Andrew Lockhead is a serial entrepreneur exploding with passion. When a new idea comes to him, he just can’t get it out of his head. So when Andrew and his co-founder Hamed came up with the idea for Stay22, they hit the ground running. Three years later, Stay22, a FounderFuel alumni, is re-shaping the way travelers book accommodation for events usi…

In 2006, Ian Jeffrey left Montreal to join the startup world in Silicon Valley. Three years later, his company “Tiny Pictures” was acquired by Shutterfly. The experiences he gained in San Francisco allowed him to reshape the startup landscape in the city he grew up in. Back in Montreal, he went on to become a venture partner at Real Ventures, co-fo…

Financial literacy and personal finance are topics that are widely covered today. Blogs, magazines, and books are quick to offer tips, tricks and lessons to improve your finances. Philip Barrar, however, realized that what Canadians really need is a tangible solution. He conceptualized Mylo, an app that rounds up your everyday purchases and invests…

Julien Smith has always been a forward thinker. He consistently adopted new technologies before the masses did and loved envisioning how they can create new business opportunities. In 2014 he set out to change the landscape of private workspace leveraging technology, one location at a time.

While solar energy is notoriously efficient, oddly enough the industry itself is actually quite inefficient. This is an issue Lennie Moreno picked up on pretty quickly working in the industry. His answer: Sofdesk. Sofdesk is a Montreal-based startup developing software platforms that allow roofers and solar installers to scale their business. Lenni…

Felipe Coimbra is a rare bread. He’s a serial entrepreneur who started a non-profit focused on helping Syrian refugees, got featured on Tech Crunch and has lived in 19+ cities throughout his life. Felipe’s latest startup is called Untask, an AI based intelligent task manager designed to help us organize and prioritize our busy lives.…

Eamonn O’Rourke made a significant observation in the construction industry that would change his life forever. The serial entrepreneur noticed the incredible man-hours wasted from contractors making material trips to the hardware store. Eamonn, who was born in Dublin, set out to build a platform that would make those material trips obsolete. Expan…

It’s fair to say Marc’s never been one to shy away from hard work or a challenge. In 2016, he left the landscaping company he helped build for a new, bigger challenge. His plan was to change the way landscapers and material vendors do business by building a double sided marketplace. The new startup was branded GoMaterials and while the growth is li…

At the age of 23, Maxime found himself unsure of his career path. Having spent the million dollars he had just won playing professional poker in Europe, ideas began to unravel on ways he can earn extra cash renting out space in his home as storage. Thus led the birth of Sharebee, a peer-to-peer platform for self storage. Today Sharebee’s platform o…

In part 2 of this 2 part mini-series, Montreal tech legend Hamnett Hill recounts how his business, as well as the city itself, emerged out of the dotcom crash in the early 2000s. Hamnett also discusses how they spun out their latest venture, Smooch to which he is now Chairman.

In 1996 Hamnett found himself in the heart of Montreal’s thriving tech scene. The Alberta native provides a first-hand look at how the tech boom impacted the city of Montreal and his role in it. Rises and falls, mergers and acquisitions, wins and losses highlight Hamnett’s fascinating and influential career in tech. *Hamnett was a finalist for entr…

Having travelled the world as a professional dancer, Ashley always knew she would have benefited from having a qualified mentor that had walked in her shoes before. Proper mentorship would have provided valuable insight and direction on her career and would have significantly reduced costly mistakes. No stranger to risk and hard work, Ashley and he…

It’s fair to say Chris Defour isn’t afraid to juggle multiple projects at once. At one point, he was operating 4 different companies at once all while winding down a competitive squash career. Fast forward a couple of years and Chris is laser-focused on tackling the issue of workforce management through an innovative and multi-functional SaaS platf…

In 2014, Phil Cutler set out on a mission to democratize education. He was tired of seeing less fortunate students fall behind because of a lack of access to resources. Less than five years later, Phil is running a fully-funded startup tackling that very problem. Phil goes into detail about his early experiences in education, launching his first co…