Bernie Li

Partner

Antler Canada

Bernie is a Partner of Antler Canada, a platform to support and invest in Founders at the ideation and team formation stage. He brings two decades of experience as an investor and as a founder. He previously co-founded Pure Energies, a leading tech enabled marketplace that delivered solar solutions to customers across North America. Pure Energies raised $25MM of financing from VCs and other capital providers and he helped drive the company to a successful exit to a publicly-traded acquirer. Pure Energies was among the first generation of residential companies that leveraged the web for customer acquisition, product design and contract fulfillment.  

Earlier in his career, Bernie was an investor at iNovia Capital, one of Canada’s preeminent venture funds. Bernie is a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University. He was previously the Board Treasurer for the non-profit Centre for Social Innovation. He currently serves as an investment committee member for The Atmospheric Fund. 

Domenic Del Vecchio
Principal
Panache Ventures

At Panache Ventures, Canada's most active pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital fund, he sources, evaluates, and supports promising Canadian startups across sectors. He lead our investment activities and portfolio support in Quebec and Eastern Canada. He has a passion for finding and backing visionary founders who are building truly innovative solutions that can bring generational transformations to real-world problems.

Before joining the investment world, he gained valuable experience in driving customer-centric strategic innovation at two of Canada's largest companies after spending several years as a Growth Ops and B2B sales operator for a couple of Montreal startups.

He thrives on connecting with passionate founders during those exciting early days of ideation and growth - turning "back of the napkin" ideas into impactful business ventures.

Jude Sacramenthas

VP Ecosystems

Graphite Ventures

Jude is an investor at Graphite Ventures, one of Canada’s most active institutional seed funds backing early-stage B2B software companies. At Graphite, his primary focus is investing in high-potential startups and supporting founders as they scale. Jude also engages deeply with Canada’s tech ecosystem through mentorship, advisory roles, and partnerships with top innovation programs.

    Ken Grisé

Principal, Healthcare Investments

Sixty Degree Capital

Ken is a principal on the healthcare investment team at Sixty Degree Capital. He leverages his scientific and market expertise to guide investments into healthcare/biotech companies that he believes are developing the most innovative and impactful technologies and therapeutics. Previously, Ken has worked on drug discovery for regenerative medicine applications with Endogena Therapeutics, the development of a cell therapy for diabetes with Sernova Corp, and stem cell-based approaches to treat degenerative diseases of the retina and the brain with the Neurobiology Research Group at the University of Toronto. Ken is passionate about scientific outreach and education, and acts as a scientific consultant for the entertainment industry.

Melissa Allen
Managing Partner
Capital M Ventures

Melissa Allen began her career in digital marketing at tech companies such as Torstar Digital and Google, before pivoting to an award-winning career in financial services at Desjardins. Combining her passions for innovation and finance, Melissa became an angel investor in 2019. After selling her financial practice, Melissa began lending her expertise in ecosystem advisory and leadership roles at organizations such as LOI Venture and League of Innovators. Melissa now leads Capital M Ventures, a pre-seed venture fund focused on brilliant founders that reflect Canada's diversity.

Mohamed Elabshihy
Senior Associate
Graphite Ventures

Mohamed Elabshihy is a Senior Associate at Graphite Ventures, where he partners with ambitious founders building early-stage companies across Canada. Prior to Graphite, he was a VC at Real Ventures and began his career as a Product Manager at MaRS Discovery District. Outside of work, he volunteers as Co-Chair of the Loan Review Committee at ACCESS Community Capital Fund and supports startups through various accelerators.

Moien Giashi
Principal
GreenSky Ventures

Moien is a Materials Engineer turned venture capital investor specializing in deep tech. He is a Principal at GreenSky Ventures, where he leads deep tech investments. Moien serves as a board observer, board member, advisor, or director to multiple startups including eight GreenSky Ventures' portfolio companies.

Nick Chen
Partner

Golden Ventures

Partner leading AI and frontier technology investing at Golden Ventures. 

