My Immigrant Story: Recent Episodes
Nino Melikidze
“My Immigrant Story” is a podcast dedicated to sharing the stories of first generation immigrant Canadian entrepreneurs and tech professionals. During each episode we deconstruct the speakers’ recipe to successfully moving and professionally establishing themselves in Canada. The goal is to build a strong immigrant community together by sharing our knowledge and experiences!
The podcast is hosted by Nino Melikidze, the Founder of VisaWire. VisaWire is an employment service marketplace and community for skilled immigrants relocating to Canada.
Disclaimer: This is a special episode of My Immigrant Story! Typically we bring Canadian newcomer professionals and entrepreneurs to learn more about their immigration journey. However this time, our guest is an immigrant HR tech professional who works for a known Canadian HR startup.
Parveen is an experienced HR tech professional who has worked in leading Canadian startups for multiple years. She started her career in recruiting and currently holds a senior position as a Customer Success Lead at HiredHippo – a hiring marketplace where companies get instant access to high-potential vetted candidates, and where professionals are matched instantly with jobs they love.
Disclaimer: This is a special episode of My Immigrant Story! Typically we bring Canadian newcomer professionals and entrepreneurs to learn more about their immigration journey. However this time, our guest is a first generation Canadian immigrant serial entrepreneur who moved to the country when he was quite young and has since founded multiple companies in a wide variety of industries.
Roy is a Canadian serial entrepreneur, startup mentor, and angel investor. He has extensive experience building companies and leading multi-disciplinary teams. His tech background enables him to gain unique insights regarding today’s technology market and determine business strategies. Roy has over a decade of experience building and scaling businesses in various industries including Advertising, Security, Networking, and Software.
Disclaimer: This is a special episode of My Immigrant Story! Typically we bring Canadian newcomer professionals and entrepreneurs to learn more about their immigration journey. However this time, our guest is a licensed Canadian immigration consultant and serial entrepreneur with multiple years of experience working with immigrants, partners and companies.
Blayne is the founder of Bright Immigration, Toronto's leading immigration consultancy. Blayne is also the co-founder and CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) of Immitracker, an immigration application tracker and service marketplace for immigrants relocating to Canada and Australia. As a licensed immigration consultant, Blayne has applied his expertise and creativity to the world of immigration. Additionally, Blayne has extensive knowledge in business as a serial entrepreneur.
Nino and Blayne currently run Immitracker together – their goal is to simplify the immigration process by helping immigrants learn about and take advantage of life-changing opportunities. To learn more about Immitracker and discover the helpful, free immigration tools and marketplace of services offered, check out immitracker.app (https://www.immitracker.app/)
Helpful resources mentioned during the episode:
- Introducing Immitracker - your trusted immigration journey guide
- Canadian Permanent Residence Application Tracker
- Canadian PR Card Tracker
Prateek Bawa is a partnerships manager with over 10 years of experience in various industries including FinTech, SaaS, and E-commerce. Currently, he’s a is a Partner Consultant at Freshbooks – a company that builds accounting software for self-employed individuals and their teams.
Additionally, Prateek is an ambassador at Arrive – a platform for enabling newcomers to settle in Canada and Immigrant Networks. He is also a member of several professional organizations focused on partnerships and sales career development.
During the episode, Prateek highlights the importance of starting your LinkedIn networking process early on to help yourself setup quickly upon arriving to Canada. Additionally, he mentions how staying focused on your journey and goals and not comparing yourself to others can help you succeed.
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals? Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Janey Buzugbe (Janey Buz) is a startup founder, career coach, and program mentor and consultant. She has been running her own YouTube channel for over five years. In this channel she provides relevant resources for newcomer students and professionals to navigate their careers and education in Canada.
Janey is now the founder of Immiducation, a career and education network of immigrants by immigrants. This global network support immigrants by accelerating their success through learning programs & resources, community and job matching. Additionally, Janey is a Program Mentor & Consultant for the DMZ, a tech startup growth incubator based out of Ryerson University in Toronto.
