Mentors

• INcubes Mentor Mandate : Advise • Qualify • INspire

  

  From the Business Financial District of Canada, INcubes Mentor INtensives are INfamous. The Network’s reach is INternational and holds strong strategic connections in centers such as NYC, London, Tel Aviv, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco.

  INcubes Execs INoffice 

  Ben Zlotnick CEO • founder Ben brings a wealth of brick & mortar business knowledge to an industry of over-inflated valuations. His grooming of execs & building of early-business infrastructure, results in success. With a Business Degree from York, Ben built one of Toronto’s most successful Landscape & Construction Companies. Having launched several startups, he’s made the prestigious Profit100 Guide for 4 consecutive years. Having been on “both sides of the table” as founder & as an accredited angel investor, Ben brings connections to both INvestors & Startups.

  A. Traviss Corry Managing Director • co-founder Since the birth of internet commerce, Traviss has helped hundreds of internet business’ develop & raise venture capital, from Startup to acquisition, from seed to IPO, as well as having directed digital media campaigns as high level as a candidate for Prime Minister of Canada. With deep experience in Web, App, Software Development, Investor Relations, & a Swiss Business Degree, Traviss’ technical ability combines with competitive business instincts. He brings innovator’s advantage to the startups he mentors & guides, hand-on through INcubes curriculum to grad on Demo Day.

  Bryan Watson Director Strategic Partnerships • Connector INresidence Having worked with & advised hundreds of growth-oriented companies, Bryan brings one of Canada’s most extensive networks of investors, both Angel & VC, entrepreneurs & other stakeholders, such as government agencies to INcubes. He has served as Exec Dir of National Angel Capital Organization, & the National Angel Organization Ontario among many roles. Bryan is highly respected & for good reason, as he helps companies grow!

  Gerard Buckley Executive Mentor INresidence With 32 years in capital markets, Gerard is a thought leader in the Canadian Startup landscape as CEO of Jaguar Capital, Chair of Maple Leaf Angels (Canada’s largest Angel Investment Network), and for his work at INcubes. He provides INoffice Mentorship in Finance, Structuring, Governance & more to INcubes Startups who could not hope for a more sage advisor INresidence. Gerard’s passion for entrepreneurs, deep investor knowledge, & emphasis on due diligence, helps high-risk ventures prepare safely for accelerated growth & positioning for professional investment.

  INcubes Mentors INresidence

  David Wright is an active mentor in the GTA startup community. He makes extensive use of Lean Startup techniques while helping companies to develop their MVP & associated go-to-market strategies. He also provides pitch deck coaching & assists with the creation of customer facing messages. Dave has worked in the high tech space for over 30 years, including a 15 year sales & marketing career at Apple Canada, as well as leading Citrix Canada for 10 years as Area Vice-President.   .

  Peter LePiane is a Lean Startup and Agile Methods Coach. Peter performs an Agile Audit on INcubes Startups to ensure that their task management systems are lean, agile, iterative, and facilitate pivots. This is a vital acceleration step and helps INcubes Startups understand and report on their progress through the Startup Process, keep accurate records for investment and grant purposes, and guides proof points of traction to investors including product/market fit.

  Domenic Ali has a mantra; “Whatever it is you do today, do it better than yesterday.” Domenic is the Director of Quality Solutions & Web Publishing at T4G, where he is responsible for profitability growth & leadership of a team responsible for finding new ways to deliver value. His extensive Framework Design Experience, couples well in regular INcubes mentorship sessions, when his charismatic Presentation & Facilitation skills inspire founders to step their own up to a new level.

  Chris Hogg is a career entrepreneur who has worked in publishing, digital media, broadcasting, advertising, social media & marketing. Regarded as a social news & new media expert, Chris has a proven track record of innovating new technologies and building disruptive, high-growth digital businesses. As CEO of Digital Journal Inc he transitioned the company from a magazine publisher to become a diverse new media company. Chris Mentors INcubes startups on digital media, and strategy for growth.

  Jeff Davidson is a dynamic character & a very talented designer, who Mentors INcubes Startups on Art Direction, UX & UI design. He brings more to the table than just his keen eye & design skills, with a flair for coaching startups on their investor presentations & guiding their brands to higher level of sophistication from a place of an artist’s aesthetic, combined with a disciplined focus on the audience, user, & intuitive designs that produce drastic increases in conversion, user adoption, & brand recognition.