    Will Ma

Director, Investments
MaRS IAF

Reformed investment banker and corporate strategist with a passion for building. I’ve led growth, finance, and operations at venture-backed startups from Seed to Series B and founded a company that went through YC. Now, I invest in and support emerging founders, leveraging my background to help build scalable, impactful businesses.

Zeeshan Ali
Senior Investment Director
MaRS IAF

Zeeshan is an impact-driven leader with a passion for supporting founders at the earliest stages of their startup journey. Prior to joining IAF, Zeeshan led the Business Development function at MaRS Discovery District, creating a platform for the Canadian startup ecosystem to collaborate and engage with corporates with a goal to accelerate technology commercialization at the global level. Before joining MaRS, Zeeshan led mergers & acquisition and corporate strategy initiatives at Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp., acquiring over $2 billion of infrastructure assets across the company’s diversified portfolio. Zeeshan played an active role in enabling growth pathways, scaling into strategic markets and adopting leading-edge technology platforms. Zeeshan is actively supporting the early-stage startup ecosystem, mentoring and advising founders at Creative Destruction Lab in Toronto and MITDesignX in Boston.

      Abbass Abbassi

CEO

Shaddari Inc

Mathematician, with experience in Commodities and minerals trading on the financial markets, I am also a multiple startup founder who has done business development on a global level. I have keen interest for the oil& gas and minning sector

Abby Aiyeleye

Co-founder & Co-CEO

Clavis Studio

Abby Aiyeleye is an award-winning Co-founder and Co-CEO of Clavis Studio, an AI-powered 3D design and shopping platform. With over 15 years of experience building high-margin startups across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and North America, Abby brings a unique global lens to innovation. Recognized as ASTech Awards 2024 Woman in Innovation and recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, she is redefining design visualization through immersive 3D tech and AI. Abby is also a passionate mentor and community builder, serving on boards and councils that support youths and new founders in tech.

Benoit Gendron

Co-founder & CEO
LatenceTech

CEO and co-founder of LatenceTech. 25+ years at Ericsson in America & Europe in Telecom Sales with 20M$USD+ quota and expertise in Product Management and Innovation M.Sc. from HÉC Business School. Work experience in Canada and in Europe.

Bill Cherniak
Founder & CEO
Rocket Doctor

William Cherniak is an emergency physician with training in family medicine and global public health. He is a co-founder and board chair of Bridge to Health Medical and Dental Canada & USA and the founder and CEO of Rocket Doctor, a Medicaid-focused Shopify for clinicians that integrates a unique support system, AI-enabled automations to accelerate care and wireless medical devices. Bill has had research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, Academic Medicine, PLOS ONE and given numerous speeches in Europe and North America on digital health as well as global public health and development. 

Brandin Chiu
CTO
Spoonity, Inc.

Brandin is a software engineer by training with nearly 15 years of experience across a wide range of industries including loyalty, payments, e-commerce, and data analytics.  He's worked as the CTO at Spoonity since 2021 where's he's focused on building and scaling the company's engineering processes. When he's not building things himself or with his team, he works with and provides mentorship through relationship with organizations like InvestOttawa, Lighthouse Labs, as well as privately. He's passionate about writing maintainable software, SDLC best-practices, and how inter-team dynamics can be built to support scaling across an organization.

Eric Martin
Co-founder & COO

PulseMedica

Eric Martin is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of an ophthalmic medical device company, bringing a uniquely integrated background as a Registered Nurse (RN), MBA, Organizational Change Management professional, and Executive Coach.

Recognized as a trusted clinician leader, strategic operator, and catalyst for innovation, Eric drives high-impact business growth by empowering people, optimizing processes, and advancing transformative technologies. His leadership spans across building high-performing teams and medical technologies, as well as guiding complex, cross-functional initiatives from concept to execution. With a passion for developing both people and products, Eric thrives at the intersection of healthcare, business, and innovation.

