Home Page - Startup Canada | Icebreaker

Home Page - Startup Canada | Icebreaker

Members

Joshua O'Grady 🌱

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As the Co-Founder of Sprout.Hr, I thrive on helping high-growth organizations unlock their full potential by crafting international talent acquisition strategies, optimizing global payroll and compliance, and delivering customized scaling solutions. With over a decade of experience, I’ve partnered with more than 100 companies worldwide, building entire departments and entities from scratch, saving them over $23 million in salaries, and scaling their tech teams from zero to 1,000+ hires annually. I’m passionate about empowering impact-driven organizations to thrive in the fast-paced tech industry by offering strategic, tailored solutions across software engineering, data science, product, design, QA, sales, and leadership. My mission? To help your business achieve scalable, sustainable growth with a competitive edge. Beyond that, I mentor startups, advise entrepreneurs across Canada and Latin America, and inspire others as a keynote speaker and award-winning recruitment leader. Let’s build something extraordinary together. • 2023 Top Recruitment Leader - The Americas - TopRecruiter.co • 2022 Global Change Maker (Ecosystem Builders) - Argentinian Startups & Fund Association • 2022 Top Recruitment Leader - The Americas - TopRecruiter.co • 2021 Top Recruitment Leader - North America - TopRecruiter.co • 2020 Top Recruitment Leader- North America - TopRecruiter.co • 2019 Top Recruitment Leader - North America - TopRecruiter.co • 2013 Volunteer Of The Year Award - City of Ottawa

Brenda Beckedorf

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Driving Innovation | Empowering Growth | Creating Transformative Impact I am passionate about fostering innovation, enabling strategic growth, and helping organizations embrace technology to thrive in a rapidly changing world. With a proven ability to bring together diverse stakeholders, I excel at building partnerships, aligning visions, and creating actionable strategies that drive meaningful outcomes. My expertise lies in: Strategic Leadership: Guiding organizations through complex challenges with clarity and purpose. Innovation Adoption: Facilitating the integration of cutting-edge technologies like AI to enhance operational efficiency and competitiveness. Governance & Collaboration: Strengthening governance frameworks and fostering trusted collaborations that unlock potential. Community Building: Creating platforms for knowledge sharing and peer engagement, empowering leaders to take informed, impactful action. I thrive at the intersection of leadership, innovation, and economic development, where bold ideas meet real-world application.

Jean-Marc La Flamme

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Housing Innovation ~ Regenerative Living ~ Nature Tech ~ Network State ~ Artificial Intelligence. Swiss Canadian co-creating Greater Rockies & Mountain Forests Bioregion with California tech co-owned by Earth.

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Nadia Ladak is on a mission to elevate women’s health and inspire the next generation of founders. She is the co-founder and CEO of Marlow, a women’s health startup revolutionizing period care with the first-ever lubricated tampon designed for smoother and more comfortable insertion. All of the products are 100% organic with a focus on environmental sustainability and clean ingredients. Under her leadership, Marlow has grown from a university capstone project at Ivey Business School into a nationally recognized brand available at major retailers including Amazon, Whole Foods, and Shoppers Drug Mart. Beyond the product, their educational TikTok content "The TMI Club" has over 100M views breaking down traditionally stigmatized and taboo topics around periods and reproductive health. Nadia was named Forbes 30 under 30, Canada's Top 25 Women of Influence, YWCA's Young Woman of Distinction, and appeared on CBC's Dragon's Den. She is passionate about giving back to the community and sits on the board of directors of the Ivey Business School Alumni Network and young professional board of Women's College Hospital.

Jacqueline Kim Perez

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Jacqueline is the Evangelist for Product and Community at Covalent and the leader of one of the most successful ambassador programs in the blockchain space, now known as The Alchemist Program. She is passionate about crypto communities, breaking barriers for underrepresented individuals who need access to education, tools, and mentorship. She has extensive expertise in managing and scaling high-growth tech companies in the public and private sectors and has made a significant impact in the technology ecosystem in Canada as a thought leader, speaker, educator, and role model within the blockchain space. She believes it is important to empower early adopters with fundamentals to stay abreast with the fast-paced changing markets, provide tools for retail and sophisticated investors to protect themselves, and encourage them to continue to explore emerging innovations to grow their learning curve, which will lead to adoption. Apart from writing pieces that have been published on Hackernoon, which are utilized in institutional workshops for educational purposes, she also sits on different boards and communities as an advisor for cryptocurrencies such as Startup Canada. Aside from her day-to-day responsibilities, she is passionate about giving back to the community and spends significant time volunteering and mentoring for charities. Her other passion lies in creating visually inspiring images, which has led her to be a digital artist and photographer who has worked and collaborated with well-known brands, music producers, and artists such as Marshmello, Papa Khan, Kit & Ace, The5th, and more.