained onboard as the Chief Technology Officer, orchestrating transformative changes within the engineering and product teams to ensure continued excellence. Prior to his tenure at Fourwalls, Alnur made significant contributions while working in engineering, product development, and as a technical evangelist at Microsoft, where he garnered numerous accolades for his outstanding contributions. Alnur is an alumnus of the University of Waterloo, holding an Honours Bachelor of Computer Science degree.

Productization of software and hardware. Operationalizing teams to sell B2B and Enterprise.

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Sometimes, customers tell you something that sounds like a must-have, when it’s more of nice-to-have. Or the other way around. Many startups, being “customer-friendly”, just say yes and build them all so they have the “best” product out there (and yes, that includes hardware accessories too).

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Improperly translating of “Customer-Speak” to “Startup-Action” causes too many business-to-tech miscommunications and wastes valuable time (a.k.a. “But that’s what the customer SAID”).

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Anthony has spent 20+ years growing software and hardware companies to global recognition by speaking “Customer”. He started techie – developing hardware, software and enterprise-grade architectures. Then he moved to the business side and now does both when he can. All throughout, he spoke with customers, learning to translate the customer spoken-word and RFPs into meaningful dev team sprints, hardware revs and customer pricing lists.

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He has driven accelerated growth from new B2B and Enterprise market launches and new product innovations, and through mergers/acquisitions. He has worked with high-potential companies during their growth phases as employee, executive and board member, including Motorola, Cypress, Blackberry, Optiva, Telmediq and Medella Health where innovated new product categories and ensured that offerings fulfilled customer/market requirements.

Startup Scaling and Growth Strategy

Change Management and Leadership

Founder Coaching

High Growth Coach and Advisor. Problem Solver. Multi-Exit Entrepreneur. World traveller. Raptors Fan.

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Andrea is a forward-thinking leader and an elite problem solver who will ask you hard questions and help you make tough decisions as you move through your growth curve. She helps companies look at problems differently, and answer complex business questions from strategy through execution faster. She has grown three start-ups from zero to successful exit – the largest was from zero to US$175 million in 24 months on three continents.

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Her mission is to share her experience to advise high growth start-ups on change management, to help entrepreneurs identify their blind spots, and to help their companies scale rapidly. Andrea has mentored and advised over 1,000 entrepreneurs over the past 5 years.

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