Iryna Andriushchenko

Co-founder & CEO 

Handy.ai

Iryna Andriushchenko is the Founder and CEO of Handy.ai, a next-generation platform for building and orchestrating Multi-Agent AI solutions that power intelligent automation across customer and employee journeys. Designed for rapid deployment and seamless scalability, Handy.ai enables businesses to embed AI agents into real-world workflows—transforming static processes into dynamic, self-optimizing experiences. Beyond her role at Handy.ai, Iryna is a dedicated advocate for innovation and entrepreneurship. She mentors in accelerator programs supporting female founders and has co-authored thought leadership pieces such as “From Ukraine to Canada: Cultivating Sustainable Success with AI-Powered Digital Solutions” and “Real Talk: How Generative AI Could Close Canada’s Productivity Gap,” highlighting the transformative value of AI for business and society.

Joella Almeida
Co-founder & CEO
MedEssist

Joella is the CEO of MedEssist, a healthcare delivery platform serving pharmacies, digital health and pharmaceutical companies. Joella honed her skills in cross-functional roles within the e-commerce and payments industries, assuming a pivotal role in running operations for one of North America's largest payment processors. As the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Canada's National Women's Chamber of Commerce, she championed women's economic advocacy and worked as a Shopify Partner, helping small businesses launch, market, and manage their online stores. Driven by her passion for strategic operations and equitable access, Joella co-founded MedEssist alongside pharmacist and programmer Michael Do. Together, they combined their expertise to transform pharmacies into Pharmacy Health Clinics. This innovative concept merges the convenience of a walk-in clinic with the accessibility of a pharmacy, enabling new models of care to reach patients.

John Cumming

Co-founder & CTO 

Transitional Forms

John Cumming is CTO at Transitional Forms and has extensive experience in technology and entertainment. He led groundbreaking projects at eOne and Hasbro, including the Selfie Series and Vusr platform. His technical expertise includes Python, Machine Learning, and Unreal Engine, Unity, and he holds three patents.

Krystian Olszanski

Fractional CTO / Startup Advisor

Embetta

Krystian is a seasoned technical executive and entrepreneur with a demonstrated ability to identify and cultivate innovation, fueling business growth in multiple startups, including as the co-founder and former CTO of Cadence. Renowned for his trust-based leadership style, resourcefulness, and technical creativity, Krystian excels at aligning teams with overarching strategic goals to deliver impactful user value. His experience extends to strategic involvement in fundraising, operations, and serving on the Board of Directors. As a Fractional CTO and active Advisor, Krystian currently leverages his extensive industry insights and technical acumen to empower emerging startups.

Logan Underwood

Co-founder & CEO 

Adauris inc.

Co-founder and CEO of Adauris; a AI audio platform for identifying high-intent leads onsite and offsite. Focus on Sales, Product and then catch all of fundraising, finance, etc. basic programming in my spare time. Previously at OTPP as equity derivatives trader for the 250B AUM fund. Sciences PO / UBC Sauder dual degrees in PPE / Finance.

Meyer Mechanic

Founder

Vaultie

Meyer Mechanic is the Founder and CEO of Vaultie, a digital trust infrastructure company that helps organizations issue fraud-resistant, verifiable documents like IDs, contracts, and credentials. He holds two patents in digital identity for document verification and has 15 years of capital markets experience. He also holds an MBA from the Rotman School of Management. When he's not saving the world from fraudulent documents, Meyer can be found in the gym, finding great live music, or lecturing on whisky.

    Miranda Russell

Chief of Staff

Helcim

Miranda Russell is the Chief of Staff at Helcim, a payments company that delivers an easier, smarter, and more affordable payment experience with a human touch. She supports Helcim’s Executive Team and ensures the company remains on tempo by working with senior leaders across the organization. Prior to joining Helcim, Miranda worked for a multinational oil and gas company in recruitment marketing and employer branding.

Nathan Knight

Co-founder

OneCliq.io 

With a background in engineering innovation & entrepreneurship and professional experience as a VC analyst, Nathan possesses a deep understanding of the venture capital landscape and startup fundamentals. He brings his dual-sided perspective into building OneCliq - automating consumer insight at far greater scale and speed than ever before.

Noam Eppel
Co-founder & COO

Morpheus.Network

Co-Founder & COO Morpheus.Network. Professor at George Brown College. Instructor at McMaster University. Strategic Advisor Crypto Defenders Alliance. Google for Startups Accelerator Mentor. Husband. Dad. T-ball Coach.

