April Hicke | Top 40 Under 40 2025

Age: 38

Occupation: Founder and CEO, Toast

In 2021, April Hicke was hiring for tech roles for her employer when she noticed that women weren’t applying. So, one year later, she co-founded Toast, a company dedicated to helping women secure tech jobs such as software developer or product manager.

“We need people with different perspectives,” Hicke says. “We can’t put people in a box or write them off before fully understanding what they bring to the table.”

Since its founding in 2022, Toast has amassed a candidate pool of more than 20,000 members (women who are seeking jobs in tech or upskilling) and a 34 per cent hire rate. Toast now works with more than 130 companies across North America.

Although women made up nearly half of Canada’s workforce in 2023, they accounted for only 24 per cent of the country’s tech industry.

Toast has helped women secure more than $10 million in cumulative salary increases through job placements and raise negotiations. The company is projected to surpass $2.5 million in revenue in 2025.

Toast also runs programs like Champions, a nine-month mentorship pairing women with male tech leaders to foster guidance and growth, and Toast Dash, a biannual hackathon event where women launch a climate-focused business idea in one week. The annual Toast Summit at Platform Calgary is a day dedicated to networking, learning and celebrating women in the tech industry.

Hicke’s journey reaching this milestone is nothing short of extraordinary.

Dropping out of high school, experiencing teenage homelessness at 15 and growing up in a family affected by alcohol (she is now 10 years sober) is what drives Hicke’s commitment to supporting others. Outside of Toast, she sponsors more than 20 women in alcohol addiction recovery, and frequently shares her story at treatment centres and shelters across Alberta and B.C. to break stigmas around addiction and recovery.

“Your beginnings do not need to define your ends, period,” Hicke says.

Thank yous
“I would love to thank everyone who ever believed in me. To the people who have seen something special in me and found some way to support and help me along the way, thank you. To Shelley, the greatest teacher, mentor, and friend — thank you for the countless hours. A very extra special thank you to my mom and siblings, who never stopped believing in my potential, even when it was hard to see. To my pseudo parents — Lloyd and Linda, and Janice and John — the unwavering support I have gotten has changed my life. Thank you to my children, my reason for everything. And to my husband, Joe, the love of my life, I don’t deserve all that you’ve given me. You are everything. I am so grateful you picked me. I love you.”