  Zev Zlotnick practices in corporate & commercial law with emphasis on acquisitions, financing & corporate structuring. He has had significant exposure to a wide variety of transactional work for both private and public companies. He acts on behalf of lending syndicates & corporate borrowers for primary, secondary, mezzanine & secured lending facilities. To INcubes Startups, having Zev as a resource puts them in a position of strength entering a negotiation, or any situation where protection and diligence are part of negotiation.

  Andrew D’Souza is COO at Top Hat, a mobile learning platform for the classroom. Andrew studied Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo & began his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company’s media practice. He has also worked with nonprofit organizations including Engineers Without Borders, the Khan Academy, Ashoka, TEDxSan Francisco and the Vancouver Olympics. Andrew frequently contributes articles on Mashable, VentureBeat, Business Insider, VC Journal & the Toronto Standard.

  Michael Hyatt is Executive Chairman & Co-Founder of BlueCat Networks & a recipient of the Top 40 Under 40 Award. BlueCat is a four-time winner of “Deloitte’s Fast 50″ & received Gartner’s highest “Strong Positive” rating. Michael also co-founded Dyadem, a highly successful software company that was acquired by IHS (NYSE: IHS). Michael is a weekly business commentator on CBC Newsworld. He’s a finalist in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award & an active in the charities: Kiva.org, OneProsper & Future Possibilities for Kids.

  Todd Charron is a Scrum Master & Agile Coach at Architect. He regularly speaks & mentors at prominent events & is known in the community for creating results using the methodologies of Agile, Lean, Kanban, and Open Agile. At INcubes, Todd bears down on startups, forcing them to validate risky assumptions & refine all hypothesis. He does this from a background of success in software & product development with over 10 years experience, having lead large teams, and bringing great results to many organizations, as well as inspiring many startups towards their ultimate products.

  Jason Cheong-Kee-You is an Agile Coach at Mighty Jupiter. He’s has a long list of experience as a software developer & team lead in different dev shops. He’s known for his work with Lean Startup Machine & Agile Coach Camp. He’s phenomenal at facilitating teams as they test their customer hypothesis, & refine their business models. Jason guides INcubes startups through an Agile Readiness Assessment as well as pushing them to Get Out Of The Building & use Lean Methodology to test their business models & their product in real-world situations.

   

   

  INcubes Mentor Network

  Kevin Shea is Chairman at Ontario Media Development Corporation. Kevin’s impressive executive career includes such past positions as COO at Can West Global Communications, & CEO at YTV Canada. Kevin can provide key input on high level business development for INcubes Startups such as laying the foundations for policy & other such aspects of corporate culture & structure often ignored by early Startup Founders. Kevin is known for his influence in media North America wide.

  Philip Poulidis is the founder of Morega Systems since 2007, raising $20M in funding & growing it to over 50 employees with Fortune 500 customers such as DIRECTTV. In 2011, Profit Magazine recognized Morega as the second fastest growing Canadian software company with a 2 year revenue growth of 7919%. Prior to Morega, Philip held senior level exec positions within the semiconductor, software, & telecom industries with nearly 20 years of high-tech experience.

  Mike Katz is a Venture Capitalist at Battery Ventures & is passionate about entrepreneurship. With a focus on digital media & internet applications, Mike is currently involved with HotelTonight, Kontagent, SumAll, & Viddy. Mike was also an Analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. in the Global Markets & Investment Banking division, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Project Enterprise, a microfinance nonprofit based in Harlem. He has a BS from Georgetown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

  Mark Evans is a strategic & tactical marketer for startups, as well as an award-winning technology journalist for publications such as the National Post, Globe & Mail & Bloomberg News, as well as Internet start-ups. Mark’s weekly Newsletter is a staple among Canadian Startups & Investors. In 2009, he was named one of Canada’s best technology bloggers by Computer World Canada. Mark writes several blogs, including Mark Evans Tech and Sysomos’ corporate blog, & a regular column for the Globe & Mail. Mark is a founding organizer of Mesh, Canada’s leading Web conference.

  Stewart McKeen is a duel Manager at FedDev (Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario), as Manager Of Innovation & Senior Policy Analyst in Commercialization of the Ontario Ministry of Research & Innovation (MEDI). He develops & implements programs to stimulate startup companies. He provides support for the Ontario Network Of Innovation (ONE). His past includes Economic Policy for the Ontario Ministry of Finance & more such impressive positions. Mr. McKeen holds the Amethyst Award, Ontario’s highest employee recognition for pioneering jobs & investment.

