Raphaël is Co-Founder of Front Row Ventures, Canada’s first student-led venture capital fund. He’s a product geek that is first and foremost passionate about creating outstanding technologies that enhance people’s lives, especially consumer-centric ones.

Coming from a jack-of-all-trades-entrepreneurial background combined with a software engineering undergrad, he has always been an entrepreneur. As a teenager, he went from owning a car garage to a window-cleaning business to a tech startup. Motivated and inspired by entrepreneurship, he has been involved in organizing numerous events including Startup Weekends, and countless hackathons and educational events.

Prior to FRV, he spent two years working as a Product Manager and developing Volume7, a digital product agency that partners with forward-thinking startups and companies. He’s now also working on the early-stage team at Real Ventures, Canada’s most active seed venture capital fund. The firm invests throughout the life-cycle of early-stage companies and provides stage-appropriate capital and support for the founders it backs.
When he’s not working on building startups or the tech ecosystem, Raph can be found skiing, snowboarding or coding his newest product idea.

With a bachelor in accounting, Éléonore contemplated a career in corporate finance. Her summer studying tech entrepreneurship at Stanford made her choose a totally different path: venture capital.

She joined Pléiade Capital, a VC student club, and started a Master’s in Financial Accounting. Her combined efforts paid off, Brightspark Ventures poaching her from EY less than a year later.

Helping out rising entrepreneurs, our VC brain is also dedicated to women in tech with Technovation Montreal.

Studying International Studies, Nicolas always seeks to empower communities here and abroad.

Responsible of business development at La Gare last year, he discovered Montreal’s dynamic startup community and its undeniable impact on the metropolis.

Front Row Ventures’ poet and community builder now dreams of helping Sub-Saharan African communities build their own ecosystems as a viable solution to current failing models of development.

Matt is the Director of Investments of Quebec, and a senior at McGill University where he is pursuing a degree in Microbiology & Immunology and Computer Science. He’s passionate about people, both in finding the best founders in startups and in building the strongest team at Front Row.

Prior to FRV, he co-founded and led Blockchain at McGill, a non-profit of 30 students that brought blockchain education and research to McGill. He worked as FounderFuel’s first Business Development Associate, where he worked closely with early-stage startups to solve problems and accelerate growth.

Don’t be shy to reach out, coffee chats are always welcome!

Michaela is a third-year undergraduate student at McGill University, pursuing a double major in Economics and Computer Science. Working in the corporate finance industry over the past few summers, she has gained experience in asset management and business development in Europe, in particular sales forecasts, performance analytics, and strategic planning.

As Program Coordinator at the McGill Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship for the past two years, Michaela has worked directly with 55+ startups across different fields from DeepTech to social innovation. She is among the team mentors for Innovation Driven (IDE) and Small to Medium Enterprises (SME) for the McGill Dobson Cup 2020 and Lean Startup Program 2019.

Prior to joining Front Row Ventures, Michaela worked at the intersection of technological innovation and social finance. She has previous experience in project development as the McGill Chapter President for Enactus Canada, one of the largest incubators for student-initiated projects and startups worldwide.

Maanav Sunderaraman is a 3rd-year student at McGill University pursuing a double major in Economics and Computer Science. He caught the startup bug early in high school when he worked for an entrepreneurship-focused non-profit and proceeded to win the World Series of Innovation. From there, he dove headfirst into the Montreal startup-ecosystem. Maanav is currently building his own startup, Field AI, where he licenses proprietary datasets to AI startups. Prior to joining FRV, Maanav split his time between Montreal startups, non-profit groups, and student organizations at McGill University. He gained a diverse set of skills through his product management and business development roles at startups. He’s also worked as a research intern for a scientific think tank, and as the Director of Research for an educational non-profit. Outside of hackathons and startup events, you can find Maanav enjoying trivia, exploring new restaurants, or listening to the latest Kanye album

Niv Turecki is a 3rd-year student at the John Molson School of Business. He began at Front Row Ventures running partnerships for the community team, before transferring to the investment team. A long time cynic of large organizations, Niv wanted to join FRV to help create a genuine movement. He sees himself as a builder wanting to help organizations with forward-thinking values.

