Funders are community members who believe deeply in our vision for the future of entrepreneurship and want to support women identifying entrepreneurs in a bigger way.
Some of our funders also create impact as mentors. If you’d like to learn more about becoming a funder, email us at hello@foundersfund.ca
"Those who have found success as entrepreneurs have an important obligation: pay it forward."
Sheena is a certified tea sommelier and the CEO and founder of Tease Tea. Sheena's passion to help other entrepreneurs find success is what led her to create the Tease Tea Founders Fund and give back to those starting their entrepreneurial journey.
Michael Perry is the Director of Kit at Shopify. In this role, he specializes in product development for entrepreneurs as it relates to tools that would simplify marketing.
He is the founder of Kit, the virtual employee app for small businesses, which was acquired by Shopify in 2016.
As an entrepreneur himself, Perry founded GVING, which helped small businesses manage, reward and engage consumers through a merchant CRM system.
Michael has been recognized as Forbes top 30 under 30 in Marketing and Inc Magazines top 10 influencers in the Chatbot space.
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Harley Finkelstein is a Canadian businessperson, entrepreneur and public speaker. He is best known as the Chief Operating Officer of Shopify. He is a board member of CBC, and an advisor to both OMERS Ventures and Felicis Ventures. He is also a Dragon on CBC Dragons' Den, Next Gen Den.
Adrian is a serial entrepreneur, advisor, investor, and best selling author of the book FREE PR
Rachel is the founder of the female coworking space, Make Lemonade.
Lindsay is a foodie, an entrepreneur, a wife, and mom of 2 little girls. A former child psychotherapist, Lindsay chose to follow her passion and contribute to her community by opening @sundaeschoolottawa , a local ice cream shop. She is also a food contributor on 580CFRA, a popular Ottawa radio show..
Golnaz is an educator, facilitator and entrepreneur. Golnaz is the Founder of Divity Group & Accelerate Her Future. Her areas of focus include leadership and team development, diversity and inclusion, and women in leadership.
Lisa is the founder of the Wellth Company
To ‘hustle with intention’ is at the center of Chivon John’s work as a Wellbeing Strategist, Speaker and Entrepreneur. In a world that encourages wearing our accomplishments and accolades as badges of honour, Chivon pulls back the curtain on what is revered as success (money, power and ‘likes’) to reveal a life of more meaning and purpose.
Recognized as a Top 100 Black Woman to Watch in Canada and Black Canadian Role Model, Chivon uses her own experiences and research rooted in positive psychology to teach individuals and organizations how to bridge the gap between achievement and fulfillment
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Karla Briones is a Mexican-Canadian serial entrepreneur with retail, food & beverage, franchise, online and consulting businesses.
Her passion is to help aspiring entrepreneurs - particularly immigrants - build sustainable and scalable businesses through her Karla Briones Consulting team and digital community.
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Sheri is Chief Lizard of Codezilla, an ed-tech company that teaches kids how to code. As a 2019 Founders Fund Finalist and mom of 2 girls, she is excited to help support female empowerment.
Manpreet has a deep passion for creating spaces for equal opportunities for women of culturally diverse backgrounds. Manpreet’s vision of the world is a place of unity and connection where individuals understand the similarities between who they are while celebrating their differences. She is furthering this mission as the Founder and CEO of Veza, which creates safe spaces and builds a deeper sense of belonging within organizations and communities through the lens of diversity and inclusion in a global market.
Manpreet has over 15 years of diversity and inclusion consulting, leadership coaching, human resources and community development expertise. Through Veza, she has worked with notable organizations globally including: UN affiliate: Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, UN Women, City of Vancouver, University of British Columbia, 7-Eleven, Terramera, as well as a host of tech and biotech companies, and non-profit organizations. Manpreet has designed and led workshops and trainings both in-person and online in the areas of diversity/inclusion, women in leadership, human resources and coaching. Further, Manpreet has held positions as a Board Member of the British Columbia Institute of Technology Alumni Board of Directors, past Board Member of Royal Roads University, and has served on various arts and health boards. Manpreet is a contributing author to Forbes, a twice contributing author to Chicken Soup for the Soul and a contributing author to the best selling Amazon book—365 Days to the Soul. Manpreet holds a Masters in Organizational Management and resides in Vancouver.
Marcie Murray joined Shopify in 2012 and in that time launched Shopify’s first global work-from-home team across Canada, Europe and New Zealand of over 2,00 people. She has since moved on from Support to join the Ecosystem as Director of Operations where she can continue to help build Shopify’s globally distributed and connected ecosystem of developers and agencies. Marcie has a homegrown spirit of entrepreneurship that developed early while helping her parents run their business. She worked as a wedding and event planner for 8 years prior to joining Shopify where she developed her deep appreciation for the moments that create memories, loyalty and stories - forever. It is through that lens of the business owner that Marcie relentlessly pursues a vision of care, inclusion and value for all merchants and partners, everywhere.
Invest in yourself. Pay it forward.
Become a Founders Fund member for access to funding, digital resources and IRL events.