  Annie Pinet is Business Development Manager at Real Tech Inc. Annie has over 10 years of experience working in the TMT industry with a background in Marketing, focused on helping young to mid-size TMT companies grow. Annie has also been actively involved in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50™ program for several years and serves as a coach for companies participating in Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies program.

  Steve Eichenlaub is Sr. Dir, Intel Labs Strategic Growth, focused on helping incubate & bring to market breakthrough technologies & business’. Previously, he spent 14 years as a Managing Director in Intel Capital, managing a team driving Platform Technologies, Cleantech, & Healthcare investments worldwide. Prior; Steve worked at Adobe & a variety of roles spanning venture investing, M&A, business development, strategic & product marketing, sales, & IR. He holds a BS from UC Berkeley & an MBA from Harvard Business School..

  Laura Stavro-Beauchamp is the founder of the Creativity Campus & has spent the past 10 years between Canada and the UK working as a correspondent for the Financial Times Group & as a producer at BNN specializing in entrepreneurship, M&A, corporate credit & refinancing. Laura focuses onfostering creativity and innovation as part of the culture of a business.

  Lara Rouyresis the founder of Dealissime, a Member of Conseil National du Numérique & is an Angle Investor, sitting on multiple boards. Having started her career as an IP lawyer, her experience helps INcubes startups on many levels. Dealissime was acquired by LivingSocial, giving Lara the ability to mentor in areas of marketing, raising capital, business development, management, & law. She is also a highly valuable contact for any startup that wants to tap into the French ecosystem for a European product launch.

  Greg Twinny is COO & CFO of Kobo, which is on-track to be one of the largest eReading companies in the world. Greg is an ultimate resource for INcubes startups who are building success from scratch. Greg’s career is a history of startup success, creating companies that have seen acquisitions as high as $315M, with experience from Seed to IPO. He’s held senior positions in privately-held companies seeing revenues of $100M+ & is known for structuring corporate divisions & startups for profit.

  	Saul Colt is outstanding in North America as one of the best ‘word of mouth’ Marketers. Saul is Principal, Startup Innovations at Kinetic Cafe. Saul is known for ‘stunt marketing’ which in the startup space… can be extremely effective. You may also know his work with Freshbooks, or for launching Zipcar into the Canadian marketplace. He’s even played a corporate leadership role at Rodger’s Communications. Saul loves all people, especially women & is tired of people asking him to remove his shirt.			Ariel Remer is a Creative Professional & Entrepreneur. He is the cofounder of Pinbooster & Creative Director / Owner at Trifunk. Besides teaching Startup teams to become stars on Tumblr, or Pintrest, Ariel is the perfect INcubes Mentor to advise on creating stand-out branding & interface design. Ariel knows what’s going on, what’s coming, & how to bring a Startup’s forward face to life with whimsy, character, & intelligence.
  	David Brown is Strategic Partner Manager, TV and Film Content at Google. His impressive career has included, Corporate Development at RIM, being responsible for technology licensing, strategic investments & acquisitions. Dave is a wireless industry veteran of 8+ years. He has previously held Business Development positions with TELUS Communications & the mobile startup MyThum Interactive Inc. His passion is tech innovation & his INcubes Mentorship brings founder value from many viewpoints.			Scott Howard is passionate about emerging companies. He has worked both at & with Fortune500s & Startups, creating results driven relationships. Scott specializes in Business Development & Business Modeling for digital technology companies. At Coral CEA he helps build ecosystems to drive innovation & commercialization for digital tech platforms. Scott is a willing connector in the Toronto Startup & Tech community. The man loves Startups, & wants to learn about yours. He brings financing connections & valuable Mentorship to INcubes Founders.

  Sandy Scott has been working with start-ups and enterprises from Silicon Valley to Canada, involved in software, hardware, and cleantech businesses, in roles ranging from running marketing and sales to fund-raising to investing as a venture capitalist. He is currently at Tandem Expansion, Canada’s largest late-stage venture fund. Sandy has a strong background in financial analytics and understanding of technology capital markets. He advises INcubes Startups on all elements of technology including operations.

  April Dunford is a marketing executive specializing in bringing new solutions to market. April is the VP of Marketing for Huawei’s Global Enterprise Competency Center. She has held executive positions at startups including Janna Systems, Infobright, DataMirror & Watcom. She has also led marketing teams at large global companies including IBM & Siebel Systems. April is a frequent speaker on & writes an award-winning blog on product marketing for startups called RocketWatcher.

