Meet Our Advisor Committee

Our advisors are a group of highly experienced entreprenuers offer us guidance and support for the direction of the Founders Fund community in all areas of business from development, events, diversity & inclusion and more.

Vivian Kaye (she/her), CEO & Founder, Kinky Curly Yaki

Get to Know Vivian

Vivian Kaye is the Founder & CEO of KinkyCurlyYaki, a premium textured hair extension brand for Black women that she bootstrapped to over $6 million in revenue as an immigrant, college dropout and single mom.

 

Her presence and genuine desire to continuously learn and grow while keeping it REAL quickly made her a personality who transcended the title of Founder and CEO.

 

Ultimately, she organically grew her personal platform by exchanging tips and tricks that she learned on her personal entrepreneurial journey.

 

As a self proclaimed Gary Vee meets Oprah remix, Vivian acts a the bridge between big and small business. is a business and empowerment expert, as well as a TV, radio and podcast personality. Through her magnetic energy, Vivian empowers, uplifts and educates her audience into taking action.

 

Along with her philanthropic efforts through mentorship, she has worked with many notable brands such as Shopify, Porsche Canada, Uniliever, LG, RBC, Fairmont Hotels, BMO, American Express Canada and Rogers Media, to name a few.

Get to Know Jace

Jace is a Mètis mother, teacher, artist, an entrepreneur currently living on unceded Algonquin territory.

She’s cultivated an expertise in the co-creation of culturally relevant, place-based STEM and adult education. Her teaching has reached 1.25 Million Canadian youth from coast to coast to coast.

After designing and developing Shopify's Research and Development onboarding program, RnD Camp, Jace is now the Shopify Lead for Indigenous entrepreneurs globally.

As a sidehustle, Jace is a public speaker, consults with youth-serving organizations on inclusion, and is a BMW World Responsible Leader.

Get to Know Manpreet

Manpreet Dhillon is the founder and ceo of veza, an organization that aims to elevate women and increase workplace diversity.

Marc LaFleur (he/him), CEO & Co founder, truLOCAL

Get to Know Marc

to come

Get to Know Karla

Karla Briones is a business strategist that coaches new immigrants, BIPOC and underrepresented business owners on becoming successful entrepreneurs with scalable ventures.

She is the founder of Immigrants Developing Entrepreneurs Academy (IDEA) – an online platform designed to educate and connect newcomers to the Canadian business ecosystem.

She’s a Nation’s Capital Immigrant Entrepreneur of the Year award recipient and a TEDx Speaker on the topic of immigrant entrepreneurship.

Karla is a small business columnist for the Ottawa Citizen and serves on the board of directors for the Ottawa Markets and the Ottawa Board of Trade, as well as volunteering as a business mentor for Futurpreneur Canada and other local entrepreneurship community groups.

Karla owns Global Pet Foods Kanata & Hintonburg and Freshii Westboro.

Gregory Macdonald (he/him), CEO & Founder, Bathorium

Get to Know Gregory

Taking a bath to some may be a nightmare, to others it may just be a daily routine- but for Greg Macdonald, it is a way of life. After spending years and countless dollars on mediocre bath products, Greg founded Bathorium in 2014 and set out to create premium bath soaks that not only give a unique experience for the bather but also a product that the user can benefit from both physically and mentally. Today, Bathorium is a leader in the green beauty bath space and can be found at over 500 locations across North America and online.