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INVESTING IN WHAT MATTERS

We kick-off the 2020 event-series with a special edition hosted on Thursday February 6 with a fireside chat with Ruth Porat, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, of Alphabet and Google, moderated by Michele Romanow “Dragon”, CBC Dragons’ Den | Co-Founder & President, Clearbanc.

Followed by a Lightning Talk: Investing in the Right Business. 

Join us for this special edition of First Fridays and expect to walk away with best practices from fellow startup founders, investors and a global Google leader providing insights on:

  • How companies can find new ways to breakthrough with consumers - by investing in what matters for our consumers, communities, and the world.

  • Helping entrepreneurs who are faced with choices everyday, filter through the clutter to quickly distinguish what matters most.
Ruth

Ruth Porat, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Alphabet and Google  

Ruth joined Google as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in May 2015 and has also held the same title at Alphabet since it was created in October 2015. She is responsible for Finance, Business Operations, People Operations and Real Estate & Workplace Services. Prior to joining Google, Ruth was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Morgan Stanley. At Morgan Stanley, Ruth held roles that included Vice Chairman of Investment Banking, Co-Head of Technology Investment Banking and Global Head of the Financial Institutions Group. Ruth is Vice Chair of Stanford University’s Board of Trustees and a member of the Board of Directors of the Stanford Management Company, the University’s endowment. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Institute Economic Strategy Group and the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Ruth holds a BA from Stanford University, an MSc from The London School of Economics and an MBA from the Wharton School.

Michele Romanow “Dragon”, CBC Dragons’ Den | Co-Founder & President, Clearbanc

Moderator: Michele Romanow “Dragon”, CBC Dragons’ Den | Co-Founder & President, Clearbanc 

Michele Romanow is the co-founder and President of Clearbanc: the fastest, most affordable way for founders to fund their business.

Recently named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, Michele is a prolific investor who invested $1 billion into 2,000 businesses in 2019 and will continue to fund 8X more female-founded companies than traditional VC firms. Using AI to vet companies and tailor term sheet offers without gender, racial, or location biases, Clearbanc’s 20-Min Term Sheet is the industry’s first and fastest way to get growth capital without losing board seats or controlling interest.

As a “Dragon” on CBC’s hit show Dragons’ Den (Canada’s Shark Tank), Michele started five companies before her 33rd birthday and exited two before her 30th. She previously co-founded SnapSaves (acquired by Groupon) and was also the co-Founder of Buytopia.ca, which acquired ten competitors including Shop.ca and WagJag. 

Eva

Eva Wong | Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, Borrowell

Eva is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Borrowell, a fintech company that helps free people from financial stress. Borrowell empowers over one million members with access to free credit scores, report monitoring, automated credit coaching tools and AI-driven financial product recommendations.

Eva is an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® winner in Ontario, and was named one of the Standout 35 on the global Women in FinTech Powerlist. Eva is a frequent speaker at events in the tech and business communities and is passionate about supporting more diversity within the tech ecosystem.

Eva holds degrees from the Kennedy School at Harvard University and the Smith School of Business at Queen's University, where she serves on the Advisory Board. 

Darian Shirazi  Partner, Gradient Ventures

Darian Shirazi Partner, Gradient Ventures 

Darian is a Partner at Gradient Ventures. At the age of 15, he interned at eBay as a code tester working on the third version of Sell Your Item. In early 2005, he joined Facebook as a Software Engineer reporting to Mark Zuckerberg as one of the company’s first outside hires. At Facebook, he contributed to several components of the social network’s products and the early versions of its mobile products.

After Facebook, Darian studied Philosophy and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley for nearly two years before dropping out to work full-time on startups. After leaving Berkeley, Darian began advising and investing in many startups including becoming the first investor in Udemy, the online education marketplace.

He then founded Radius, the leading B2B Customer Data Platform, and served as the company’s CEO for more than seven years, growing the company to more than one hundred employees, raising more than $100MM of venture capital from top tier firms, and serving dozens of Fortune 500 customers. 

Who can attend?

You should only register for this event if you are a:

  • Founder, c-level executive or decision-making employee at an early-stage, Canadian startup and scaleup.
  • This is also suitable for entrepreneurs, advisors, investors and startup ecosystem leaders involved in developing high-level strategy for scaling startups.  

Where and When

Thursday, February 6, 2020 - Doors open at 12:45 PM, Content starts at 1:30 PM, Event ends at 4:30 PM
111 Richmond Street, 9th Floor - Google, Toronto

Please follow signs to the 9th floor

Questions? Contact us at first-fridays@google.com