  Johnathon Vaughn Strebly mentors INcubes Startups on all areas of the applied arts & is driven to create positive results. As Principal & Creative Director epixStudios, he provides guidance to his team. He is a past president of CAPIC Vancouver & currently sits on the Society Of Graphic Designers Of Canada BC as VP Education Chair. He is a committee member for Creative Mornings Vancouver & is also an educator & advisor to local design institutions. Johnathon is an old school punk rocker turned design professional. The mohawk is no longer but he still fights for change… from the inside.

  Raj Grainger provides critique & Art Direction to INcubes Startups from a technical & traditional print marketing perspective. Raj is a digital media specialist who has directed & managed brands at a senior level. Raj is a hands on senior graphic designer, director, & project coordinator for Engineering Strategic Communications at the University Of Toronto. Having been active in the Fine Art commercial industry, IT, Academic Institutions, & having experience in Business to Business Focused Design, Raj’s insights & suggestions are very valuable for early phase Startups at INcubes.

  Paul DeMelo is CEO of Fourth Street Financial Corporation and a 25 year executive in the financial services sector. Paul has been CEO and COO of Canadian subsidiaries of major Global Banks, and most recently ran an $18 billion loan portfolio for a major Canadian bank. Fourth Street Financial Corporation is a company dedicated to providing strategic advice, capital raising strategies, coaching and ongoing executive support to early and mid-stage companies, as well as established corporations.

  Mike Betts is a recognized entrepreneur, technology executive and President of Castlegar Management.  Castlegar focuses on the development of early stage technology and digital media companies.  Mike is known for streamlining startups into efficient models & also positioning them to be ready for venture capital. As an executive coach, Mike brings a no-nonsense approach to real world skills that every founder needs.

  Jeremy Potvin is CEO & Co-Founder of Shifthub and Partner/Director at Style Democracy. Jeremy has an impressive history having launched and grown brands such as Paul Frank Industries in Canada. His advisement to INcubes Startups can cross from web to real-world from perspectives of revenue growth through strategic market penetration and expansion, as well as planning for operations. This experience is highly valued as a Mentor at INcubes.

  Shira Abel is CEO of Hunter & Bard, a turnkey marketing agency for startups, small companies, and intrapreneurs. She is a thought leader in Israel in the relationship marketing space and works with companies to build and implement smart marketing strategies that accomplish company goals. Ms. Abel speaks worldwide at conferences & universities. Her focus is to build the marketing into the product. She holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.

  Ashley Huffman Ashley is a technology & education evangelist. She advises at INcubes to help Startups create their PR & Marketing strategies as well as publicizing their progress during INcubation. Ashley started her career as a Senior Editor at Shanghai Daily. Her passion is helping Startups reach their potential. Her experience includes bootstrapping an educational software company in Silicon Valley. Ashley has helped companies become sensations across 5 continents & brings this value to the Startups of INcubes.

  George Marsland deals in Venture Capital, Private Equity & CSR Consulting. He holds degrees in both the legal & economic fields with an extensive background including working with Mulroney PMO, as well as a leading Toronto realtor, & as a Director of Corporate Citizenship Magna International. He is the president of Marsland Global Development & works in Business Development for Flashpoint. George is a strong character, who Mentors Startup Founders, from honing personal leadership skills to building corporate culture & ethics.

  Damien Steel is a Senior Associate at OMERS Ventures and is responsible for contributing to the identification & execution of investment opportunities in the Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) sectors. Prior to joining OMERS Ventures, Damien was a Vice President with EdgeStone Capital Partners’ venture capital funds, with a focus on evaluating & managing early stage information technology investments. Damien has over 10 years of experience working with growth companies.

  Peter Mutatat is a Certified Accountant. He helps emerging technology companies connect their vision to reality. Peter has almost two decades of experience advising companies. After spending 4 years in Silicon Valley (’99 to ’03), Peter came back to Toronto to advise early stage technology companies. His goal is to identify companies with extraordinary potential & help them grow to meet their goals. Past clients have included PlateSpin, Sentinelle Medical, Clarity Software and EcoSynthetix.

  Sunir Shah is CMO at Olark live chat. He is the Founder and Director of The Small Business Web, an association of nearly 200 companies working to make the Open Web the best place to build, find, & sell small business software online. Coming from a software development background, he has extensive experience in software, product, & business development. In his words, he helps INcubes Startups “Win markets through engineering.”

  Malgosia Green is gives valuable advisement to INcubes Startups around product development as well as strategies for growth. She is Chief Product Officer at Top Hat Monocle & formerly the Founder/CEO of Savvica/LearnHub.com, an education & career network that saw extraordinary success. Previously, Malgosia was the Director of Product Management at Affinity Labs; acquired after 14 months by Monster Worldwide (NYSE:MWW) for $61MM.

