Disrupting the Status Quo: From Corporate Executive to Tech Entrepreneur

March 30th, 2021

Virtual

This event has passed.

As we transition into a fully digitized era, opportunities abound to do things differently. Women across the country are discovering exciting new ways to disrupt current models, create more accessible landscapes, and turn a profit. But it’s one thing to have a big idea — and yet another to take the monumental risk of leaving a secure corporate position to pursue it. On March 30th we sit down with three brilliant innovators who did exactly that.

Meet the Panelists:

When Anu Bidani discovered her children weren’t engaging with STEM in school, she went on the hunt for alternative solutions, but couldn’t find one — so she left a 20+ year career in finance and launched her own. Today, her organization STEM MINDS has reached 40,000+ students and is on track to further expand throughout the US and India.
With a 15-year background in HR, Yvonne Lau knows that the word feedback carries a negative connotation. After conducting countless feedback sessions, she learned it was quite rare to receive honest and vital feedback from employees. She set out to solve this problem by launching Retainify, a data-driven software that helps her growing roster of clients build cultures of transparency, ultimately driving organizational growth.
Fatima Khamitova always felt that entrepreneurship was something she was born to do, but didn't know where to start. After navigating a corporate career, she leveraged her passion for artificial intelligence and ventured out on her own to launch Veer AI, a software company that aims to help retail companies make data-driven decisions. Despite all the challenges of Covid, Fatima has experienced remarkable growth in under 2 years and is set to service 100 clients by this summer

Each panelist is part of Tech Undivided, a ventureLAB initiative challenging female-led tech companies to scale their businesses. With access to capital, talent, technology, and customers, the program creates a support ecosystem of resources and networking opportunities for women founders to thrive.

Join us for the season premiere of the Women of Influence Spotlight Series, with presenting partner ventureLAB, as our panelists sit down with CTV News Anchor Marcia MacMillan for a compelling discussion on:

What it takes to leave a corporate career and turn your idea or interest into a profitable business
How to access resources to grow and scale your business to compete on a global stage
Leveraging your network, the importance of cultivating connections and aligning with partners that are invested in championing your advancement
What needs to happen to foster a more inclusive, thriving, and impactful tech industry in the future
Whether you're considering making a career transition, or you’re already established in the tech industry, you’re bound to discover important insights to help you progress your career or scale your business.

TICKETING TIERS

All Access Ticket - $45.00
> Early Access to the Connecting Salon to create your professional profile and meet & greet with the WOI Community
> Live Q&A with Anu, Fatima & Yvonne, following their in-studio panel conversation with CTV's Marcia MacMillan
> Invitation to join curated break-out rooms moderated by Women of Influence
> Access to a Digital Swag Bag with offers and products from Canada's top women entrepreneurs and leading organizations
> Unlimited 30 day post-event access to the event recording and digital swag bag

Livestream Ticket - $9.99
> Live Q&A with Anu, Fatima & Yvonne, following their in-studio panel conversation with CTV's Marcia MacMillan
> Unlimited 30 day post-event access to the event recording

Details

Date:: March 30, 2021
Time:: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Cost:: Free – $45.00

Venue

Virtual Livestream

Platform link to be provided 48 hours in advance of the event, Virtual, Livestream

Agenda

6:00 – 6:15 pm - Registration & Virtual Reception

6:15 – 7:45 pm - Fireside Panel Discussion and Live Audience Q&A

7:45 – 8:00 pm - Breakout Connecting Sessions

Our Panelists

Meet Anu Bidani

Anu Bidani is the CEO of STEM MINDS, a company that focuses on empowering youth to become fearless leaders by developing agility and a love of learning through STEM (science, technology, engineering, math). STEM MINDS' mission is to bring the best in learning experiences to youth to create #Fearless Learners. She believes in creating our future leaders, game changers and problem solvers to build a better world. With a dedicated teaching staff, a state-of-the art learning environment and a network of strategic partnerships, she has built a business that is successfully expanding the reach and impact of education to all children!

She is a passionate innovator, leader, revenue generator and an entrepreneur with solid experience as a corporate executive where she witnessed the evolution and impact of accelerated technology changes on business processes from a Corporate lens. She has delivered large multi million dollar projects at a global scale from systems implementations to electronic platform product launches. With vetted expertise in the areas of strategy, product development, solutions development, project delivery, information security and audit, Anu has built a solid foundation for her latest entrepreneurial venture – STEM MINDS. She is also a SHEEO activator and supports other women entrepreneurs in their journey of following their passion.

Meet Fatima Khamitova

Fatima Khamitova is a cofounder and CEO at Veer AI, a marketing SaaS startup that helps retailers target their marketing with actionable, tailored insights. She is a strategist who has spent her career transforming customer experiences using AI based tools. She spent 6 years in the consulting field, focusing on strategic marketing projects that specifically leveraged her expertise in data science and machine learning. She led teams to build customer segmentation-based journeys, helping guide customers along an optimal journey to maximize value for her clients.

Fatima’s consulting clients included a diverse mix of Fortune 500 corporations and high growth start-ups. Before her graduate studies in analytics, Fatima spent time at an incubator in Milan, helping start-ups in fashion, retail, fine arts, and luxury goods. Fatima also worked in London and Zurich in the investment banking industry.

Meet Yvonne Lau

Yvonne Lau is the Founder of Retainify. Retainify’s mission is to help organizations make feedback normal in the workplace. Their unified SaaS solution helps companies increase the frequency of giving and receiving feedback by tracking the sentiment of employees throughout their employment lifecycle and sharing the feedback data back to business leaders. Improving the frequency of feedback helps organizations proactively identify and address issues early to mitigate business risks.

Yvonne grew up surrounded by entrepreneurship in her family. After working in the corporate human resource space for over 17 years, Yvonne decided to take the leap and branch out on her own, starting her entrepreneurial career.

Our Presenting Sponsor

ventureLAB is a leading technology hub located in Markham in York Region, Canada’s second largest tech cluster. At ventureLAB, we grow globally competitive tech titans that build-to-scale in Canada, in three key areas of focus: hardware, health, and inclusivity. Through programs focused on raising capital, attracting and retaining talent, customer acquisition, and technology and IP development, ventureLAB has enabled thousands of tech companies to scale through these growth-oriented initiatives. Our portfolio of companies have created close to 4,000 jobs that have raised over $200 million in investment capital to continue their growth and scale. www.venturelab.ca

Tech Undivided offers a comprehensive 6-month program to challenge women-led tech companies to scale their businesses. Through the pillars of capital, talent, technology, and customers, this program creates a support ecosystem of resources and networking opportunities for women founders to thrive.

Official Hotel Partner

Our Partners

About the Series

Our Women of Influence Spotlight Series is designed to motivate and inspire the next generation of emerging leaders and provide a platform for them to meet their peers and role models who have had early success and high-profile careers. Keynote speakers share tactical advice on negotiation, leadership, entrepreneurship, communication and personal branding and a structured “Connecting Activity” enables our guests to make career-defining connections.

WOI CONNECT

You never know where your next connection might take you! Our WOI Connect membership offers event discounts and plenty of additional perks.