The people behind TechTank

Danny Kim

he/him

Danny is an event organizer at TechTank. He used to be a regular at TechTank events when the community was run by the previous director, Chris, and he stepped in to help keep things running after she stepped down. Danny focuses on organizing tech talks and panel discussions. Although he doesn’t speak at these events himself, his role is behind the scenes, making sure speakers don’t have to think about anything except showing up as their best selves and delivering their talk. He’s careful about picking topics that are relatable to the audience. The best talks, in his view, are about problems people have actually run into, or ideas that are just genuinely interesting. Self-promotion or corporate pitches dressed up as talks, not so much. As an introverted self-taught developer, Danny understands how it can feel discouraging to show up to a tech event for the first time. What keeps him invested is watching people grow, whether they’re just starting out or further along in their careers. He believes seeing and hearing how someone else thinks is where a lot of insight lives, and he doesn’t want anyone to miss out on that. By day, Danny is a software engineer on the frontend team at Ideogram, an AI image generation company, where he gets to work across the stack and ship features end to end. Outside of TechTank and his day job, software is still what he spends his time on.

View profile →

Niki Fereidooni

she/her

Niki has been running tech community events since October 2024. She currently leads Code Diversity and Tech Talks at TechTank. By day she’s a software engineer, though she got there the long way. After nearly a decade in the print packaging industry in project management and operations, she transitioned into tech in 2020. She’s a generalist at heart, someone who loves building things as much as she loves the people building alongside her. She got involved with TechTank almost by accident. When the Code Diversity series was at risk of ending, she stepped in as a community leader. Today she’s a board member and handles strategy, volunteer management, sponsor relationships, and general planning for the organization. She’s the first to admit it’s a lot, and the first to say it’s worth it. TechTank found Niki at a moment when she felt genuinely alone in the tech industry. No friends in the space, low confidence, unsure where she was headed. Finding a community that clicked changed that and she wants to give back to a community that has given so much to her. She also serves as a board member for Life After Burns, a nonprofit and community supporting burn survivors through connection, healing, and growth. She also co-founded Girls with Big Ideas, an event series designed to help women and gender-diverse founders meet potential co-founders, currently on hiatus. Outside of TechTank, you’ll find her hiking the Bruce Trail, trying new restaurants, travelling when she can, and picking up new skills with more enthusiasm than expertise (pottery and sewing are the current outlets). She believes deeply that how you treat people is more important than what you know.

View profile →

Sophia Kim

she/her

Sophia leads TechTank’s social events programming. Sophia is a Software Engineer and AI Trainer with a background in full-stack development and data annotation. She has worked across startups and AI teams, building web apps and helping train large language models. She found TechTank through a LinkedIn message from the founder and decided to check out a meetup. At the time, the community was still small, around 40 people, many coming out of bootcamps and trying to find their footing in tech. What started as simple conversations at events quickly turned into real friendships and a sense of belonging that kept her coming back. As she became more involved, Sophia naturally stepped into a bigger role. She started TechTank’s Instagram account to share moments from events and help grow the community. From there, she took on social media, event planning, and later finances, creating experiences people genuinely enjoy, remember, and keep coming back for. To Sophia, TechTank is about real connection, growth, and opportunity. She hopes people leave TechTank events feeling inspired, supported, and more confident in their journey, whether that means making new friends, finding career opportunities, or simply feeling like they belong in tech, just as she once did. Outside of tech, she enjoys hosting events, muay thai, travelling, and creating unforgettable experiences.

View profile →

Natasha Kasunic

she/her

Natasha is one of TechTank’s newer volunteers! She’s a Technical Customer Success Lead at Tightknit, a small startup building an app for community builders, where she sits between the engineering and the humans using it, translating one to the other. Computer science at Waterloo gave her the technical half; the years since taught her the part that actually matters, which is people. She came to TechTank as an attendee first and found something she didn’t expect: a room full of community leaders, operators, and builders, who happen to be her favourite kind of person. So she started pitching in. What’s kept her around isn’t any single event but the in-between, the hallway conversation that turns into a real one, and the way a good community quietly makes space for people, women in tech especially, to find their footing. She’s early in her TechTank story, which is the fun part. Expect to see her wherever the community needs an extra set of hands. When she’s not here, she’s doing stand-up comedy, crocheting, fencing, or digital nomading her way to somewhere new.

View profile →

Tony Ko

he/him

Tony leads TechTank’s web team while serving as an organizer. By day, he’s a Staff Software Engineer working where engineering, design, and product thinking meet. He’s shipped products for Aeroplan, Loblaws, and a few others you’d recognize. He showed up early, camera in hand, doing whatever the community needed: events, copy, posters. What kept him was the people: their energy, the way quick conversations turned into real ones. To Tony, the most valuable thing TechTank offers isn’t a talk or a networking opportunity, it’s what happens between. That steady involvement grew into leading the web team. He now shapes every detail online, so it reflects the same quality felt in person. Outside of TechTank, he’s drawn to experiences worth remembering. Good food, music, dance, hosting socials, new cities, and a creative eye that spans photography, 3D and industrial design.

View profile →