Nino and Janey originally connected through the Toronto tech startup community over their shared passion for the immigration space and helping immigrant professionals succeed in Canada. During the episode, Janey discusses some of the strategic decisions she made (e.g. attending a prestigious university) that brought her to this point in her career - pursuing her entrepreneurial passion.
She also cover the importance of planning your Canadian journey in advance - thinking about your future career and settlement even before landing in the country. Where you could possibly work, what careers could be a good fit, and long term professional growth vision in general. Janey highlighted the risk of getting stuck in a low income, survival job longer term if a person doesn’t plan their career growth in advance.
Helpful resources mentioned during the episode:
- Janey’s career coaching and professional development services can be found here.
- Janey’s Youtube channel for newcomer students and professionals called JaneyofCanada can be found here! There, she provides helpful information and resources about settling in Canada.
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals? Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Aashni Shah is the Founder and CEO of Mido – a product that allows users and companies to securely store and share their personal documents. She’s also the Founder of HypeDocs, an app that helps users track their achievements and gain confidence.
Aashni graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Computer Science. Prior to pursuing her passion for entrepreneurship, she worked as a Software Engineer at Microsoft and Square. Nino and Aashni actually connected over their shared passion for entrepreneurship and being actively involved with Toronto’s tech ecosystem and various startup communities.
During the episode we discuss some of the differences between pursuing a higher education in Canada compared to the US along with the importance and benefits of joining clubs and extracurricular activities in university.
Aashni also goes into how gaining unique experiences is helpful both for your professional development and candidate profile. That coupled with going out of your way to meet new people can help international students and immigrant professionals set themselves up for career success in Canada!
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals? Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Amir Feizpour is the Co-Founder and CEO of Aggregate Intellect – a platform that curates the world’s technical knowledge with the help of artificial and crowd intelligence. With the help of NLP (natural language processing) and an AI community of 10K+ members, they make finding technical information in as easy as a few clicks.
Prior to starting his own company, Amir worked as a Data Scientist at RBC and did his post-doctoral research at the University of Oxford in the UK. Additionally, Amir runs a weekly hiking and monthly dinner group for Toronto founders (through which Nino and Amir initially connected!).
During the episode, Amir goes into how one of his strengths is building relationships with people. This skill helped him choose his PhD program at the University of Toronto in Canada and secure his first job post-graduation at the University of Oxford in the UK.
We highlight the importance of doing your research on the companies you’re interested in working at and learning from the people that have achieved the things that you aspire to achieve. For example, one of the ways Amir went about meeting relevant people which later helped him secure a job was through Meetups and events in Toronto.
Helpful resources mentioned during the episode:
- Amir does free short calls regarding career advice, professional development, startups and much more! You can find the link to book time with him here.
- Amir has a monthly newsletter regarding his startup journey and lessons learned. If you’re interested in startups and their progression, you can subscribe here.
- For everyone interested in AI, ML, startups, and decentralization, Amir launched a Youtube channel where they do in-depth conversations regarding those topics. You can find it here!
P.S. Aggregate Intellect is currently fundraising to launch their commercial offering! To learn more about this AI investment opportunity, check out the following link.
P.P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals? Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
David Mendoza is the Director of Orbit5, an Ed-Tech startup supporting international students in launching amazing careers. They support students struggling with life, school, and career through free weekly webinars, events, and on-one-on coaching. David specializes in career development, e-learning, educational tourism, and language coaching.
Additionally, David is a professor at George Brown College based in Toronto, Ontario. He is a faculty team member at the Transitions to Post-Secondary Education program from the School of Preparatory & Liberal Studies.
