Dare to Be Different

How a Beer Night Turned Into $19M+ for Startups | The Story of StartupTNT

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 12:30:00 GMT

What happens when a happy hour turns into a startup funding movement? Meet the founders of Startup TNT, a homegrown Edmonton venture that’s helped raise over $19 million for 100+ startups across Western Canada—all built on the back of beer, community, and bold ideas.

In this Dare to Be Different episode, hosts Chris Yeung and Lynette Tremblay sit down with Zack Storms and Tim Lynn to tell the story of how StartupTNT is taking a radically different way in raising capital for startups. Learn how they’re reshaping angel investing by making it fun, inclusive, and community-first. https://startuptnt.com/

Sponsored by MNP - helping Canadian businesses grow with expert accounting, tax, and advisory services. https://www.mnp.ca

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This Startup's Bold Mission to Use Lasers to Fix Eye Floaters

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 12:00:00 GMT

What if you could treat vision problems like eye floaters—without ever going under the knife? Meet PulseMedica, an Edmonton-based startup revolutionizing eye care with cutting-edge femtosecond laser technology. In this episode of Dare to Be Different, we sit down with co-founders Nir and Eric to hear how a PhD laser engineer and a registered nurse turned MBA built a company that’s rethinking how we treat retinal diseases.

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Revolutionizing Biotech with Fruit Flies | Future Fields

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 12:00:00 GMT

What if fruit flies could manufacture life-saving drugs?

In this episode of Dare to Be Different, we go inside Future Fields, an Edmonton-based biotech startup that’s turning the biotech industry on its head with genetically engineered fruit flies. Co-founders Matt and Jalene are building a scalable, sustainable platform for producing previously “unmakeable” proteins, without using traditional bioreactors.

From their pivot out of the alt-meat space to their revolutionary approach to recombinant protein manufacturing, this episode dives into:

• Why fruit flies are a game-changer for biomanufacturing

• How Future Fields is making drug development faster and cheaper

• What it takes to build a values-driven biotech company from scratch

• The culture of cross-disciplinary innovation behind their success

This episode is sponsored by MNP Canada.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.