Bosko is a 3rd-year economics major at McGill University. He has experience in corporate development, economic research, and strategy consulting, and has worked in industries ranging from manufacturing to telecommunications. Outside of Front Row Ventures, he is involved in health economics research at McGill University. He is interested in topics at the intersection of technology, economics, and healthcare.

Dennis is currently on the Investment Team at Front Row Ventures and is also a Partnerships Intern at Mila – Quebec AI Institute.
Dennis has held intern positions in AI Strategy at Deloitte Omnia, and in Small and Medium Enterprise Financing at the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), where he discovered his passion for advising and helping entrepreneurs.
Dennis is an avid traveler and is always glad to swap travel stories over a glass of soju (a taste he developed while on exchange in Asia).
Dennis strongly believes in the potential of start-ups in solving complex social problems through innovation and entrepreneurship and is always keen to meet inspiring entrepreneurs.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to him!

Elisha is a master of neuroscience student at McGill University, and Front Row Venture’s resident biomedical expert. He has received gold medals in provincial, national, and international science competitions. He has conducted research in prestigious world-class laboratories such as the Krembil Research Institute, Queen’s and McGill University, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). One highlight of his research experience was conducting an experiment testing changes in DNA Polymerase function in zero gravity aboard the National Research Council’s Dassault Falcon 20 jet. He gained first-hand start-up experience when he developed and patented a hormone biosensor.

Etienne is currently in his fourth year at McGill studying history and political science. As part of the community team, Etienne is excited to help construct a robust and diverse community of like-minded student entrepreneurs. In addition, he hopes to promulgate the potential and creativity of student entrepreneurs to formulate solutions to address today’s complex issues by leveraging technology.

Aside from his daily routine of readings, Etienne goes hiking and exploring the field of intellectual property by more reading. At some point, he hopes to cross one of his items in his bucket list, to complete the Camino de Santiago.

Ambitious young professional, Kevin has a computer science background. During his bachelor’s, he established his first commercial mission to Germany with the help of the MCUL for the startup Vrvana, now acquired by Apple.

He then began his MBA in Electronic Business at Laval University. He pursued studies at recognized universities in Taiwan, Norway, China, Germany and Mexico where he took courses given by recognized entrepreneurs, CEO, and strategists.

He also began his participation in numerous strategy case competitions and decided to continue his studies by starting a second MBA in Global Business. He took the opportunity to win several titles in strategic case competition across the globe and participated in the World Economic Forum in 2018.

Kevin was selected to be one of the 100 students invited to the MBA World Summit 2018 in Cape Town. He is now the Vice-Curator of the Global Shapers Quebec City hubs.

Maher is a senior at McGill University and is pursuing Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Finance. He loves learning about advances in engineering and dreaming about future tech. He has a keen interest in investments of all kinds.

Philippe is a 2nd-year Finance student at McGill University, with a minor in computer science. He is deeply interested in learning about what makes founders tick and how they use technology to solve the world’s most challenging problems.

Philippe had his first run as an entrepreneur when he founded his food services Business, Miller’s Munchies. Philippe’s more recent experience working at an up and coming MedTech Startup confirmed that he wanted to commit himself to help entrepreneurs develop innovative and disruptive companies.

When Philippe is not busy studying or working at FRV, he can be found enjoying the outdoors. Philippe welcomes any outdoor adventure! Some of his past challenges include a 42-day canoe trip and competing with a team in the Canadian Death Race to raise money for charity.

Théo is part of the Investment Team at Front Row Ventures in Montreal.

With an Embedded system engineering background, he is finishing his academic training with a Master in Management of Innovation at École de Technologie Supérieure of Montreal.

Open to various technologies, he studied Integrated Circuit Design in the Engineering Faculty of Lund in Sweden and have a deep understanding of the Artificial Intelligence’s potential and challenges with working experience in human displacement prediction in the French Start-up Innoside.

