The Entrepreneurs is a documentary-style video series produced by Oh Boy Productions spotlighting the ambition, resilience, and reinvention powering Canada’s private businesses. Through authentic storytelling, it follows founders and leaders who are building, scaling, and transforming companies across the country, often while navigating economic uncertainty and real barriers to growth.
Cheryl Zealand, Founder and CEO, Cranked Energy
Cheryl Zealand never planned to become an entrepreneur, but what started as a homemade solution for busy mornings, evolved into Cranked Energy after customers and retailers saw the potential before she did.
Balancing motherhood, a CPA career, and the realities of scaling a food business, Cheryl's journey highlights the patience, persistence, and confidence required to turn market demand into sustainable growth.
Considerations for your team:
Rachel Mielke, CEO, Hillberg & Berk
Rachel Mielke, founder of Hillberg & Berk, shares her journey of building a purpose-driven Canadian brand.
From being featured on Dragon’s Den to pivoting her sales strategy amidst severe economic headwinds, Rachel’s journey underscores the power of resilience, customer-led strategy, and long-term, values-based decision-making to scale sustainably in a volatile market.
Considerations for your team:
Hugh Loomans, CEO, Sylvite
Hugh Loomans, founder of Sylvite, has built and sustained one of Canada’s last independent fertilizer businesses while navigating through extreme global volatility and intense multinational competition in a high-risk, commodity-driven industry.
His story highlights that long-term success for private business owners comes from perseverance, adaptability, strong relationships, and the ability to stay nimble while scaling in uncertain markets.
Considerations for your team:
Connor Curran, Co-founder, Local Laundry
Connor Curran shares how he built Local Laundry from a low-cost, experimental T-shirt startup into a purpose-driven Canadian brand through persistence, customer insight, and continuous iteration.
His story highlights the realities of bootstrapping, the importance of strong partnerships, and how a bold shift to Canadian-made products helped unlock growth while giving back to the community.
Considerations for your team:
Allen Eaves, CEO, STEMCELL Technologies
This episode follows Dr. Allen Eaves’ journey from Canadian research and healthcare innovation to building STEMCELL Technologies into a globally scaled life-sciences manufacturer and exporter. It highlights the business challenges of funding innovation, competing and pivoting when markets shift, and scaling operations to meet stringent quality standards, linking these decisions to the capabilities owners need to grow confidently.
Considerations for your team:
Ron Foxcroft, CEO, Fox 40 International
Ron Foxcroft shares how a high-stakes moment as a referee exposed a simple but dangerous product failure – and how that real-world problem sparked the invention of the Fox 40 whistle. His journey highlights persistence through repeated design setbacks, disciplined product development, and the choices that helped scale a Canadian-made innovation into a globally trusted safety brand.
Considerations for your team:
Amanda Hall, CEO, Summit Nanotech
Amanda Hall reflects on building Summit Nanotech. From starting with no formal business training to earning investor trust and navigating near failure while scaling breakthrough lithium technology.
The episode highlights that innovation alone is not enough to sustain long-term success; Entrepreneurs must embrace resilience, confidence in your subject matter expertise, and commercial discipline are just as crucial.
Considerations for your team:
Danny Sitnam, CEO, Helijet
Entrepreneur Danny Sitnam shares how a single, unexpected decision sparked a decades‑long journey of innovation, resilience, and growth.
His story underscores a critical insight: scaling a founder‑led business isn’t about avoiding risk, it’s about making disciplined, values‑driven decisions that build credibility, sustain confidence, and unlock long‑term growth.
Considerations for your team:
As Canada’s #1 private company advisor, KPMG Private Enterprise works with entrepreneurs through every stage of their business journey. With integrated capabilities across audit, tax, and advisory services, we help private companies, including family offices and portfolio companies, make confident decisions, manage complexity, and build long‑term value as they grow, scale, and transition their businesses.1
Private Enterprise Leader, Prairies & Office Managing Partner, Winnipeg
Winnipeg
KPMG Canada
1. Source: Financial Post 800 Report for 2025 (August 2025) and LSEG Deals Intelligence Global Financial Advisory Review 2025, Number of Completed Deals (January 2026)
