Erich is a former athlete whose background stretches from public sector PR all the way to fintech. He is a Next36 Alumnus with a passion for helping young entrepreneurs. Erich has a BComm in Law & Business from the Ted Rogers School of Management with a Bilingual Certificate in French.  

Boyd is the Co-founder & COO of Hop In. He attended James Madison University in the US on a full soccer scholarship and graduated with a BSc in Communications & a minor in French Studies. He has worked for Elections Canada and was previously the sales team lead with Incredible Novelties. Boyd is a member of the Black Professionals in Tech Network, the Brampton Board of Trade, the Northumberland Manufacturers Association, DMZ Black Innovation Fellowship, and is an advisor with Lupus Ontario.

Marko is the Co-Founder of LocalStudent, a platform that connects homeowners who need services done, with a student nearby. In the past year, Marko and his team of 5 have provided 220 students with work that finally meets their needs, enabling them to choose their own schedule, be their own boss, and earn far better pay than they would at standard minimum wage jobs. They have completed over 1400 jobs for hundreds of customers and are now starting to expand to major cities all across Canada.

What started out as a passion for covering conflict zones as a journalist, Matthew transitioned into election technology with a voters assistance application for the 2015 Canadian Federal Election. That experience led to Neuvote which has developed the worlds first hybrid mobile voting system which aims to utilize technology in new ways to solve real social challenges.

inField Solutions is driving Smart City solutions with practical products and services designed for all types of organizations with field resources to standardize how they work and maximize the visibility of their people, assets, vehicles, and equipment.

Leyton has helped globally over +24,000 clients including household names like Ubisoft, Bombardier, Airbus but also 50+% of Small and Mid-Size businesses. Curious and driven by his passion to catalyze innovation with more emphasis on startups/SMB space, Alex, alongside Leyton’s leadership, has helped grow the Toronto office from 3 to 35+ staff in 18 month. This was possible thanks to a unique value proposition around the SR&ED, enabling Leyton Toronto to be entrusted an average of 40 new clients per month.

As a Principal in Grant Thornton’s R&D and Government Incentives Practice, Naren assists tech startups in a number of areas relating to Government Funding and SR&ED tax credits including: determination of eligible expenditures, preparation of technical reports, review of documentation, incorporating best practices to maximize claim size, strategizing on how best to structure operations and handling potential CRA matters including audit defense.

Founder/CEO of Flyshot. Privacy-friendly mobile monetization solution. Previously a VC analyst, growth marketer at L'Oreal, and founder (exited).

A repeat founder with multiple successful exits, Joseph is the CEO & Founder of Uvaro, the fastest growing tech sales bootcamp in North America. He's the host of The Seller's Journey Podcast, an active angel investor, and sits on multiple boards.

Enso Connect is a home management software that leverages smart home devices and AI communication tools to automate every single step of the short term rental booking process. After having raised our pre-seed round during the pandemic, we've focused our efforts on our communication tools to help property managers lower their operational costs all while maintaining their inventory of homes, boutique hotels, and other vacation rental accommodations.

Travis Ratnam is the CEO and co-founder of Knowledgehook and a winner of BNN's Top Disruptors. He is an electrical engineering graduate from the University of Waterloo and a former program manager from Microsoft.  

Kitchener-Waterloo-based Knowledgehook, which has developed an artificial intelligence-based EdTech platform aimed to improve math education in school districts, has raised a $20 million Series A round of financing. The round was led by a London-based EdTech investment fund with participation from Mesoamerica’s Alexandria Corp., Nelson Education, Ideal Ventures, and Nicoya Ventures. This latest round of financing follows Knowledgehook’s seed round that included John Abele’s North Point Ventures.  

Knowledgehook is an Instructional Guidance System (IGS) designed to professionally develop the highly-skilled math teachers who are necessary to improve student achievement. Their proprietary technology can uncover insights about every student’s learning needs from assessment data and then recommend expert-designed teaching activities to guide each teacher.