​Recipe for Resilience: Practical Ingredients for Founder Success

​Join us for a Lunch and Learn that brings together four founders from the food, tech, and product sectors for a candid, practical conversation on resilience. Drawing from their real-world experiences, each founder will share the key ingredients that helped them navigate uncertainty, adapt to challenges, and sustain momentum throughout their entrepreneurial journey.

​This session will be energizing, honest, and highly actionable. Attendees will leave with concrete insights and practical tools they can apply immediately to their own ventures.

​Event Agenda

• ​Opening Remarks

• ​Founder Introductions

• ​Workshop Presentation

• ​Q&A

​The session will feature founders from across YSpace’s verticals: Food, ELLA, and Tech.

​About the Speakers

​Samantha Ong is the founder of Joeydolls, a Toronto-based toy company on a mission to celebrate culture, identity, and belonging through play. Inspired by her own experience growing up without dolls that reflected her heritage, Samantha created Joeydolls to help all children see themselves and others - with pride and empathy. Since launching in 2023, Joeydolls has sold over 17,000 dolls worldwide and continues to expand its diverse line to represent more cultures and communities. Featured on Dragons’ Den Canada, CBC News, and Good Housekeeping, Joeydolls has earned national recognition for fostering inclusivity and joy in every child’s playroom. Samantha’s work continues to spark meaningful conversations about representation, diversity, and cultural connection.

​Lisa Mohapatra is the Co-founder and CEO of Bidblox, a Toronto-based, venture-backed, patent-pending AI platform transforming bidding and preconstruction workflows in the construction industry. She brings deep experience across supply chain, construction, and technology, with a strong track record of building and scaling SaaS and marketplace businesses. Prior to Bidblox, Lisa built a bootstrapped and profitable AEC startup in India, enabling 3,000+ SMBs across 28 cities to generate $60M+ in GMV. She has held leadership roles at SAP, Cognizant, and Landmark Group, and is known for driving product-market fit, disciplined growth, and execution. Lisa has spoken at platforms including the G20 Deep Tech Summit and ICC Women’s Conclave, and her work has been recognized by GITEX, Indian Express, Facebook SHELeadsTech, TiE Toronto, TiE Global, BW Businessworld, YourStory, UpperBound Edmonton, and BetaKit.

Yazeed Yasin, Co-founder and CEO of NanaShake, is a former Marketing industry executive turned entrepreneur who co-founded NanaShake along with his wife in 2016 and currently also serves as the company’s CEO. Prior to this, Yazeed held senior Marketing positions within the financial and media industries with his most recent role as Marketing Manager at Global News. Originally Toronto’s first dedicated vegan ice cream parlor, NanaShake has evolved into a CPG brand with a very clear mission: to shake up the world of ice cream with delicious, healthy and nutritious alternatives that are mainly and natural sweetened with bananas. Their first line of ice cream alternatives, NanaPops, have been dubbed Smoothie-on-a-Stick by customers due to how healthy and nutritious they are and have won numerous industry awards including Best Frozen Product at Grocery Innovations Canada in 2025, Best Start-up CPG at SIAL Canada in 2025 and the title of Toronto’s Next Great Packaged Food Business by the City of Toronto in 2024. In addition to enabling members of the extended community to satisfy their ice cream craving while fueling their bodies with essential nutrients, NanaShake is proud to also be tackling the sustainable development goals of good health and well-being as well as responsible consumption and production

Tamara Al Dip, Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of NanaShake is a former banking and investment executive turned entrepreneur recognized as the winner of the Mompreneur Best Start-up of the Year award for her innovative venture, NanaShake, which she co-founded along with her husband in 2016. Tamara's entrepreneurial spirit shines through her creation of more than 8 completely original product lines including the popular NanaPops (aka Smoothie-on-a-Stick ), NanaBowls, and the Bananza showcasing her creativity and commitment to delivering innovation to the category. NanaPops have won numerous industry awards including Best Frozen Product at Grocery Innovations Canada in 2025, Best Start-up CPG at SIAL Canada in 2025 and the title of Toronto’s Next Great Packaged Food Business by the City of Toronto in 2024. Originally Toronto’s first dedicated vegan ice cream parlor, NanaShake has evolved into a CPG brand with a very clear mission: to shake up the world of ice cream with delicious, healthy and nutritious alternatives that are mainly and naturally sweetened with bananas.

​About Our Funders

​About York Region

​​​​The Regional Municipality of York consists of nine local cities and towns and provides a variety of programs and services to over 1.25 million residents and 57,000 businesses with more than 629,000 employees. Strategically positioned in the Greater Toronto area, York Region is Ontario’s third largest business centre and is among Canada’s largest Information and Communications Technology, Life Sciences and Financial Services business clusters. It is also an innovation hub and a rich pool of talent for established businesses and new ventures. York Region supports economic development with a pro-business environment offering a range of investment assistance and resources for businesses and non-profits both large and small.

​About the Host

​About the City of Markham

​​The City of Markham is one of the most vibrant, diverse, and rapidly growing communities in the Greater Toronto Area. Home to more than 365,000 residents and a thriving business ecosystem of over 10,000 companies — including 1,500 technology firms — Markham is recognized for its forward-thinking urban planning, dynamic entrepreneurial spirit, and strong pro-business environment.Through the Markham Small Business Centre, the city provides dedicated support to entrepreneurs and small business owners. A team of passionate business advisors offers personalized, one-on-one consulting and access to essential resources, helping local businesses launch, grow, and succeed in today’s competitive marketplace. www.markhambusiness.ca

​About YSpace
​​YSpace is York University’s pan-university entrepreneurship and innovation hub supporting startups and entrepreneurs from a variety of sectors and communities. Our programming spans across scaling innovative technologies through customer and investor capital to scaling agri-food businesses into mass retail to diversity-focused initiatives like ELLA powered by Desjardins for women-led businesses and Black Entrepreneurship Alliance (BEA) for Black-led businesses. Additionally with our Start-Up Visa program, we are building a robust ecosystem, driving positive change and empowering entrepreneurs to shape the future. We are also home to two physical hubs in the City of Markham and the Town of Georgina.
https://www.yorku.ca/yspace/