Inspired by the power of ideas and the benefit of innovation at all levels of society, he invests his energy and his time to today’s entrepreneurs who will support the sustainable development of tomorrow’s word.

Victor is part of the investment team and a 3rd-year Mechanical Engineering Student at Concordia. He has always been passionate about entrepreneurship impacting every choice that he makes! Prior to Front Row, Victor led a team at the 2018 ActInSpace hackathon all the way to the international finals in France as the official Canadian team. With this experience, he got to work with the Canadian Government, the Canadian and French space agencies as well as District3. He also worked at Defnitechs, a startup developing a new generation of drones to autonomously inspect radio towers. He was in charge of one of their MVPs and fully developed a robot. \

He is also a McGill alumnus!

Feel free to reach out!

Renaud is part of the Front Row Ventures investment team. He is currently pursuing his bachelor’s degree in Robotics Engineering at the University of Sherbrooke in his third year. Over the past few years, he has acquired a variety of experiences in biomedical engineering, autonomous navigation and startups during several internships and extracurricular involvement. His ambition is to contribute to the development of new technologies that will allow humans to improve their quality of life and accomplish extraordinary projects. He joined Front Row Ventures to propel innovative projects that have the potential to change the world.

Cam is currently completing his MSc in Applied Computing at the University of Toronto, is a strategy analyst at Georgian Partners in Toronto, and holds a BSc in Biochemistry from McMaster University and an HBA from the Ivey Business School at Western University.

Prior to joining FRV, he worked as an investment banking analyst and venture manager covering the digital health and biotechnology spaces. Cameron has worked in a variety of technical roles in fields ranging from cancer therapeutics R&D to medical device commercialisation.

Ian is a 3rd year computer science student at Ryerson University with several years of startup experience under his belt.

His first exposure to the tech industry came when he joined Joist, first in a sales position, then later in an IT role. Ian found mentors to foster his passion for programming, and later joined Tread, a construction technology company, as an early team member.

On his own time, Ian has been a software consultant on several projects, launched a mobile game, and has worked as an actor on several network television shows and independent films.

Jason is currently completing his undergraduate degree at the Ivey Business School. With the goals of creating his own edtech venture focused on mobilizing First Nations education in the future, he has held various roles in technology, finance, and start-ups, and currently sits on the Advisory Committee for Waterfront Toronto.

Prior to joining FRV, Jason worked at the trading desks at CIBC World Markets’ fintech arm, kicked-off Brightspark Ventures’ Platform strategy, established NEXT Canada’s health/biotech accelerator program (now, the CAN Health Network), and worked with the finance team of two at League in 2017.

Since finishing his two undergraduate degrees from Queen’s University in 2015, Alex has worked in investment banking at the Bank of Montreal, helped Amazon-backed ecobee raise their $100 million+ Series C, completed a Fellowship at the MaRS Discovery District, and is currently a Principal at Fulcrum Technology Holdings, an emerging technologies-focused merchant bank. At Fulcrum, he specializes in mergers & acquisitions, fundraising, and strategy, particularly for AI- and IoT-enabled investee companies.

He is currently enrolled in the Master of Management in Artificial Intelligence program at Queen’s, sponsored by the Vector Institute. Outside of his coursework and day job, he also leads Business Development at the Queen’s University Alternative Assets Fund which manages a part of the university’s endowment.

Hussain is an investment associate at FRV, the founder of Aion HQ, a hacker house/talent incubator in Waterloo and a Kairos Fellow.

As a former startup operator, he is an active advisor to many student-led tech ventures in the Ontario innovation ecosystem. He is also an active hackathon mentor and enjoys teaching and running workshops.

Outside of work, Hussain enjoys talking about data privacy and policy. Hussain is doing his undergrad at UofT in Computer Science, Mathematics and Philosophy.