For more information about our guest, resources discussed during the episode and key takeaways, please check out the following link: www.visawireapp.com/blog/my-immigrant-story-episode-19-david-mendoza
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals? Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Mia Nguyen is an Operations & Partnerships Associate at TKS (The Knowledge Society) – an organization focused on exposing students to emerging STEM fields that are shaping the future of our world. Additionally, at the time this episode was recorded she was also working as the co-founder of GOmana. GOmana is a virtual travel agency built for students, by students – helping students find, apply and plan for their abroad experience.
For more information about our guest, resources discussed during the episode and key takeaways, please check out the following link: www.visawireapp.com/blog/my-immigrant-story-episode-18-mia-nguyen
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals? Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Disclaimer: This is a special episode of My Immigrant Story! Typically we bring Canadian newcomer professionals and entrepreneurs to learn more about their immigration journey. However this time, our guest is a Canadian immigration lawyer with multiple years of experience working with both tech companies and immigrants under his belt
Josh Schachnow is the Co-Founder and CEO of Visto AI – a platform that makes it easy for Canadian companies to find amazing tech talent from around the world and bring them to Canada. He’s also an immigration lawyer and Partner at a boutique business immigration firm called Mirbaha Schachnow LLP. Josh loves talking about his entrepreneurial journey and shares many of his insights and lessons learned through his own podcast and daily business email!
For more information about our guest, resources discussed during the episode and key takeaways, please check out the following link: https://www.visawireapp.com/blog/my-immigrant-story-episode-17-josh-schachnow
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals? Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Disclaimer: This episode was recorded in the January, 2021. At the time, there were still Covid-19 related lockdowns and restrictions happening in different parts of Canada. We reference the difficulties related to networking during lockdowns during the episode.
Pavla Bobosikova is the co-founder and CEO of WFHomie - an employee engagement and culture-building platform for remote-first and hybrid teams. Previously she was the Director of Product at Nudge.ai which got acquired by Affinity. Her professional background lies in product, design, and growth. During the episode we discuss her leather bag making hobby - you can check out the Instagram page for her products here!
For more information about our guest, resources discussed during the episode and key takeaways, please check out the following link: www.visawireapp.com/blog/my-immigrant-story-episode-16-pavla-bobosikova
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals? Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Tobi Oluwole is a SMB Sales Manager at Shopify - working strategically with merchants $10MM+ in revenue to help them grow. Additionally, Tobi is the Co-Founder of 3Skills - a community of over 20,000 people where he helps them become the most employable versions of themselves. Tobi’s professional background lies in tech sales and owning his own business.
For more information about our guest, resources discussed during the episode and key takeaways, please check out the following link: https://www.visawireapp.com/blog/my-immigrant-story-episode-15-tobi-oluwole
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Disclaimer: This is a special episode of My Immigrant Story, our guest this week is a Ghanian immigrant in the US (the rest of our guests are based in Canada).
Samuel (Sam) Baddoo is the founder and CEO of Fleri – a company that directs remittance funds into the health services immigrant families need back in their home countries. Starting with healthcare, Fleri ensures that the money sent back home by immigrants goes exactly where’s it’s intended. A proud immigrant himself, Sam spent a few years in the US working in a variety of Business Development and Consultant roles before starting his own company.
For more information about our guest, resources discussed during the episode and key takeaways, please check out the following link: www.visawireapp.com/blog/my-immigrant-story-episode-14-sam-baddoo
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Disclaimer: When this episode was originally recorded, Pat was living in Vancouver, BC and also working as a Product Manager at Telus - building content merchandising strategy for Optik TV. Since then, Pat left her job at Telus and moved to Toronto, Ontario to focus on building Isempower full-time. So much can change in the life of an entrepreneur in under 6 months!
Pat Chaisang is the co-founder and CEO of Isempower - Canada's first job search platform for international students. She is driven by the mission of helping international students & professionals succeed in Canada.
We’re excited to announce that VisaWire is now officially partnered with Isempower to help international students find jobs in Canada with the help of the Career Launcher Bootcamp program! To learn more about the partnership and access a unique program discount, check out the following article.