  Sean Duggan is VP, Partner & Practice Leader at HUB International HKMB. Sean advises INcubes startups in areas of product, investment, digital record risk mitigation & good practices around raising capital. Having an advisor with Sean’s impressive background of brokerage for insurance, and sustainability risk management, positions INcubes startups well in regards to in-depth due diligence when combined with INcubes internal process. Risk Management is vital during acceleration.

  Assaf Weisz is Co-Founder / Partner at Venture Deli, a firm that builds companies that matter to the world. He was co-founder / Executive Director of Young Social Entrepreneurs of Canada, helping it to grow to over 5500 members across the country. Assaf was named a 2011 Social Entrepreneurship Fellow by the Ariane de Rothschild Foundation & Cambridge University. He spoke at the G20 Youth Summit, & the Global Engineering Symposium. Assaf has lectured on social entrepreneurship at the Schulich School of Business.

  Chris Bodnar has been assisting clients across Canada with CRA’s SR&ED tax credit program for seven years. He has assisted clients in the high-tech sector who range from startup stages to mature corporations.  At PwC he provides advisory on finance & accounting. Chris is an MBA graduate of the Schulich School of Business & also holds a Bachelor of Commerce from University of Toronto, with a specialization in Economics & minor in History.

  Josh Sookman is the Founder & CEO at Guardly, a venture-backed startup that connects people to their trusted safety networks in case of emergency. Josh worked at the BlackBerry Partners Fund & RBC Venture Partners where he supported ten investment transactions. He co-curates the Toronto StartupDigest, helped plan TEDxToronto 2010 & has judged business competitions at Stanford & MIT.

  Tim Ryan is the founder / CEO of Vestiigo. He was a marketing professional with Bell Mobility & Medgate Inc, where he built marketing teams and was responsible for the implementation of online strategy & branding. A graduate of the University of Toronto’s Munk School for Global Affairs, he earned his undergraduate degree in International Relations & History. He received his Master’s degree in Business from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Grenoble in France.

  Ian Portsmouth is the Editor & Associate Publisher of PROFIT Magazine, Canada’s best-read publication for entrepreneurship. Ian has chronicled the experiences of Canada’s leading entrepreneurs & fastest growing companies. His INcubes Mentorship draws on this. He delivers practical & proven ideas for improving products, processes & profits. His guidance is perfect for creating responsibility for the bottom line.

  Jasmin Ganie-Hobbs is a Senior Lender at the Business Development Bank of Canada, working primarily with emerging technology, innovation, & knowledge based companies. She is one of the most successful lenders in BDC’s Entrepreneurship Centre. Much of her success lies in her astute judgment in determining the credibility of a business’ management team & their potential for future success. Jasmin has a Bachelor of Political Science degree & an MBA.

  Prerna Chandak is partner/founder at Lemonade Ventures & an analyst at Phillips, Hager & North/RBC Global Asset Management. An entrepreneur, social advocate, youth leader & analyst. Prerna advises on early stage capital & works to connect startups with angel & venture capital in Asia. In 2008, Prerna was honoured as one of Chatelaine Magazine’s 80 Amazing Women to Watch in Canada & is also a past recipient of the National Top 20 Under 20 award.

  Eugene A. Bomba is a Senior Manager in PwC’s Emerging Company Services practice. As a former startup CFO, he brings both technical and practical hands-on experience that focuses on accounting and finance-related issues that early stage/emerging tech companies face every day. He has experience with M&A, financing, controlling finance & operations, revenue contracts & dealing with unique transactions.

  Karim Kanji is a social innovator who connects people across various digital platforms. In late 2010 Karim helped create ThirdOcean which collaborates with companies helping them to utilize digital & social tools. He is also the cofounder of XConnect, a ThirdOcean project & boutique media property. He is a connector & plugged into the Toronto Startup scene. He’s known for sparking & managing interesting discussions, communities, & campaigns.

  Kris Krüg owns/operates Static Photography & is internationally recognized for his photography & also for the way he brilliantly integrates artful works into digital advocacy & real-world PR campaigns. With a massive, engaged following, he organizes PhotoCamps, PhotoWalks & speaks at conferences globally. Kris was President of Bryght, a very early and innovative ‘web 2.0′ start-up. He is a founding organizer of the Northern Voice Conference. His evangelism is infamous.

