Startup Grind Montreal

Paul Ortchanian has delivered disruptive benefits to companies like WatchMojo, Metro, LiveScale, Enkidoo and Blaise. Bain Public has also been providing Product Management workshops for startups in partnership with accelerators like Holt Fintech Accelerator, Techstars, NextAI and Founder Fuel.  

Julie Lacasse is the co-founder of leading tech company TrackTik, where she currently sits on the board of Director. She previously led the company's growth for 7 years as VP of Operations. With more than 15 years of experience in Marketing & Sales, Software Implementation, Operations, HR and Management, Julie’s diverse experience allowed her to contribute to multiple facets of TrackTiK’s success. She is now a business mentor at Canada's leading early stage tech venture accelerators, Techstars AI & FounderFuel and a Business Consultant, where she helps startups unleash their full potential by supporting them in different aspects of their business including financial & sales models, equity raise and organizational structure.

Isaac is a Product Manager turned early-stage investor at Real Ventures. He is also part of the team behind Front Row Ventures, Real’s student fund, and previously served as the GM of FounderFuel, Real’s accelerator.

In this chat with Ilias, we discussed the evolution of Montreal's ecosystem in the last decade, best practices in Open Innovation and tips for startups looking to sell to large companies

Tara Akhavan, Ph.D. is a visionary award-winner technology entrepreneur and pioneer in the field of Perceptual Display Processing for the consumer and automotive industry. She is the President and General Manager of Faurecia IRYStec Inc. (formerly known as IRYStec Inc.), an innovation center that got acquired by Faurecia in April 2020. Tara founded IRYStec in 2015 and served as CTO for 5 years introducing eye-friendly display technology to the automotive industry. She has raised and has helped with raising over $8M in VC funding.

Mehdi is an AI researcher and the CEO of Dataperformers, one of the most promising AI companies that provides state of the art Deep Learning and advanced Computer Vision to several industries and large institutions. Designated as the AI Leader of 2017 by Digital Finance Canada, Mehdi is deeply invested to democratize artificial intelligence and this by co-founding several non-profit initiatives like the Deep Learning Montreal and Toronto groups, or ThinkAI. 

Ashkan is the founder, CEO of WatchMojo, one of the most successful producers of premium video content. The company's catalog of 20,000 videos on pop culture and infotainment and are seen 300 million times each month by nearly 150 million consumers. With 15 billion all-time views and 36 million subscribers on YouTube, WatchMojo operates one of the largest YouTube channels in the world.  

Patrick Gagné is the CEO of OSMO, a not-for-profit organization created to support the development of the startup ecosystem in Montreal and the different initiatives launched by the organization. We will be discussing his entrepreneurial background and experiences such as co-founding Taxelco and becoming GM of Teo Taxi. We will also tackle what is coming ahead with Bonjour Startup, Montreal's innovation hub that is in charge of stimulating growth in Montréal’s startup community.