Ian is currently finishing his undergraduate degree in Business with a concentration in Finance at Wilfrid Laurier University. He first became interested in Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital when traveling to Israel in the summer of 2017. Ian’s past experiences include assisting clients with their marketing practices at a boutique management consulting firm and helping Waterloo-based startups grow their businesses with the Laurier Consulting Club.

At Front Row Ventures, Ian wants to help student entrepreneurs pursue their passions and make an impact on their local and global communities. He is most passionate about businesses in the medical diagnostic and FinTech spaces.

James is a Computer Engineering student at the University of Waterloo. He worked on products at Top Hat, Human Capital (formerly Nav Talent), and SAP. James previously led the largest student run technology, Canadian Undergraduate Technology Conference (CUTC). Leading a team of 25+ students from across the country, a $1xx,xxx budget, and over 300 attendees. James most recently took a semester off to focus on writing and reading. He writes everyday on his blog.

Jonathan is enrolled in the Science and Business co-op program at the University of Waterloo, specializing in Biochemistry. He has completed co-op terms as a Business Analyst at BMO and Consultant at CIBC and has an upcoming position on the Risk Advisory team at EY. His passion for entrepreneurship started when he assumed the role of President of the Enactus Waterloo chapter. He aims to shift capital in the hands of ambitious entrepreneurs that have a focus on improving the world. Jonathan is most passionate about sustainable energy sources, youth empowerment and education.

Aside from academics and extra-curriculars, Jonathan enjoys playing sports (specifically basketball), reading and chess. Having studied abroad for a term in Singapore, Jonathan loves connecting with diverse individuals with different mindsets. He documents these conversations on his podcast titled “Broaden Your Perspective”.

Laura is a 21-year-old engineering student finishing up her fourth year of Electrical Engineering at Queen’s University with a specialisation in Biomedical engineering. She is passionate about giving students the opportunity and support to pursue new ventures and is particularly excited about looking for new ventures in medical technology and development.

Since May of 2018, Laura has been a student researcher at the Perk Lab on Queen’s campus where she has been closely involved in the development of data collection automation and machine learning projects. Laura is excited to bring her unique technical perspective to the FRV team and is looking forward to learning more about the business development side of venture capital.

Liat is a fourth year student in the Queen’s Commerce program. Throughout high school she founded five different startups through various incubator programs, some of which have been featured on national news sites and catered to Fortune 500 customers. At Queen’s, Liat has been involved with the QUIC – a 30-person counsel with $1.4M AUM – and QTMA – a tech-focused product development and incubator program.

Work-wise, Liat spent her 2017 summer as the first Analyst Intern at iNovia Capital – a full-stack Montreal-based VC with $900M across three funds. Last summer, she was selected as one of 15 Canadian students to receive sponsorship for a work term in Asia through the SF-based Cansbridge Fellowship. After months of recruiting, she was hired as the first international intern at Grab – Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing giant and most successful startup ($10B valuation) – working on the company’s post-Uber acquisition strategy. This summer, Liat served as an Associate Consultant Intern at Bain. In her free time, Liat enjoys making dumplings, doing layout for Muse Magazine, and attending funk/r&b/techno concerts.

Having lived in Singapore for 6 years, Naz brings a fresh perspective to the FRV team from her diverse experiences living in South East Asia. Having now completed her second year studying Commerce at Queen’s University, Naz is the youngest member on the Front Row team with a passion for learning and a growing interest in VC.

Last summer she worked as an associate with Trend Forward Capital, an American tech venture capital company in New York City. Having worked with Trend Forward at Las Vegas’ notorious Consumer Electronics Show in 2019, Naz has had experience working and meeting with various entrepreneurs and helping host the TFC Investment Pitch-Off Competition. Moreover, having worked with cybersecurity company Trend Micro, she also has experience with machine learning and IoT advances in this space.

With a long-running background in athletics, both playing and coaching soccer as well as powerlifting, Naz has a profound interest in bio-tech and sports technologies. Having also been a frosh representative for Queen’s Social Investment Initiative, the first university-based impact investing organization in Canada, Naz is interested in technology that attacks pressing developmental issues and provides social benefits for global sustainability.

