Startup Weekend Toronto

Chris works in the Strategy and New Ventures Group at TorStar Digital, managing TorStar's digital corporate development activities. Prior to working at TorStar Digital Chris worked for a global start-up accelerator where he helped support the launch and growth of international e-commerce ventures, such as Zalora.com.my, Malaysia's fastest growing fashion e-commerce venture.

Chris has also worked for Accenture's Management Consulting group where he specialized in digital experience and sales strategy work for Financial Service and Telecommunications clients. Chris has an HBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario.

Amy Fan is an Associate Consultant at Toronto office of Bain & Company. Since joining Bain a year ago, Amy has worked in the Private Equity Practice advising private equity firms on due diligences and assessing potential acquisitions based on their strategic value. She has worked in a range of industries from Oil & Gas, Telecommunications, Healthcare to Fashion Retail.

Charlotte McEwen is a Consultant in the Management Consulting Practice at Accenture Inc. Since joining Accenture a year ago, Charlotte has worked on a number of projects across industries such as telecommunications and retail for some of Canada’s largest companies. She has completed work in the areas of logistics, strategic sourcing, change management, and customer relationship management. She is also a member of team focused on growing Accenture’s Analytics Practice and bringing value to clients through the application of analytics and big data. Charlotte has a business degree from Queen’s University and a certificate in socially responsible leadership from Queen’s School of Business.

As founder and CEO of the INcubes Accelerator, Ben brings a wealth of marketing, operations and business management knowledge to an industry of over-inflated valuations. His grooming of execs results in real success. He has currently built one of Toronto’s most successful Landscaping Companies amongst numerous other entrepreneurial initiatives. Having been on “both sides of the table” as founder & as an accredited investor, Ben brings connections to both the investors and startups across North America.

I have a diverse background, having worked for a Brazilian mining giant Vale in the Payroll and HR departments. Most recently, I worked at RBC Global Loans Administration department in the capacity of a Loans Administrator. Mostly dealing with corporate brokers in New York and being on the receivind end of corporate loans originating in New York. I would credit my experience at CrowdLinker as the most relevant, since I've become well versed in online marketing, affiliate marketing, and Search Engine Marketing. I've had to wear many hats and I think I'd be able to bring a unique perspective of what's it like trying to run a bootstrapped startup.

Adam led the product development of the My City Lives platform. He is now responsible for the organization’s customer development, business model creation and product development for the company’s unreleased B2B marketing product. 
Adam’s previously work experience, before turning entrepreneur, involved bring new products to developing countries around the world as a Corporate Development Analyst at McCain Foods and bringing new technology to the market as an R&D Manager at Nexen Inc
An engineer by trade, Adam also earned his MBA in 2008

Ali is currently in his final year at the Richard Ivey School of Business. In the past he has started a small business consulting shop called Foqus Innovative Solutions, worked as Vice President of Marketing for NoteWagon, and was an early employee for a startup called EyeQuant in Germany. Ali has studied programming and design thinking to complement his business skills. He has also participated in Startup Weekend Berlin and hopes to use his experience to help the teams in Toronto.

Elliott is the President and founder of AddMirror Canada, a media company with interactive advertising mirrors in resto-lounges in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. Through his involvement with Multiplicity Accelerator, Elliott also mentors new ventures on sales techniques and strategies that can help them drive the revenue that is essential to their growth. Prior to founding AddMirror in 2008, Elliott held senior sales management positions with technology companies such as Dell, Microsoft and Sprint. Elliott is an Electrical Engineer from the University of Waterloo and holds an MBA in Marketing from the Schulich School of Business.

Rob is everyone's go-to guy when it comes to technology. He is passionate about the field and is an ever-present member of the Toronto startup community. He has managed the technology for a Canadian incubator and has run startups such as Pigsback North America, was CEO and partner at mobile app shop Endloop Studios, and is the co-founder and CEO of grvty, a mobile-focused product company currently in stealth mode. Rob is also currently a faculty member advising entertainment-focused mobile startups for the CFC Media Lab's ideaBOOST program. He also has proven leadership at larger organizations such as Bell Canada, the Ontario Telemedicine Network, and AT&T Bell Labs, consistently bringing innovative, customer-focused products and services to market. Rob also advises and mentors startups, speaks about technology, and is the mobile contributor for BetaKit.com. Most importantly, Rob is also known for putting the pun back into techno-punditry.

Ken is an experienced mobile app and game designer who is currently the CEO/Co-founder of Massive Damage. Massive Damage is a Toronto gaming studio dedicated to building the future of massively multiplayer games on mobile. They've released a hit top grossing hit game called Please Stay Calm, a location-based, massively multiplayer zombie apocalypse game for the iPhone and iPad. 

He is also the co-founder of Endloop Studios, a leading mobile development studio building some of the most entertaining and innovative iPhone and iPad applications on the market, garnering media attention from Wired, Mashable, WSJ and others.

Ken is well regarded for his passion and expertise in mobile, gaming, social media and user experience design.

