We chatted with Robert Furtado - teacher turned founder - to discuss his life! Robert is the founder and CEO of online education marketplace CourseCompare.ca and we discuss how his inspired his current endeavours and the surprises he's faced along the way. 

Adeel Zaman is a CTO who never imagined himself as a CTO. Now he's leading the technical team at DOZR in Kitchener. Read here about what gets him out of bed in the morning and the advice he has for other leaders. 

Emily Lonetto works in Growth at Clio in Toronto. We were lucky enough to connect with this Rockstar turned Tech Growth Star and hear about her story and her perspective on what makes the tech community great. 

This month, we had the pleasure of connecting with marketing guru, Paul Gray! Paul is the Marketing Growth Coach at Communitech currently, but he's been involved with companies at all stages - from co-founding his own start up to Disney and now back to the start up community. 

Abbey Gilhula was the Chief of Staff for both BlackBerry and Quantum Valley Investments, and Head of Ops for a startup that had a successful exit. She’s lived many lives and been a true witness to the evolving tech landscape in the region. She’s the co-founder of 1989 Creative Co. - a boutique brand that specializes in executing the vision and ideas for tech startups that are starting to scale.

Sherryl Tarnaske is the Chief Experience Officer at Focus21, a young Waterloo-based tech company that combines deep experience in human and animal health and data science, developing custom solutions that provide rich experiences and insights.

The Waterloo Region has been gaining momentum as a destination for both talent and for global companies looking to tap into our entrepreneurial culture, university research, and highly capable workforce. But as a community full of people with small town roots, and with a dedication to the success of our home-grown companies, corporate newcomers will only be embraced if they demonstrate shared values. Amazon’s call for bids to build out a second HQ (#AmazonHQ2) has sparked passionate opinions about whether this would be really good or really bad news for our community. With our unique view on the talent pool, I have some thoughts on how Amazon, or any newcomer, can ensure a welcome and become a valuable corporate citizen.

Katarina Illic is the Co-Founder and Head of Research and Development at Voltera - she and her team have developed a disruptive additive manufacturing technology that will change hardware innovation. With customers that include NASA, Intel, and Apple, this team is starting to see their hard work pay off. Kat graduated  from the University of Waterloo with an Honors Nanotechnology Engineering degree and worked with international establishments including the Federal Materials Institute of France, IBM Germany and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL).

Joseph Fung is the CEO of Kiite Inc., a Waterloo-based startup with an AI platform set to transform the workforce. A seasoned entrepreneur with a passion for harnessing tech to realize the best human experience, Joseph’s former company, TribeHR, sold to Netsuite in 2013. Now, as he guides Kiite on a trajectory toward transforming the way we work, Joseph took some time to connect with us to dive a bit deeper into the details of his vision and Kiite’s AI platform.