Startup Grind Vancouver Hosts Michael Gokturk (Payfirma)

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Michael Gokturk, Payfirma

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Life of a serial founder: Hard knocks, pivots and bouncing back. Join us as we sit down with Michael Gokturk, CEO and founder of Payfirma.

Michael Gokturk is the kind of entrepreneur who takes a company public in 3 years then launches a new business 3 days later. In 2011, Michael founded Payfirma with the goal of disrupting the highly competitive payments market by creating a solution to merge online, in-store and mobile payments. He has since grown Payfirma from the first company to introduce mobile payments in Canada into one of the top multichannel payment platforms in North America.
Prior to Payfirma, Michael left a career in investment banking to found VersaPay, which he led to become one of Canada’s fastest growing companies before taking it public on the TSX. With over a decade of experience creating game changing technology in payments, Michael has appeared on the cover of Profit Magazine for securing the #1 Spot on the HOT 50 list, and been honoured with numerous innovation and leadership awards including a spot on Vancouver’s coveted Top 40 under 40. A thought leader on payments innovation and entrepreneurial hacks, Michael has contributed content to media sources including Time.com, The Financial Post, Venturebeat and The Globe and Mail.

Michael is an active angel investor and mentor in the Canadian Startup Community and currently sits on the National Board of Advisors for The Next Big Thing Foundation.

Agenda

6:30 Networking and Food
7:00 Fireside Chat
8:00 Networking

Hosted By Cheryl Draper, Vancouver Chapter Director

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Cheryl Draper is a community builder, event producer and entrepreneur originally hailing from Ottawa but now based in Vancouver. By day, she's the Community Development Manager at Unbounce. By night, Cheryl can be found facilitating startup weekend events around the world, mentoring up-and-coming companies or playing dinner host to visiting out-of-town founders. In her downtime, she likes to drink tea, travel, spend time with family and friends, and can often be found geeking out over craft beer. Email: cheryl@startupgrind.com | Twitter: @cheryldraper (http://twitter.com/cheryldraper)

Global Partners

Google is committed to empowering entrepreneurs around the world through programs, partnerships, and our products.

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Local Partners

Quickly & easily build high-converting landing pages for your marketing campaigns. Unbounce is the landing page builder for marketers, designed to let you build, publish and A/B test your landing pages. All without having to rely on I.T. or web development teams.

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Accept credit cards with Payfirma's simple merchant account services. We offer scalable online payment solutions for your growing business.

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What is Startup Grind?

Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. We host monthly events in more than 150 cities and 65 countries featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share personal stories and lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Our monthly fireside chat interviews, startup mixers and annual conferences provide ample opportunities to connect with amazing startups and the people behind them, tap into a strong support network, form meaningful connections and gain inspiration for the startup journey ahead. For more information visit StartupGrind.com (http://startupgrind.com) or follow us on twitter @StartupGrind (http://twitter.com/StartupGrind).