Claim to fame: Created iMockups, one of the best selling wireframing apps for the iPad. 
Words to Live by: "What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do." 

Brad Ross is a private investor and advisor to new ventures. He co-founded Entrust Technologies Inc., Nortel's most successful intrapreneurial start-up, growing the business through to spin-out and eventual IPO, finally serving as the President of Entrust Technologies Europe. He also served as chairman and interim CEO for Pathogen Detection Systems enabling the acquisition by Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies. Mr. Ross studied Mathematics and Engineering at Queen's University (B.Sc.'80, M.Sc. '82) and business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (S.M. '90). Now based in Toronto, he currently act as an advisor to entrepreneurs and serves on a number of corporate and non-profit boards.

From HTML to LEDs, or Android to Arduino — Pearl Chen takes on a cross-disciplinary approach to her work. With over 9 years of professional experience in web technologies, Pearl has a body of work that includes Facebook campaigns for Google Chrome and microsites for Nike. Pearl also tackles more unusual jobs such as modifying the guts of Nintendo Wii controllers and creating origami objects from text messages.

Pearl was most recently the Research & Technology Manager at the Canadian Film Centre's Media Lab and is now working independently as an educator teaching web development, Android, and electronics -- while also building tools for other educators.

Alongside contributing to open source educational resources hosted on Github, Pearl is a published author and contributed the NFC and Open Accessory API chapters to Professional Android Sensor Programming published by Wrox.

She can be reached on Google+ (http://klab.ca/+), on Twitter (@pearlchen), or old-fashioned email (pearl[at]karma-laboratory.com).

I'm a digital cowboy, runner and cyclist with an intense entrepreneurial spirit helping create Canada's new economy at MaRS Discovery District.

My experience spans a decade in digital marketing, strategy and business development in large corporations and presently the technology startup community.

Here are a few highlights:

MaRS Discovery District

- Go-2-Market Lead for +60 ICE practice technology startups defining 'get, keep and grow' strategy of customer acquisition and retention. Marcom expert in both paid and earned media.
- Founder of MaRS #startupbookclubTO leading discussions with +100 bookclubers through 12 startup books.
- Judge of Start-Up Chile as part of our international outreach in conjunction with the Chilean Government.
- OnMedia NYC 2011-2012: co-lead the the Canadian delegation of startups to OneMedia, focussed on raising awareness and driving access to capital for 6 incredible consumer and enterprise-based startups.

CBC

- Partnered with Cisco Canada to build Canada's largest 'green' social media hub which reached millions of Canadians enticing us to reduce our carbon footprint. The program achieved 1 million acts within 4 months of launch and has since won multiple awards.
- Co-led the new media innovation strategy digitizing CBC traditional media and led the national sales training effort.

Yahoo!

- Helped introduce two of Yahoo!'s entertainment properties to Canadians via a successful multi-platform market acquisition campaigns pre-facebook.

OgilvyOne Worldwide

- Lead the agency-side launch of the Financial Services site for AMEX Canada. It was a successful relaunch helping drive engagement and acquisition of AMEX users.

I'm passionate about people and give back to my community, while living by JFK's philosophy: 'Only one person can make a difference, but everyone should try.' My proudest achievement was cycling Toronto - Montreal in support of the PWA Foundation. I'm also a runner, having run my first marathon Fall '11

Matthew Bertulli is the CEO and Co-Founder of Demac Media, an award winning eCommerce agency based out of Toronto, Ontario. As CEO, he is responsible for the overall corporate strategy, sales and day-to-day operations. Matthew has spent his entire career in online commerce and is now focused on creating best of breed eCommerce solutions for Demac Media’s network of merchant partners.

Demac Media is the largest Magento Gold Partner in Canada and was awarded the 2011 Magento Partner Excellence Award, which placed the company among the top 10 Magento Partners worldwide. From day one the company’s mission has been to be at the core of eCommerce and help grow the industry within Canada. Some notable partners include: Bench, Ardene, Stokes, Boathouse, Snuggle Bugz, eLUXE, and Ren’s Pets Depot.

Matt is also the founder of a very successful Meetup group, eCommerce Toronto. This is a monthly round table discussion Meetup for Canadian eCommerce merchants and professionals to discuss various topics and share their knowledge under the umbrella of eCommerce. Recently Demac Media partnered with MaRS and now co-hosts the Meetup within the MaRS Hertitage building.

Prior to founding Demac Media in 2008, Matthew worked for Netsuite Inc., a leader in SaaS based ERP, CRM and eCommerce software. With more than 13 years of experience in software development, online marketing and sales leadership Matthew has a proven track record of creating value for merchants and strategic partners.