For more information about our guest, resources discussed during the episode and key takeaways, please check out the following link: https://www.visawireapp.com/blog/my-immigrant-story-episode-13-pat-chaisang
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Shreyas Sali is a Director of Product and Data for the Marketplace Product at Spocket. Spocket is a drop-shipping marketplace based in Vancouver serving tens of thousands of Merchants. Shreyas is also the author of a book called: PMP / CAPM Exam Quick Reference: Your 60 Minute Review Guide (now available on Amazon!). Prior to moving to Canada, he lived, worked and studied in the US for close to 10 years.
For more information about our guest, resources discussed during the episode and key takeaways, please check out the following link: www.visawireapp.com/blog/my-immigrant-story-episode-12-shreyas-sali
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Natalia Bialkowska is the founder and owner of NB Law Firm based in Toronto, Canada. She completed her undergraduate studies, law degree and doctorate in the US. After moving to Canada, she got licensed to practice law in Ontario. She is also licensed to practice law in California, the District of Colombia and Michigan.
You can learn more about our guest at the following link.
DISCLAIMER: During the episode, Natalia mentions that there haven't been any Express Entry - Federal Skilled Worker program draws conducted since 2020. According to a recent statement from the IRCC, they aim to resume Express Entry draws in early July.
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Rajat (Raj) Jain is the founder and CEO of EOXS – a silicon valley venture backed startup where Steel Meets Technology. He has been working in the steel industry in a variety of roles for over 5 years before devoting his career to entrepreneurship.
His first startup was a social app called Buddy. It was a mobile app for connecting people with shared interests and preferences in cities across Canada. After his first startup idea, Raj pivoted to building EOXS to provide tech solutions in the Metals Industry.
Learn more about Raj's background and get a preview of his unique insights here!
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Assel Beglinova is the co-founder and CEO of Paperstack – an app that provides working capital & financial insights for e-commerce sellers. Paperstack helps its users put their bookkeeping on auto-pilot and visualize their cash flows. Prior to starting her own company, Assel worked as a financial advisor in the Canadian banking industry (in banks such as CIBC and Scotiabank).
DISCLAIMER: When this episode was recorded, Assel was in Baltimore, Maryland. Her team going through the Techstars Equitech accelerator program and actively working on taking Paperstack to the next level. Since then, the Paperstack team completed the Techstars program.
You can learn more about our guest and her background in the detailed episode overview.
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Patience Badze is a creator, problem-solver and entrepreneur. She’s been a marketing professional for over 10 years with a focus on strategy and operations management. Patience is the co-founder of edgeBD Inc. where she drives growth and business development strategies for the agency (including management across the different business functions – HR, Marketing, Finance, and Operations).
Patience works with startups and large global organizations. She’s responsible for directly account managing high value clients and their projects by working with them to develop their branding, marketing strategies and campaigns.
Patience also recently founded a company called LocalOn - they're building tech solutions for small businesses. They recently launched a mobile app called where.a.bouts. It's a mobile-first window shopping app for small businesses with brick and mortar stores, pop-up stores and (seasonal) markets stands to increase foot traffic and in-store purchasing.
Access Employment (pre-arrival service)
Learn more about the speaker
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
DISCLAIMER: At the time this episode was recorded (December, 2021), Sid was employed as the Regional Head of SEO at resulta. Since then, Sid has left his role in resulta and is working with Aisera. Additionally, this year he started his own company called Sid Organic Growth Consulting.
Sidharth (Sid) Iyer is an experienced SEO consultant with a background in B2B SaaS marketing. He has a passion for SEO and the acumen to create an organic user experience that helps guide the Buyer Journey. Sid has a degree in Journalism and is an innate storyteller. He has multiple years of experience in various aspects of marketing including SEO/Content Strategy, Audio-Visual Creative Production, Conversion Rate Optimization and more!