Nicolas is a fourth-year student at Western University currently enrolled both in the HBA and MSc in Digital Management programs at the Ivey Business School. Named three times Academic All-Canadian, Nic is passionate about early stage ventures and their disruptive potential. Leveraging his experience working at Round13 Capital and Fidelity Investments, he is highly motivated about working with ambitious entrepreneurs challenging the status quo. He is fascinated by the growing Canadian tech scene in general but is most interested by the fintech space and AI.
 
When he is not working on FRV, Nic spends most of his time on the football field as the Team Captain of Western’s Varsity Football Team and a 2021 CFL Draft prospect. Over the last three years, he helped the Mustangs secure two provincial titles and win their first National Championship in 23 years.

Qhalisa was born and raised in Africa – Kenya tell? She is passionate about creating impact, finding challenge, taking risks and believes that growth comes from “getting comfortable with being uncomfortable”. Qhalisa is a lover of laughter, learning, coffee and puns.

Qhalisa is currently in her final year at the University of Waterloo studying Accounting and Financial Management and has completed a total of four work terms (16 months of work experience) within diverse areas of knowledge: Audit at Ernst & Young, Investments at Manulife, Valuations at OTPP and finally to her true calling, Venture Capital at iGan Partners. This set of holistic experiences has given her a great view from the Front Row, where she hopes to make valuable contributions to bring visions to life.

Qhalisa has developed a passion for being part of the next big thing, evaluating new technologies and being immersed within the rapidly evolving start-up landscape in Canada. She brings her diversity, open-mindedness and unique skillset to the Front Row. She highly values quality of relationships, social capital and is excited to explore the immense opportunities venture capital has to offer. In the long-term, Qhalisa hopes to pursue impact investing in emerging markets.

Rae is currently finishing her part-time MBA degree at the University of Toronto. She received a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Finance, with Honours, from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia in May, 2016.

Post-graduation, she joined Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. full-time as a fixed income analyst. She has passed all three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Program and may be awarded the charter upon completion of the required work experience. She is also a Leslie Wong Fellow, having participated in UBC’s Portfolio Management Foundation program during her time at Sauder.

Prior to joining Gluskin Sheff, Rae worked as a Summer Investment Analyst at Guardian Capital, RBC Global Asset Management (Phillips, Hager & North) and RP Investment Advisors.

Calgary born and Saudi raised, Sean is a fourth year biomechanical engineering student at Queen’s University with a strong interest in high growth entrepreneurship and corporate innovation. Having spent time researching wrists at the Human Mobility Research Lab, Sean used his knowledge to build assistive devices that he has presented globally. Continuing to have an international impact, he has participated in many Canadian leadership programs including being 1 of 15 selected for the Cansbridge Fellowship and 1 of 36 selected for the Next 36.

Corporate wise, Sean has worked with GM’s autonomous division and found a knack for innovative problem solving where he managed an internal venture ($100MM+ ARR), accrued four patents, and was the youngest IP holder within GM North America during his time at the company. He later worked at CIRC e-scooters where he managed Nordic Strategy and the city of Stockholm- scaling them from two scooters to being one of the company’s most profitable cities prior to their acquisition by Bird micromobility. In his free time Sean enjoys playing rugby and exploring the outdoors.

Steve is an enthusiastic student in his fourth year of the BBA Co-op program – Goodman School of Business at Brock University. He is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs and helping them achieve their goals and dreams. Steve is especially interested in SaaS and Fintech companies.

Prior to joining FRV, Steve completed a one year commercial banking internship with the Business Development Bank of Canada. The BDC is the only bank exclusively devoted to entrepreneurs in Canada. After the internship, Steve joined the BDC IT Venture Fund as a Co-op Junior Analyst. While working with IT Venture Fund, he was exposed to the VC-Tech ecosystem and due diligence process. Steve is currently doing a co-op term with the Brokerage Operations Team at Wealthsimple.

