Be Unapologetically Yourself!

In this special end of season episode, the Founders Fund team is here to talk about our experiences in business, answer your questions about 2021 memberships and share what we’re building for you in 2021.

In this episode we interview Marc LaFleur, who is the CEO of TruLocal. TruLOCAL connects you to high-end, locally-sourced meat products - delivered right to your doorstep across Ontario. TruLOCAL ships overnight on dry ice, so your box will stay frozen during delivery – even if you’re not home when your box arrives! TruLOCAL’s customizable plans are commitment-free, so you can skip, pause, or cancel at any time - no strings attached! During this interview, Marc chatted about how schools aren’t built for entrepreneurship and how he used his innate skills for sales to go from a door to door meat salesman to a high end meat subscription business.

Tune is as Vivian Kaye shares her empowering story of how she built her 7 figure empire after being fired. For the past 6 years, Vivian has strictly focused on the e-commerce world where she has built KinkyCurlyYaki, a textured hair extensions company, to over 1 million in annual revenue. She loves passing on tried and true advice she has picked up along the way to help others grow the businesses of their dreams.

We can’t wait for you to listen in on this impactful and empowering conversation with Jace Meyers! Jace is a Mètis mother, teacher, artist, and public speaker currently living a nomadic lifestyle in an RV with her husband, their 4 year old, a Great Dane, a black cat and a goldfish! At the present moment Jace is living in an organic food forest on TK'emlups te Secwepemc territory. Jace has cultivated an expertise in the co-creation of culturally relevant education for youth and adults. Her teaching has reached 1.25 Million Canadians from coast to coast to coast. Jace is a fierce advocate for Indigenous women entrepreneurs and is a Director for the Indigenous LIFT Collective. Last year, she spoke to 70,000 people around the globe in an effort to co-create the conditions for Indigenous entrepreneurs to thrive. As a side hustle, Jace consults with social impact and youth-serving organizations to build more inclusive programs and services. In 2019 Jace was named a BMW World Responsible Leader.

Tune is as Jennifer Harper shares her emotional story of what motivated her to start a cosmetic company rooted in her Anishinaabe heritage. This week's episode features Jennifer Harper, founder of Cheekbone Beauty and recipient of the Founders Fund Legacy Fund. Cheekbone Beauty, is an Indigenous-owned and founded, direct to consumer Canadian cosmetics company established in 2016. They are known for creating high quality and cruelty-free beauty products. Keeping in line with her Anishinaabe roots, Cheekbone Beauty launched a less-waste line of lipsticks in 2020, called SUSTAIN, with zero-waste goals for 2023. Cheekbone’s aim is to not only make a difference in the lives of Indigenous youth through donations addressing the educational funding gap, but to also create a space in the beauty industry where Indigenous youth feel represented and seen.

Today’s episode features Sheena Brady. Sheena is the Founder of The Founder Fund. She also works in leadership at Shopify and is the Founder of Tease Tea. Sheena has experienced dynamic challenges and barriers throughout her personal life and in business. Sheena somehow managed to fall in love with tea somewhere along the way and decided to combine passion and purpose through entrepreneurship. A portion of Tease Tea’s proceeds supports organizations dedicated to the empowerment of women through the Tease Tea's giveback program. This includes Founders Fund, which to date has raised over 100k to fund women owned businesses while providing mentorship to over 500 founders across the country. In this episode, Sheena shares how she went from a college drop out to a tea sommelier and spills the tea on how she got on The Dragon’s Den

This week's episode features Kristi Soomer founder of Encircled. Kristi started Encircled with the dream of helping women travel lighter. Frustrated with the lack of versatile clothing that blended style with function, she started designing it. She believed strongly after years of working in the retail industry that she wanted Encircled to be ethically-made, sustainable and sweatshop-free. In this episode Kristi chatted about how she had to go through 15 manufactures before finding the one that would create her first prototype, as well as how having persistence, a mission and a vision can make anything possible.

Today we are chatting with Maggie Patterson who is the editorial director and founder of Scoop Studios, a boutique content marketing agency with a singular promise to their clients of simplifying content marketing. Maggie is also the Founder of Small Business Boss which helps people build a BS free service business and host of the BS Free Service Business Podcast. In our chat, Maggie spills the tea about how she went from working in a PR agency to branching out on her own and how she is setting Instagram on fire with her bold truthful drags of the current landscape of the online coaching industry.

Get your tissues ready, because this is an emotional episode! Today we are chatting with Noora Sharrab, founder and CEO of Sitti, which means "my grandma" in Arabic. Sitti is a social enterprise that aims to empower and restore hope to refugee women through the making of olive oil soap and other timeless products. Noora is the recipient of our Resiliency Fund, which interestingly enough, she didn't think she deserved to apply for. Well, this episode ended up going totally off script and turned into a vulnerable conversation about why woman feel like they don't deserve to be supported, and why you should ask yourself "what would Chad do?

On today's episode we are chatting with special guest, Babba C. Rivera! She’s a Swedish Latina who is recognized as an innovator and thought leader in the realm of brand marketing who has worked for brands like Uber & Away - The luggage company and now heads up her very own brand marketing agency - By Babba. That makes her Bad, meaning good, for business. Get ready to hear about Babba's journey as an unconventional entrepreneur. Let’s go!