  Steven Roth has specialized in tax planning & accounting since 1976, He leads the Zeifmans tax team. He has authored extensively & has been an instructor/lecturer for the Ontario Bar Association & the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. His focus is on Canadian & international tax, corporate reorganization & tax minimization strategies. As a High Net Worth Individual Practice Director, he is in demand & to have his availability at INcubes as a Mentor is extremely valuable & appreciated.

  Yaron Koren is a key developer of the Semantic MediaWiki project. He founded & manages the MediaWiki consulting company WikiWorks, as well as the wiki farm Referata. Based in NYC, Yaron holds an undergraduate degree at MIT & grew up in Haifa, Israel, and then Amherst, MA, USA. His philosophies & expertise on open data & open source are valued for both altruistic & pragmatic reasons. These values motivate his career; influencing INcubes Startup Founders technically towards greater openness & collaborative practice & product.

  Grant Ritchie is the founder / CEO of Locationary. With an impressive history in various internet ventures, Grant has also practiced technology & corporate law focusing on advising corporations & individuals on a wide range of matters involving the Internet, hardware, software, & intellectual property. Grant gets out of bed every morning focused on solving some of the biggest problems in the information technology industry where the risk of failure is high, but the payoff is even higher.

  Renata Quintini is principal at Felicis Ventures. She was an institutional investor at Stanford Management, where she helped manage the endowment’s venture capital portfolio & build out its micro-VC exposure. Other work experience include JPMorgan’s Tech group in San Francisco and Skadden Arps in Palo Alto. She dabbled in start-up life when working in a Brazil-based social network, where she coordinated business, legal & fund-raising strategy. She holds an MBA and LL.M from Stanford University and law degree from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.

  Zel Artan works as an independent business consultant focused on investor relations & marketing for multiple software & event companies. In Toronto she is best known for her work around the non-profit society she founded, Seed To Feed, which promotes the preservation of heirloom plant seeds through children’s education. She is a non-stop powerhouse of a connector & a prolific networker. She brings the right people together to build success.

  Jeff Grammar is one of the most successful VCs in Canada. He’s had several exits as an entrepreneur and been involved in a few IPOs as well. Jeff is a Partner at Rho Canada and has nearly 28 years of operational and venture experience. As a Startup Founder, Jeff is a very good guy to know. His network and depth of knowledge and judgment is available to the Startup Founders at INcubes through his sage advisement and Mentorship.

  Cher Jones is by-day a PR & Communications Professional for the City of Toronto. She spends the rest of her time as an entrepreneur providing consulting services. If that wasn’t enough you can also see her as an on-air personality for CBC & Rogers TV. Cher loves tech. She’s always connected on social media, testing new mobile apps, & up-to-date on the latest innovations. As an INcubes Mentor she coaches Startup Founders for on-camera, public speaking, & sincere connection making.

  Scott Pelton has been a venture capitalist since July 2000. It was an interesting time to start a career in technology investing and Scott can confirm that both astronauts and VCs are expensive to train. Scott joined Round13 Capital after six years with GrowthWorks Capital. Prior to GrowthWorks, Scott was a founding partner at Scotiabank’s e-commerce VC group, e-Scotia Acquisition, later renamed Scotiabank Private Equity Investments. Scott’s background in computer engineering really adds a cutting edge to his mentorship of Startup founders at INcubes.

  Dave Senior is a partner & co-founder of Burstn, a mobile photo-sharing network & a partner at Playground Inc; a user experience design studio. Over the last 5 years, Dave has worked with up & coming startups & incubator programs to help grow, educate & foster the startup community in Toronto. His knowledge of startup financing, product design & management help him steer Playground’s internal projects as well, provide early stage product guidance to new startups.

  Ted Starkman is President of The Shopping Channel. His leadership has a success story that doubled annual sales in excess of $325M, with over over 1M unique online visitors per month. Ted is a member of the Board Of Directors of the Retail Council of Canada, & is a past Board Member of Canadian Marketing Assoc.; past Chair CMA/Marketing Magazine’s Digital Marketing Conference, past Chair Retail Council of Canada’s STORE conference. A lawyer by training, he’s known as a retail INnovator, & frequently acts on panels & speaks at various industry conferences.

  Tomio Geron reports on tech for Forbes Magazine. He covers internet startups, tech trends, the social web, networking, the consumer internet, & venture capital. His previous experience is impressive at Dow Jones Venture Wire, Red Herring, and Long Beach Press Telegram. He speaks from an educated viewpoint as he once was a web application developer himself. Based in San Francisco he can be a great benefit to INcubes Startups from not only a Mentorship stance but also as a highly informed channel internationally. Tomio is at the apex, positioned for startup advisement on tech business trends.