Ryan is a Sr. Advisor and Practice Lead at the MaRS Discovery District where he helps startup and early-stage technology companies design business models, connect with investors and build for scale. He is also a mentor in the Next 36 and JOLT accelerator programs, and has 12+ years of leadership experience with growth oriented, technology-focused organizations in the areas of strategy, business development, marketing, M&A, customer support and product management. Most recently, he was Vice President of Marketing and Business Development leading the post-acquisition turnaround of Customer1, an enterprise software company in the CRM space. Previously, he established the Canadian operations for eStara/ATG (purchased by Oracle), a SaaS-based Click to Call/Click to Chat provider, growing their customer base and country revenue. Ryan’s experience includes speaking on Multi-Channel Customer Engagement; co-founding and leading Cobblestone Value Chain Management, a marketing technologies start-up; guiding Matthew Scott Data Marketing, a marketing services provider, through a period of rapid growth while developing a new technology platform; and, channel marketing management at Amex Bank of Canada. He was part of the leadership team that built the Framework Foundation, a national non-profit that promotes volunteerism and community involvement through its Timeraiser and Civic Footprint programs, and has served on its board for the past 5 years. Ryan is a graduate of the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, and lives in Toronto with his wife and son. 

Guillaume Lagourgue is the Head of Entrepreneur Advisory Solutions for UBS in Canada. He works closely with successful entrepreneurs across Canada as a strategic advisor. From early stage start-ups to mature businesses (across all sectors), his mission is to advise entrepreneurs on capital raising, business growth, M&A, partnerships, financing, and liquidity events. He is also responsible for the delivery of investment banking solutions to the largest clients of UBS Wealth Management Canada.

Prior to joining UBS Canada, Guillaume worked for a natural resources special situation fund. Previously, he spent seven years with JPMorgan, most recently in New York, within the Financial Institution Group covering hedge funds.

Guillaume is very involved and passionate about the entrepreneurs community in Canada. He is currently on the board of advisors of Taafi (Toronto Animation Arts Fesival International) and PeopleMelt. He also mentors several start-ups in Toronto, Vancouver and K-Waterloo. He holds a Law degree form the University of Wales, Cardiff and a BA in Environment and Resource Management from the University of Toronto. Guillaume has worked and lived in 9 different countries across North America, Europe and Middle East.

Francis Yanga is passionate entrepreneur and founder of Red Square Labs Inc. An experienced developer, business developer, project manager and online marketer. My strength is in building great teams with great players to tackle complex projects. I enjoy helping entrepreneurs develop their ideas and see their vision come to life. 

Shelley has experience in financial services, consulting and small businesses. Her experiences have been in the areas of product launches, startups and business turn arounds. She has successfully 
driven product innovation and change initiatives in the payments space. Shelley has a passion for innovation and design and has leveraged this interest into setting up two startups in the financial services space. She can bring her delivery and change experience to help startups with go to market strategies, client acquisition and delivery.

With her background running two startups, she has been through the experience of getting the story right and ensuring the business plan provides the best path from concept to successful launch.

In her role as a leader at a major Canadian bank, she has reviewed many business proposals and evaluated business ideas from a customer viewpoint. Shelley can bring this perspective to startups to help with pitch decks and selling documents.

Sue McGill is a startup mentor and advocate for innovation. A builder of technology companies and brands, Sue has advised and been actively involved in over 200 startups in the emerging technology space, with hands-on experience at DWL (acquired by IBM), MySpace and JUICE Mobile. Throughout her career, Sue has lived in Silicon Valley and Toronto, and has worked as an executive in major public companies, including CanWest, Yahoo! and RIM. For the past two years, she has been driving MaRS’ efforts in the consumer mobile, social and web space. She sits on the advisory boards of several leading Canadian startups and runs JOLT as Executive Director.

I have founded two start-ups – one in web conferencing, the other social – and am now working hard, building my third. I've had success introducing new products to market by identifying strategies that benefit my business, our clients and their customers. I’ve introduced new products to market and opened up new markets and distribution channels. I also love to get my hands dirty on the technical side of things. During my journey, I've received a great deal of support all along the way, and I love making myself available to other aspiring entrepreneurs.

Michael Chartrand is an experienced app designer who specializes in the Gamification of sites and applications. With over 15 years as a seasoned Project Manager Michael has successfully lead hundreds of projects to fruition in both the corporate and private sectors. His training in Six Sigma makes him a bit of a process geek for getting things done and many start-up companies have benefited from that expertise when building out their business plans or trying grow in a healthy way.

Lean Methodologies are a natural extension of process, and Michael loves to use those skills to help guide new entrepreneurs in the right direction with their ideas. He's passionate about user experience design and learning new techniques to help build his company and other small businesses as he encounters them.

Currently he's working on a project to re-imagine the way students learn in the North American education system through digital interactivity and gamified experience.

Since the birth of internet commerce, Traviss has helped hundreds of internet business’ develop & raise capital, from Startup to IPO, from seed to acquisition, as well as directing digital campaigns as high level as a candidate for Prime Minister of Canada. With a Diploma in Electronic Media Design & a Swiss Business Degree, Traviss’ technical ability combines with competitive business instincts to bring innovator’s advantage to those he mentors at INcubes & directs through Acceleration.