Omar Kaywan

Co-founder & COO

Goose Insurance

Omar is a seasoned growth guru and entrepreneur, He is the co-founder and chief growth officer at Goose Insurance Services and SmartBunny Insurance (the US subsidiary).  With over 18 years of experience in taking products and services to market. His experience spans product management,  go-to-market, growth, and monetization. Omar’s expertise and passion is in helping start-ups find their monetization paths and market positioning. Some of the highlights in Omar’s career include building a multi-million-dollar mobile advertising company, airG Media; leading and developing a global partner marketing program for Hootsuite, taking partnerships with Microsoft, Adobe, and Brandwatch to market; and managing over $100 million in advertising for a digital dating brand. In his career span, Omar has launched and supported over 20 multi-national digital products to market across North America and Europe. 

Prakash Sundaresan
Co-founder & CEO
Defang Software Labs

2x repeat founder, ex VP @ AWS, VP @ Workday (via exit), GM @ Microsoft.

Shahid Rashid
Head of Product

Oncoustics

Serial entrepreneur with over 20 years in tech; over a dozen years in healthtech. 

Ted Maulucci
Founder & CEO
SmartONE Solutions Inc.

Ted Maulucci is the CEO and Founder of SmartONE Solutions, a company committed to advancing the digital living experience in multi-family residential communities. After a long career with a leading multi-family developer in Toronto, Ted made a career change from CIO to CEO to create SmartONE. Under his leadership SmartONE has been operating for over 8 years, working in partnership with large Canadian telcos, and is now contracted in more than 260 buildings and over 80,000 homes. SmartONE is a bootstrapped company with a staff of 85, and still have not pursued a series A raise.

Thomas Jelonek
Founder & CEO 

Envision.ai

Founder and CEO of envision.ai. Envision.ai powers an intelligent creative process, using artificial intelligence to curate, editing create video content enhance revenue and reduce cost. Previously he founded of Cortex Machina (applying cutting edge computer vision to medical device imaging) and exited via acquisition. Founded, MoreIdeas, which developed computer vision software products used by millions of users in virtual try-on of beauty products. Together combining 30 years experience in research as well as founding and exiting companies in computer vision and AI. 

Ve Sharma
Head of Engineering

Yield Guild Games 

As co-founder & CTO of Adauris, Ve built a B2B AI SaaS platform from the ground up, securing over $2M in funding and served AI audio to millions of end listeners. Adauris was named a top 100 AI startup in Canada in 2024 by All IN AI. With experience spanning full stack development, cloud architecture, applied A.I., and leading high-performing teams, his last startup was backed by prestigious accelerator programs and ventures such as Founders Inc., Google for Startups, and Morgan Stanley. Currently, Ve is Head of Engineering at YGG - Yield Guild Games, the leading Web3 crypto gaming DAO with a ~$70M USD Treasury, backed by prominent investors like a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Bitkraft Ventures, & Animoca Brands.

Yanky Li
Advisor

Northbound Consulting

Yanky was the co-founder of tech/real estate company, OpenHouse.Ai. A company that has raised several rounds of funding with strategic investors and venture capital. Prior to building his own company, he helped a fintech unicorn scale up by identifying new revenue opportunities with new use cases. Professionally he is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) in Canada and Australia as well as a Project Management Professional (PMP).

Zina Rahman
Co-founder & CEO

Transitional Forms

Zina Rahman is the Co-founder and CEO of Transitional Forms, an entertainment innovation company at the intersection of AI and culture. An award-winning creative technologist and producer, she has led groundbreaking initiatives in interactive media, gaming, and immersive experiences. Under her leadership, Transitional Forms has garnered industry recognition, including GDC 2024 Best in Play, a Canadian Screen Award nomination, and, most recently, a Webby Award Honoree distinction. Zina is an alumna of the Google for Startups Accelerator: Canada cohort and serves on the Board of Directors at Interactive Ontario, where she is also Co-chair of the AI committee. She frequently speaks at conferences like Collision and contributes to City of Toronto programs advancing the future of emergent entertainment.