  Shahab Khan is an experienced IT Strategy Consultant. Shahab is socially active in arenas of innovation & entrepreneurship through CANARIE, Newbridge Networks, Bell Canada & at Innovapost as well as being a key driver of Bell Canada’s Innovation Centre program. He consults private & public venture capital firms for proposal analysis & prospective investment opportunities; a boon to INcubes Startups crafting their INvestor Proposals.

  Martin Bueno is the founding partner at Quorumm Digital Ventures & is a Venture Capitalist & Angel Investor. His focus is on building businesses in the high-growth Digital Marketing Sector, with over $500M under management. He is also Chairman of the Digital Venture Capital Association. As a Mentor for INcubes Startups he brings incalculable value in the areas of Bootstrapping to Venture Fund-raising & is a sought after Board Member with expertise in Advertising, Consumer Internet & Digital Media.

  Jeff Musson is an experienced IT Executive who lives in airports. He holds over 10 years experience as a successful entrepreneur, as President of Dynamite Network & co-founder of Maple Leaf Digital Lounge at the well known SXSW (South by Southwest, interactive conference in Austin Texas). Jeff is plugged into hardware & software; well versed in the language of corporate globalization & a master of diversifying & controlling costs; so vital to INcubes Startups. His Mentorship gives Startup founders the vision & tools for growth.

  Nicholas Carlson is Deputy Editor of Business Insider, which means he’s a reporter, writer, pundit, & manager. He manages of a large editorial team at this respected publication. His ground-breaking investigative reporting has re-written the histories of Facebook, Twitter, and the infamous Groupon. As a contributor to Bloomberg TV’s biography series Game Changers & a frequent guest on CNBC, Nicholas knows what’s happening in tech business & speaks as an influential voice in the space; a value on many levels to INcubes Startups.

  Daniel Brody has over 20 years of accomplished business builder diverse tech industries with a history of successful product launches. Daniel is an innovator who leads system development initiatives that improve operational efficiency & contribute to market expansion. Daniel is founder & President of iHorse Technologies Group, an onshore/offshore outsourcing solutions company. His value to INcubes Startups comes from real world experience & connections. He’s a respected Mentor, being active in Canadian Business Incubation & it’s community.

  Alon Blankstein says, “The road to success is always under construction.” As Managing Partner at Partners500 he brings this sort of philosophy to INcubes Startups along with broad experience in fund-raising, marketing, business strategy, & management. As a Financial and Biz Dev Exec he’s worked in IT infrastructure, life sciences, real estate, & heavily in early stage tech based ventures. Alon has co-founded, invested & been on the advisory board of several Israeli based tech ventures including, Foamix, CapsuLINT, & EarlySense to name just a few.

  Nicolas El Baze holds multiple Board positions in an impressive array of internet & tech startups. He’s a General Partner in Partech International, a leading global venture capital firm with offices in the U.S., Paris & Israel, with a motto that “Technology is global. Venture capital must be global.” Their successful companies include: Ascend Communications, Alvarion, Business Objects, Cadence, CSG Systems, Digital Island, Informatica, Pentasafe, VeriFone and Vignette. As a Mentor Nicolas is respected for his understanding and vision.

  Ben Pickering is CEO of Strutta, a leading platform for social media marketing and promotions. He has held roles at Yahoo! encompassing business development, product strategy and operations. Ben’s career began providing advisory services to PwC’s global high tech client base on their M&A activities. He moved into business development & marketing, before earning an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. As an INcubes Mentor he has given great value in advisement of technical due diligence in preparing startups for investment, & more.

  Simon Brightman is Co-Author of the Financial Post Product Innovation series. He is a recognized SaaS & eCommerce product innovator with over 13 years experience; from early conception through development, to launch & ongoing growth. Simon is experienced in rapid validation of product. His focus is on delivering measurable results by motivating & inspiring teams through clear, confident vision & tireless support.

  Adam Sadowski has worked in digital media for over 15 years. Most recently, he was President and founder of Domainer Inc. / OPENapps; a content & application marketplace for developers & web site owners. He now consults on product development as well as training companies in new technologies to make them lean & efficient. Adam has an MBA from Rotman. In his spare time he likes to hack gadgets & get them to do things they are not supposed to do!