Outside of school and work, Steve can be found biking, playing various sports, practicing violin, and enjoying a good book.

Cole Bradley is a dedicated student in his junior year in Accounting and Finance, Ryerson University. With a diverse set of industry experiences, Cole has been able to development an understanding of financial institution of all sizes. This includes research in public equities with Pennock Idea Hub, operations within the Royal Bank of Canada and, venture capital management at Generation Ventures.

Cole has always had a strong interest in entrepreneurship. Through running a small lawn care business during high school, aiding in the international expansion of Pennock Idea Hub, and co-founding his own business within iBoost he has learned to develop ideas and innovative thought.

In Front Row Ventures, Cole brings strong financial and operational understanding to the team as he approaches every opportunity optimistically. His goal is to aid the team through process analysis to provide solutions to potential inefficiencies via the application of new technology, and connecting with talented individuals and teams.

Eric D’Souza is currently finishing his undergraduate business degree at the Schulich School of Business – York University. With his focus placed in Economics and Marketing he intends to pursue a career in product management in the fintech space. Over the years, he has worked in product in various capacities from leading a product team at Nugget.ai to working at Mylo.ai as an intern this past summer launching two products and working on algorithms with the company.

He is currently the founder of Blunt Tales a platform that helps promote creative individuals in universities. In his spare time, Eric indulges in trying new things be it travelling, monochrome photography, sharing an obsessive yet unhealthy habit of grabbing burritos at ungodly hours, or now as he calls it being an aspiring music producer.

Entering her fourth year, Emily is currently pursuing her Honors Business Administration degree at the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University. She’s passionate about all things entrepreneurship, from ideation to 10x growth.

Throughout her university career, she has been involved with multiple student-run organizations with the goal to inspire young people to pursue careers in tech and entrepreneurship. Her past work experience includes Business Development and Marketing roles in high-growth startups including Toronto-based social ordering app Ritual and fintech rewards app Drop. In her free time, you’ll find Emily writing for her fashion and lifestyle blog, binging TV shows, or working on her personal design and research projects.

Currently, Joyce is pursuing a Bachelor’s of Computer Science from the University of Waterloo and a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University. Last year she completed an internship as a Program Analyst with C100, a non-profit organization working to support, inspire and connect promising Canadian entrepreneurial leaders. Currently, she is working on honing her technical skillset by interning for a fintech startup as a Software Developer.

Joyce is passionate about all things tech-related; whether it’s well-built software, exciting venture opportunities or unexplored diversity initiatives. As she joins Front Row Ventures’ Community Team, she is looking forward to better understanding how we, as an industry, can foster a more inclusive community for underrepresented groups.

Shiyan is currently entering her second year at Queen’s University in Computer Engineering and Innovations. Her program incorporates the design thinking and technical aspects of engineering with a focus on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Shiyan is excited to be joining Front Row Ventures and looks forward to the opportunity of working with like-minded individuals who are interested in entrepreneurship, innovation and technology. She is eager to learn and become involved with her team by empowering Canadian student start-ups.

Shiyan is passionate about Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Entrepreneurship, Music and the Arts. Recognizing the power of innovation and technology to change the world for the better, her long term goal is to start an AI company focusing on improving the environment. Shiyan aspires to use her skills and knowledge to develop a unique product and/or service that will enhance people’s lives.

Entering her second year at Western University, Sunny is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in History, Philosophy and Business. She’s an avid fan of all things tech, and having spent consecutive summers immersed in the Toronto startup ecosystem, a proponent for supporting early-stage entrepreneurs.

Sunny is currently interning at Crescendo, a diversity tech firm backed by Next36, Techstars, and the DMZ. In school, she serves as President of The Pre-Business Students’ Network, Western’s largest undergraduate business club, and is an active contributor to the Scotiabank Digital Banking Lab’s Canadian Fintech Project. She’s excited to be a part of Front Row Venture’s Community Team, and looks forward to supporting the organization’s expansion into Ontario universities.

In her free time, Sunny spends time at the gym, with friends, or with a good book in hand.