   Devan Batavia

General Partner
Enjoy the Work

Devan loves the early stage journey, particularly uncovering the magical intersection between what the market wants and how to sell it. There are so many open questions, different stakeholders, shifting variables – it’s like a game of chess where the right moves lead to rising revenues and happy customers. 

For the last 10+ years, Devan has built and led go-to-market teams for 3 organizations, Jive which went public in 2011, Origami Logic was acquired by Intuit, and TripActions, still a public company valued at over $5B USD. B Building startups has fed Devan’s ambitions for years. He joined Enjoy The Work so that he could impact not just one startup, but rather a portfolio of them across the globe. 

   Lesley Ross

General Partner
Enjoy the Work

Lesley has worked in tech for 14 years as an operator in growth and analytics roles. She founded Quantified Ardor in 2016 to support growing startups around the world on data-driven decision-making. She has also spent the last 7 years as a startup advisor (including as a mentor for Google For Startups since 2016) while holding multiple COO positions for startups at various stages. 

   Leslie Fine

General Partner
Enjoy the Work

Leslie’s career as a startup founder and product leader began after earning her PhD in Game Theory and Behavioral Economics from Caltech. In 2008, she founded her first startup, Crowdcast, and successfully exited the company in 2012. Following Crowdcast, Leslie helped lead three more startups: Spigit (SVP Product), tenXer (Head of Product), and Swerve (Founder, CEO). After her four startup experiences, she ventured into the enterprise world and joined Salesforce (VP Product), where she helped ship the company’s first AI product. But it was through her involvement in Salesforce’s M&A process that she ultimately realized she wanted to return to startup life. 

  Rick Hartwig

General Partner
Enjoy the Work

With more than 20 years as a technology product development and marketing executive, Rick has helped grow companies from seed stage to series F. He led multiple companies through acquisition as a VP or CMO, and has worked with numerous CEOs to successfully raise $100M+ in funding. Later, as he moved into consulting and advising, he sought to become an even better company advisor and leadership coach. He became certified with both the College of Executive Coaching and International Coaching Federation as part of this effort. 

   Mike Lewis

General Partner
Enjoy the Work

Over the last 20 years Mike has founded and successfully exited three startups. First was Qloud, a B2C on-demand music streaming service that grew to over 10M monthly unique visitors. Next was Kapost, a B2B SaaS company that grew to over $13M in revenue and 100+ employees. The most recent was Onward, a ride-sharing service for seniors that partnered with hospitals and medical facilities.

Alongside those experiences, Mike also experienced hyper-growth at Airbnb. From 2015 to 2019, he served as Head of Product for Airbnb for Work and Airbnb Luxe. While there, bookings grew from zero to over $1B in 2.5 years.

Although each company created value in different ways, he grew to appreciate the things that stay consistent. Building a high functioning team, shipping good product, honing a sales motion, raising capital, etc. Now he’s giving back and paying it forward as a General Partner at Enjoy The Work, and grateful to work with founders bringing the next generation of technology to market.

  Ruben Ortega

General Partner
Enjoy the Work

Ruben joined his first startup more than 25 years ago and was immediately delighted by the blank slate in front of him. He has always sought out companies that were early in their growth stories, which led him to join Amazon, Google, and Pinterest many years before they became some of the world’s largest enterprises. The common denominator – novel software, products, and teams that surprised and delighted massive numbers of customers.

His joy comes from bringing new products to the world. He’s learned that there is a right way, a harmonious way, to ship those solutions. And he’s grateful now to have the experience (and scars) to help others get there faster.

His journey from engineer to CTO to advisor has taught him that there is a cadence of communication, delivery, and metrics core to every successful company. With the right foundation in place, a founder can build a company that delivers on the promise of a better tomorrow.

The best part of advising is having the insight to guide a company towards their own unique answers – the ones that both reflect their values and lead to business success. He’s excited to be a General Partner at Enjoy The Work as he continues to teach, learn, and be in awe of the imagination of our founders.

