In this episode, I chat with Shann McGrail, the executive director of Haltech -- a non-profit organization based in the Halton Region that works with technology companies to accelerate innovation for business growth. Shann talks about her leadership skills/style developed more after university and when she first started working. She provides her definition of a woman in tech and the need for everyone to part of the conversation when it comes to equality. On being a good leader: -Being a good lis...
Mar 04, 2020•39 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Whenever I think of venture capital and investing in early-stage companies, the shows Dragon's Den and Shark's Tank come to mind. In this episode, I chat with Nitya Rajendran, a senior associate at Tribeca Venture Partners - an NYC based VC firm that focuses on tech startups mainly in New York. She shares how combining her passion for finance and working closely with entrepreneurs at Georgetown University made her want to pursue a career as a venture capitalist. Site: Tribeca Venture Partners Tw...
Feb 11, 2020•28 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Episode 14 kicks off Season 2 with an interview with the founder of Motify (idea came from combining the words "motivate" and "simplify"), Shauna-Kay Jones. Editor's note: Motify is mispronounced by the host and should be pronounced as "moh-tify". Shauna shares how the idea for Motify came from helping her brother (who is on the Autism spectrum) choose which school and program would be the right fit for him. She also shares her experience taking the stage at the RISE tech conference in Hong Kong...
Jan 14, 2020•35 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Sarah Killins is an adventurer turned entrepreneur. Using her skills she learnt working on Shopify's Support team, she now leads her own communications company specializing in marketing strategy and eCommerce migrations as a Shopify Partner. Beyond that, she cofounded ShopHamont.com , an online collective of brands, makers, artists and artisans marketing their products together to reach a larger audience. To cap it all off, she also teaches workshops and coaches business owners on eCommerce and ...
Dec 16, 2019•27 min•Season 1Ep. 13
This episode showcases how one HR consultant - Stefani Blazevic of infloHR is changing the HR landscape through the introduction and use of online tools to help improve her clients' workflow. We discuss some of her favourite online everyday tools such as: Canva Grammarly Calendly and tools to help with job description and recruitment such as Genderdecoder Joblint Numbeo Stefani also provides some great advice on how to connect with other people on LinkedIn....
Dec 06, 2019•25 min•Season 1Ep. 12
We've all the saying before that Content is King. If Content is King, then distribution would be the queen. In this episode, I interview Laura MacHardy, the Co-founder and Director of Klusster - an online publication platform where users can upload their content and magnify their business' online presence. Business owners can engage their team to help drive distribution.
Nov 19, 2019•21 min•Season 1Ep. 11
This episode is the first bonus episode for the podcast. It's a short one that highlights the many bloopers that happened during the recording of this episode. We say "pause" a lot. Enjoy!
Oct 07, 2019•2 min•Season 1Ep. 10
In this episode, I chat with Kevin Peters, who unlike me, is putting his science degree to good use as a CTO at a biotech startup, Age Rate. Age Rate focuses on the science behind the ageing process within biological systems. Using innovative epigenetic technology, they have created a test that accurately predicts how fast or how slow a person is ageing. AgeRate is a company located at The Forge Incubator, where Kevin is also a business mentor for other startups. We also chat about his business ...
Oct 07, 2019•34 min•Season 1Ep. 9
This has probably got to be the funniest episode I have recorded thus far. Every time I have listened to it, I have laughed out loud. I am so honoured and excited to bring you this episode with Jess Kupferman, co-founder of She Podcasts - a podcast about podcasting stuff and other tech stuff by women, for women. We chat about doing shows dates as far back as her childhood when she and her sister pretended to be game show hosts and record them on a tape recorder. Other topics found in this episod...
Sep 09, 2019•47 min•Season 1Ep. 8
In this episode, I chat with someone who I had originally connected with through the Shapr networking app. Jen Refat's background is software engineering but she also has a crafty side. Craftic is a site where crafters of all levels can go to find ideas for crafts, using the materials at hand. We also chat about how learning HTML and CSS, is a great first step to learning coding and her thoughts on why crafting has become so popular recently. Site: craftic.com IG: crafticland Pinterest: crafticl...
Aug 26, 2019•30 min•Season 1Ep. 7
As someone who is an educator, I really enjoyed talking to Ben Zimmer and Amy Leask, former educators and co-founders of Enable Education about the importance of learning how people learn (pedagogy). Enable Education is an education tech company that builds high-quality, media-rich educational training material for the classroom, board room and training room. So many interesting topics were covered! We chat about: Redefining what a learner is - not just a young student, but more so someone at an...
Jul 31, 2019•34 min•Season 1Ep. 6
In this episode, I chat with Denys Linkov and Nicole (Xiner) Chen, The Team Lead and VP of Program Marketing/Iroquois Ridge Chapter Lead, respectively of Tech Under 20. Tech Under 20 is an organization that whose main goal is to connect students aged 15-20 in the Halton region who are interested in technology and business. The organization has several initiatives: 1. Learn To Get Hired 2. Tech Under 20 Cup (Entrepreneurship competition) 3. C3 Tech Conference - one day conference for people who h...
Jul 23, 2019•32 min•Season 1Ep. 5
In this episode, I chat with Megan Ramwa, the founder and CEO of Sonder Toronto , a fashion-tech company that encompasses a sustainable solution to the growing amount of textile waste affecting Canadian landfills. The idea for Sonder came from personal experience. Megan was a student and was looking for affordable outfit options to wear to an awards ceremony. She couldn't find suitable options or the clothing was only meant for weddings. There is a huge sustainability issue with clothing. Sonder...
Jul 15, 2019•29 min•Season 1Ep. 4
In this episode, I interview Award Winning Graphic Designer Beth Marchant (Woodward) who is also the connection cultivator for South Ontario Small Biz. We chat about the importance of education in the design industry such as knowing colour trends, how colours make people feel and how branding is not just about your logo. Beth also designed the book cover for Average Girl: A Guide To Loving Your Body. This body-positive book showcases women of all shapes and sizes, highlighting the different type...
Jul 10, 2019•26 min•Season 1Ep. 3
In this second solo episode, I share my background story and how blogging helped rekindle my love for writing. I used the skills I learned from blogging to leave an unsatisfying government job and join an ad tech startup. Tune in to the episode to learn what happened after that! FOLLOW THE BACON BITS 'N BYTES PODCAST Twitter - @baconbits_bytes Instagram - @baconbitsnbytes LinkedIn - The Bacon Bits 'n' Bytes Podcast YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf6EwCOimwNSzH5PDEUdYYw...
Jun 24, 2019•8 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Thanks for tuning in to the first episode of the Bacon Bits 'n' Bytes Podcast. The first episode is a brief solo episode by the host, Karen Swyszcz, founder of Makinthebacon. She shares her reasoning for starting the podcast and the fact that this podcast had been several years in the making. The podcast is available on Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher, Soundcloud and iTunes. Please subscribe to the show and follow on social media: Facebook: @baconbitsnbytes Instagram: @baconbitsnbytes Twitter: @baconb...
Jun 24, 2019•3 min•Season 1Ep. 1
