WiMLDS Montreal #4: AI and Entrepreneurship @ BDC Capital

WiMLDS Montreal
Nov 3 · 4 min read

We were so happy about our 4th meetup! It happened on October 17th, at BDC Capital. We had many female CEO and CTO, sharing their journey to a diverse group of 80 attendees.

Find all the slides and a recap of the panel below 😃.

🤙 Call for speakers, sponsors, and hosts: https://goo.gl/4d6iem


TALKS

⭐️ Amy Pollard, Analyst at Strategic Investments & BDC Women in Tech Fund

Amy is involved in all aspects of the deal process including sourcing and due diligence. She is also responsible for portfolio management activities including portfolio monitoring, reporting, and bi-annual portfolio valuations. Since founding her first entrepreneurial venture as a teenager, Amy has actively volunteered in global entrepreneurial and tech communities through organizations such as Startup Canada, Startup Weekend, Startup Nations and Junior Achievement.

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👩‍💼 Soodeh Farokhi, Founder & CTO at C2RO Cloud Robotics

“Launching and Leading an AI-based Product Company: Challenges and Lesson Learned”

Abstract: As a tech entrepreneur, I share my journey of launching a high tech product company offering Cloud based AI software solutions here in Montreal and raising/helping in raise over $4.5M VC money and growing the company to 18 people. I discuss the challenges of developing and delivering our AI-based software product to the market via a B2B SaaS business model. I dig more into my current role as a Chief Technology Officer, who needs to also wear many other hats, as a founder, every day. You hear the technical challenges that a new product has faced while it is under product-market-fit exercise penetrating through an international market with all sorts of different regulations and laws.

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💸 Sahar Ansary, Partner at R&D Partners

“The Five Ws of Funding”

Abstract: An overview of the who, what, when, where, and why of funding. I will present the types of funding available throughout a business’s lifespan (ideation, growth, and expansions) as well as some of the best practices when looking for funding and approaching funders, lenders and investors.

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Panel: “Starting and Scaling a Company in AI: Insights From Women Who Have Taken the Leap”

Participants:

  • Naureen Anwar, Co-founder & CEO at NameShouts: Naureen Anwar is the founder and CEO of NameShouts — a Montreal based startup that focuses on name pronunciation. Before starting NameShouts, Naureen worked as a software developer for 4 years at SAP. Naureen is passionate about applying AI to solve actual problems in the real world.
  • Nina Iordanova, Co-founder & CEO at Hello Iris: Nina’s interest in human relationships began with her early years as an actor, where she starred in a number of award-winning films. Her time on set exposed her to the many challenges faced by the film industry, and inadvertently started her on her journey as an entrepreneur, using technology to solve human problems. Wrapping up her time in the film industry, Nina is now pursuing her interest in relationships and startups as the co-founder and CEO of Hello Iris, using AI to make curated matches for meaningful first dates.
  • Marina Pavlovic Rivas, Co-founder & CEO at Eli: Marina is the co-founder and CEO of Eli, a startup that develops an AI-powered biosensor for women who want to take control of their reproductive health naturally and effectively. Marina was previously the founder of Gradiant AI, a company that delivers machine learning solutions to creative industries. She is also the co-founder of WiMLDS Montreal.
  • (Moderator) Yosra Kazemi, Co-founder at Sunia Technology

Topics covered:

  1. When you start a business, you are your own boss (at the beginning, at least). It also means that no salary or safety net is waiting for you. This can be one of the main elements that stops people from choosing the entrepreneurial path. At the beginning, some of them started being an entrepreneur part-time, to make sure they would receive a salary at the end of the month, while other just took the risk and spent 100% of their time on their startup.
  2. They had multiple mentors from the Techstars accelerator and FounderFuel. Mentoring had a huge place in their journey. Basically, it helps them achieve in 3 months what they would have done in 1 year if they were alone.
  3. There is not much women in AI, not much women entrepreneurs, and even less at the intersection of both. Of course, it has an impact on their day to day as an entrepreneur in the AI space, because they often face stereotypes.
  4. As the head of a company, you have to hire people yourself and manage diversity and inclusion as an employer.

Last but not least, thank you to our event sponsor and host BDC Capital!

BDC is the bank for entrepreneurs and has made it a priority to support the growth and success of women entrepreneurs. BDC provides the financing, advice, and access to networks that entrepreneurs need to grow their business. Over the past three years, BDC has doubled the number of women entrepreneurs it supported and doubled its lending target to $1.4 billion by 2021 for majority women-owned businesses. BDC will provide $200 million in capital to women-led technology companies through the Women in Technology Venture Fund and have already invested in more than 25 amazing women-led tech companies.


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WiMLDS Montreal

Written by

Women in Machine Learning and Data Science (@wimlds) Montreal / Femmes en apprentissage machine et sciences des données Montréal 👩🏿‍💻👩‍💻👩🏽‍💻

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