   Jonathan Lowenhar

Founder and Managing Partner, Enjoy the Work

Throughout his 20 year career, Jonathan successfully built a $1B business segment for a large public company, guided the turnaround of a distressed $100M+ revenue business, launched and sold a venture-backed startup, and led the rise of one of the world’s fastest growing B2B SaaS businesses.

His first career was in hospitality, where he served as the first VP of Loyalty Marketing for Harrah’s Entertainment and led the turnaround of a failing 3,000-employee hotel and casino company. In 2007, he founded his first startup, which he successfully sold after 4 years and several rounds of capital. Starting in 2012, he served as COO of Taulia, growing the business from seed to D in less than 3 years.

Since 2014, he has led Enjoy The Work, a firm of expert early stage operators who have combined their considerable skills to advise the next generation of startups to launch, grow and reach scale. He founded Enjoy The Work because he believed that the biggest positive impact he could have on the world would be to positively influence the next generation of startup entrepreneurs. He’s dedicated his professional life to that end. 

   Jenn Romney

General Partner
Enjoy the Work

Jenn has spent the past decade advising CEO founders and their executive teams on leadership, strategy, growth, organization and culture, at companies ranging from Seed to Series D. Her partners and founders range from first-timers to serial entrepreneurs self-funding their latest venture – and most share a common thread of purpose-driven intentions in both their business impact, and leadership aspiration. Her work as an advisor and executive coach followed a decade and a half of CMO, go-to-market, and general management roles across both startups and new business/market development at Fortune 500 companies.

In nearly every advisory role, she heard the same question from founders: “Why does this have to be so hard?” Yet, every challenge is not a new one, and she believes deeply that when equipped with the right resources, relationships & know-how, founders would ask this question far less. And perhaps enjoy the work more.

Whether advising, mentoring or coaching, my energy is fueled by partnering with good humans doing incredible things in the world. And that is the bench of talented startup founders we support at Enjoy the Work.

   Ned Renzi

General Partner

Enjoy the Work

Ned has been involved with startups ever since founding his own software company in the mid 1990s; the bulk of his career has been defined by venture capital. In the early 2000s, He co-founded Pittsburgh-based VC firm, Birchmere Ventures.

Over the following 20+ years at Birchmere, we raised and invested six funds and our portfolio companies achieved a cumulative market valuation of $15 billion. Through those funds, he was fortunate to work with dozens of incredible entrepreneurs.

Throughout his career, his highest highs have come when lending a helping hand to well-deserving, high-achieving founders. His passion lies in watching others achieve success. Through Enjoy The Work, he’s able to fulfill this passion by taking founder mentorship to a deeper level than he could in the VC world.

   Anu Nigam

Managing Partner

Enjoy the Work

Ever since Anu joined his first startup in 1996, He enjoys working with small, driven teams, helping to transform cutting edge technologies into real businesses. His first two startups revolutionized fiber-optic telecommunications, resulting in two acquisitions among the top 10 largest VC-backed M&A deals of all time. After the .com crash, he shifted his sights to consumer internet and started one of the world’s first social networks, hi5.com, which grew to 60M MAU. Later in his career he followed the explosion of smart phones to found an app discover site that organically attracted 15M installs. 

     Yanush Cherkis

General Partner

Enjoy the Work

Yanush has had a few careers in various industries, but independent of his functional roles, the most important skill he mastered is the ability to ask good questions.

 He developed that skill over a 20 year career that has spanned banking, entrepreneurship, personal coaching and startup advising. He helped start 6 businesses, including co-founding a software company that they built from start-up to a profitable multi-million-dollar global operation to a successful M&A exit.

He has his CPA license, multiple academic degrees and a professional coaching certification but above all else my greatest passions are mentoring my fellow entrepreneurs and volunteering at my kids’ schools.

   David Cautin

General Partner

Enjoy the Work

Throughout his career, David led both early-stage, venture-backed startups and global private equity-backed corporations, He’s been motivated to build teams that find creative, often unexpected paths to success.

David’s journey has taken him from an executive at AOL in the early days of the consumer internet to the management team of two venture-backed startups that successfully exited. He then joined the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange as its first Chief Digital Officer.

Over the past 25+ years, He has bought or sold dozens of companies and raised close to $1B in debt and equity.