Get Mentored by Sid on ADPList
Visit Sid's Personal Website
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Enrique Suarez is the founder and CEO MountX Real Estate Capital. They are creating the next generation of digital financial products to enable access to International Real Estate Investing to millennials around the world. He is a world-class professional, entrepreneur and forward thinker, with a strong passion for building a better future through cutting-edge ideas, actionable methodologies and new technologies, and unlocking businesses for exponential growth.
This episode was recorded during December 2021. When talking about the current year during the episode, Enrique is referencing 2021.
Canada's Startup Visa Program
Startup Visa Program Designated Organizations
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Vartika Manasvi is a 2x Tech Entrepreneur with 11+ years of experience, Human Potential Coach, Angel Investor, and a Generalist. She has domain expertise in building diverse, transparent & equitable teams, networks, and communities. Vartika lived and worked across the US, Singapore, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.
Vartika is also the founder of a community called Stackraft. It has over 7 thousand curated software engineers stacked as per skills and career interests. Additionally, she’s a mentor at the DMZ, Communitech, and Seedstars. Vartika recently started her own podcast called A Bit of a Gamble.
This episode was recorded in November, 2021.
Full episode overview and additional information can be found here.
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Sergei Timshin is a Senior Data Analyst at Index Exchange. He’s knowledgeable in Python, SQL, Tableau and various web technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. He completed a Master’s program in Data Analytics at the Fox School of Business at Temple University based in Philadelphia, USA. Sergei’s originally from Russia and has a background in Aerospace Engineering (graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute).
This episode was recorded in December, 2021.
The Toronto cafe / creperie mentioned in the episode: Sava Crepes.
Full episode overview and additional information here.
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Deep Singh is the co-founder of Canada Mentors - a platform to help highly skilled software engineers across the globe connect with leading Canadian tech companies. They are on a mission to make Canada - North America's most preferred destination to build ace tech teams!
Previously, Deep was the Head of Global Operations at Ritual (a Series C funded Canadian startup). Ritual is a social ordering app that taps networks of co-workers and colleagues for fast and easy pick up and pay at a wide variety of local restaurants and coffee shops.
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Ayo Owodunni is a columnist on the CBC radio segment called How To Canada. The show runs in Kitchener, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Quebec. Since moving to Canada, he has worked as a Management Consultant, Real Estate Investor, and a Community Activist.
Ayo founded the Coalition of African Associations, a not for profit that had 15 African associations working together for the empowerment and development of Africans in the community. He is also on the board of Adventure4Change, a not for profit focused on programs dedicated to developing and helping underprivileged youth in the Sunnydale community in Waterloo.
Ayo's Podcast - The Immigrant View
HBR Article about Weak Ties (mentioned during podcast)
Ayo's Personal Website (where his ebook will be published in 2022)
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Ron Johnson is an educator at heart, connector in spirit and a problem-solver by passion. He is an international best-selling author, entrepreneur, podcast host and startup founder.
As an entrepreneur, he is currently building a safe and supportive startup ecosystem for professionals and students entering Canada through the Wisen Up! Podcast and platform. Ron leverages his years of recruiting experience to teach students and professionals on various strategies of hiring, job placement, networking, recruiter engagement and career advancement.
Ron promotes the power of community, conversation and collaboration.
Relevant Resources:
Ron Johnson's LinkedIn Profile
Wisen Up! Podcast
Wisen Up! Community & Platform
Episode Quick Overview
P.S. Interested in networking with fellow immigrant professionals?
Check out the VisaWire Community: https://community.visawireapp.com/
Welcome to the My Immigrant Story Podcast! During each episode, we'll be deconstructing the success stories of first generation Canadian immigrant tech entrepreneurs and professionals. We'll talk about how they discovered Canada as an immigration destination, settled, and grew their careers upon moving.
We hope that this podcast will help immigrants from all over the world learn more about pathways to Canada and opportunities to build your career upon arrival. Happy listening!