  Matija Krunic mentors INcubes Startups with a focus on the front-end web fundamentals of SEO, indexing, meta data, pay per click campaigns & other vitals that are often overlooked by application architects. Mat brings INcubes Startups back to web basics with a focus on strategy, which can prove a great unexpected value to technologists who have found themselves divorced from these important web”site” skills.

  Andrew Schmied coaches INcubes startups in preparation for entering new markets, & preparing to be the “disrupter” in that space. His background of VP level experience & Advisory Board roles, makes him able to advise from a place of tested experience & his strategy sessions have seen significant effect at INcubes in helping Startups achieve growth & funding goals.

  Brian Pullen is a co-founder & CEO of Playground. He brings vision & strategy to the company & its products, leads partnerships, new business & plays an active role in user experience & project management. Brian’s passion centres around emerging technologies & ideas in game theory & start-up culture. Brian can often be found sporting a rather large beard.

  Richard Lee  is a leader of the Technology, Media & Telecom practice in Canada, with over 20 years experience of consulting to the telecom industry. Richard specializes in building senior management teams on the development & implementation of practical, growth-oriented, customer-facing business strategies. He is frequently called on by the media to comment on trends in customer strategy & as a Mentor to a Startup is an extraordinary value in all such matters.

  Carol Zara in her own words is a geeky socialite / actress / comic book creator, into startups. She’s an master of online PR & hands-on social media coaching, & community management strategy. You might’ve seen her on G4, MTV Brazil, Playboy or Epic Meal Time! She’s a Social Media Strategist at Engagement Labs where she generates buzz online for various campaigns, monitors their metrics, & creates reports for clients such as Universal Pictures, Big Brother Canada, Coors Light, Pizza Pizza, Durex, The CW Network, & Kokanee. Carol has real understanding of what will work for startups for their in-app sharing strategies & more.

  Mark Fasken leads the Toronto office of Third Core Venture Expansion Partners, working with Toronto based startups to design and execute strategic sales plans. Prior to joining Third Core, Mark worked with Blackstone Energy as a member of their Solar Investment Fund, as well as developing and growing an arm of the business devoted to sustainable housing. Marks intense focus on execution and sales strategy is a vital part of the continued acceleration of INcubes Startups.

  Lyndon Johnson is CEO of startup PR and marketing services company THINK DIFFERENT[LY]. He mentors INcubes’ Startup Founders how to use the right PR to deliver the right message to the right audience. Lyndon believes that PR is an essential part of developing the personal brand of Startup founders & the corporate image an early stage company. Lyndon encourages INcubes startup founders to think differently about every aspect of their communications activity. Lyndon is a broadcaster-turned-PR with more than 15 years experience helping businesses to achieve their commercial goals.

  Kerry Morrison has worked for advertising agencies, startups, telcos, media conglomerates, dot-coms & one of the worlds largest consulting companies. For the past 9 yrs he ran a consulting company called Reason Intelligent Design. Kerry has led the development of creative projects for a number of agencies (including TBWA, Cossette, Rethink, DDB, Blast Radius, MacLaren McCann & Wasserman Partners) & clients such as HSBC, Electronic Arts, BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, Concord Pacific, Earl’s, SFU, US Department of Health, & the World Junior Hockey Championship.

  Mark Ruddock is a serial entrepreneur with two successful exits & over 15 years experience at the helm of VC backed tech startups. Mark is CEO of Wonga. Prior to that Mark was CEO of Viigo which, under his leadership raised funding, won numerous awards & made PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice & Most Promising New Company Of The Year, as well as Wireless Leader Award from RIM. Mark is an avenue to many strategic partners in many of the world’s financial institutions. For INcubes startups, all this comes to bear, as well as his experience in leading a company through acquisition.

  Jeff Marsden Jeff has been an advocate for & advisor to the Wealth Management industry in North America since 1995. Prior to joining Accretive, he was the co-founder / VP of PriceMetrix Inc., provider of leading scalable practice management solutions for Financial Advisors in North America. Jeff also served in the past as Senior Consultant at The Taddingstone Consulting Group, a boutique strategic management consulting firm specializing in the Wealth Management Industry. There he led numerous projects covering investments distribution, investment manufacturing, growth strategy & organizational design..

  Ian Gilbert is CEO of Third Core Venture Expansion Partners, a group that works with startups to create and execute the most effective sales approaches, to fulfill growth or acquisition aspirations and to take the right steps towards revenue creation and sustainment. Ian has worked with executive teams worldwide, implementing business transformation and professional development initiatives for companies like TELUS, HP, Bell Canada, CGI, Ericsson and Tandberg.