Investing in innovation with Thomas Martinuzzo, Senior Investment Advisor – Innovation @ Fonds de Solidarité FTQ
Release Date: 12/17/2020
Surgical Innovation from Vision to Reality with Amy Lorincz, CEO & Co-Founder @ Vopemed
Flagship Podcast
Amy discusses her pioneering work at Vopemed, a health tech company developing AI software to enhance visualization during minimally invasive surgeries. Amy explains the challenges surgeons face with traditional endoscopic cameras and how Vopemed's software addresses these issues by providing real-time enhanced image feeds. The conversation explores the company's first market focus on laparoscopic surgeries, the potential for expansion into other diagnostic procedures, and the dual go-to-market strategies involving OEMs and hospitals. Using a proprietary dataset, Vopemed's AI enhances surgical...
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Reshaping Workflows with Lisen Kaci, CEO & Founder @ Discrepancy AI
Flagship Podcast
In this episode, we spoke with Lisen Kaci, the founder behind Discrepancy AI. Lisen talks about his journey from working as an AI engineer in document processing to founding his startup based in Toronto. He identifies key industry limitations with legacy OCR technologies and explains how Discrepancy AI is leveraging AI tool-chaining to convert any document into actionable structured data. Their innovative approach focuses on reducing manual review costs by over 80%. Lisen discusses various use cases, including income verification for rental and mortgage screening. He emphasizes their...
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At the Canadian AI frontier with Gennady Pekhimenko, CEO & Co-Founder @ CentML
Flagship Podcast
In this episode, I spoke with Gennady Pekhimenko, CEO & Co-Founder @ CentML - an AI company focused on optimization and efficiency. He successfully transitioned from academia to building one of Canada's leading AI companies. We discuss his background, starting with his educational background in computer science and his research at the University of Toronto and Carnegie Mellon University. Gennady raised $27 million in seed funding to take advantage of the AI wave. The conversation explores the development and optimization of AI technology, the challenges of turning...
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Branding for Investment Firms with Whitney Rockley from McRock Capital, Amélie Foz-Couture from Diagram Ventures and Clement Bourgogne from Jolt Capital
Flagship Podcast
I had the pleasure of moderating a panel at the recent Reseau Capital Annual summit on the topic branding for investment firms. My job was pretty easy, I got the chance to listen to the brilliant Whitney Rockley from McRock Capital, Amélie Foz-Couture from Diagram Ventures and Clement Bourgogne from Jolt Capital. They share some unique insights on grassroots marketing, relationship based messaging, adapting for new markets and much more. The panel discusses the importance and impact of marketing and branding in venture capital. Whitney shares the early grassroots marketing journey of...
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Innovating the Slopes with Felix Lapointe, CEO & Co-Founder of Ferréol Technologies
Flagship Podcast
Dans cet épisode, nous découvrons l'histoire de Ferréol Technologies, une entreprise québécoise fondée en 2018-2019 par trois passionnés de ski et ingénieurs mécaniques de l'Université Laval. Nous apprenons comment Félix, Jonathan, et Étienne ont utilisé leurs compétences complémentaires pour créer des skis adaptés aux conditions de ski variées du Québec, tout en ayant une empreinte écologique réduite. L'entreprise, qui a démarré dans un garage, s'est rapidement fait connaître et est devenue la deuxième plus grande compagnie de ski au Canada. En parallèle, ils...
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Democratizing architectural design with Patrick Murphy, CEO & co-founder @ Maket
Flagship Podcast
In this episode, Patrick Murphy, CEO& co-founder of the startup Maket, shares his vision of democratizing architectural design and planning. Inspired by Canva's transformation of graphic design, Maket aims to simplify and accelerate the architectural process using generative AI. Starting with residential design, the platform seeks to compress timelines and cut costs, providing both consumers and professionals with powerful tools. Patrick discusses the challenges of traditional methods, the advancements Make It has made since its inception in 2021, and the company's...
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The long hard road of deep tech with Joël Sirois, founder & CEO @ Biointelligence
Flagship Podcast
Joël discusses the inception and development of BioIntelligence which is focused on real-time data monitoring in industrial biotechnology. His journey began with a background in chemical engineering and years of experience in developing bioprocesses. Frustrated by the lack of real-time information in fermentation processes, Joël's team at the University of Sherbrooke developed a revolutionary optical probe technology. This innovation allows operators to monitor multiple parameters in real-time, significantly improving productivity, quality, and resource consumption in industrial...
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Revolutionizing Healthcare with Patient-Centered Technology with Francis Robichaud, Co-Founder & CEO @ Lime Health
Flagship Podcast
Un nouvel épisode dans la série des startups de Québec On a parlé avec Francis Robichaud, Co-fondateur et PDG @ Lime Santé. Francis discute de son parcours d'intégration de la technologie dans le système de santé pour améliorer l'expérience des patients et l'efficacité du système. En tant qu'ingénieur passionné par les soins de santé, Francis exploite les données et les commentaires des patients pour apporter des améliorations systémiques. Il explique l'approche de son entreprise en matière de numérisation du parcours du patient,...
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Resilience and perseverance with Jimmy Beauregard, CEO & Co-Founder @ Flovver
Flagship Podcast
Sharing today a new podcast series highlighting the 5 cool startups participating in Quebec Tech’s first cohort. The startups are: Flovver, Lime Santé, Biointelligence, Maket and Ferreol. The first episode is with Jimmy Beauregard, CEO & Co-Founder @ Flovver (in french). Jimmy started the company in 2020 and their mission is to make sharing money accessible to all by offering secure, automated technological platforms that promote ethical and accessible financial growth. They specialize in end-to-end loan management solutions designed to streamline the lending process. Their...
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Helping women thrive with Anna Chif, Co-Founder @ Coral
Flagship Podcast
Anna Chif is a world class founder that is one to her second company. She co-founded Coral. a women’s digital health platform designed to help women in perimenopause, menopause and beyond achieve their optimal health. Coral matches users with a wellness coach, who is available to chat asynchronously with users to talk through symptom management. They recently raised $4M in seed financing led by Brightspark as well as Diagram Ventures and The51. We spoke about: Anna’s deep conviction on building Coral Coral’s mission and business model Applicable lessons from...
info_outlineOn this week’s show, we spoke with Thomas Martinuzzo, Senior Investment Advisor – Innovation @ Fonds de solidarité FTQ.
Thomas Martinuzzo joined the Fonds de Solidarité FTQ in September 2016 as Senior Investment Advisor – Innovation. Thomas has worked in the field of innovation since 2006. He held several positions at Gestion Univalor, s.e.c, where he notably led the team of professionals who commercialize physical sciences and engineering inventions from Université de Montréal, Polytechnique Montréal, HEC Montréal and affiliated hospital research centres. Mr. Martinuzzo also founded eValorix.com, a web platform that commercializes digital tools arising out of public research. He also served on the board of directors of several start-up companies (Bâton Simulations inc. and Ortho Regenerative Technologies inc.) and is currently a director of Castor Optics Inc.
On the show, we spoke about:
- What innovation really means
- Some great examples of innovation in Quebec
- Why certain companies don’t innovate
- Some companies in their portfolio
- Survey on innovation
Thomas is incredible bright yet humble. He’s one of the smartest people I know on the topic of innovation. I hope that you enjoy the conversation!
Let us know what you think. What types of guests would like to see on the show? What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]
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