Meet our Dedicated Mentors
Barry Zuidgeest
Account Executive, Google | Startup Success Manager
Barry is an experienced Googler with 10+ years experience in sales and marketing. He has a Master's Degree in Entrepreneurship & New Business Venturing, and a passion for innovation & technology.
Bhasker Kumar
Sr Strategist - Trust & Safety, Google | Startup Success Manager
Bhasker currently works as a Senior Strategist within Google’s Payments Trust and Safety team. He is really passionate about the startup ecosystem and has previously worked in a startup in India. He feels very close and connected with the startup culture, and wishes to help and engage in every possible way with people who believe in converting their ideas into reality.
Brad Dubé
Head of Corporate Sales, Google Cloud | Startup Success Manager
Brad has been in the technology space for over 10 years. His professional career includes 7 years at SAP, the world's largest Enterprise software company and 3 years at Google. Brad's current role is to lead a team of Account Executives who work closely with fast growing technology companies and startups all across Canada to harness the power and innovation of Google Cloud. Brad also sits on the Steering Committee for Google for Startups in Canada, and actively participates on the Board of Directors for a non-profit organization called Kids Up Front.
Bryan Zimmerman
Product Manager, Google | Startup Success Manager
Bryan has been a Product Manager for over 10 years, working on observability, management, and cloud solutions to help businesses offer more successful experiences to their users. Bryan has an extreme passion for the customer, offering solutions that empower operators and developers to build the best possible products. At Google, Bryan currently works in the Serverless team focussing on Events on Cloud Run for Anthos and Knative Eventing.
Dominic Leung
Software Engineer, Google Canada | Startup Success Manager
Dominic is a long-time Googler and has experience leading an engineering team at a startup environment. He can best answer questions around software engineering, GCP development, and general leadership principles.
Germán Torres
TSE, Networking, Google | Technical Anchor Mentor
Germán is a Network Technical Solutions Engineer at Google with 5+ years of experience in Cloud technologies and IoT. He is an Electronics Engineer with three patents to his name.
Juana Mahadik
Senior Account Manager, Google | Startup Success Manager
Juana is an experienced Googler with over 12+ years in the Digital Marketing Industry across India, US & Canada in both Google and start ups. While currently working with the Tech & Telecom industry, she has experience across the Healthcare, Retail, CPG & Media & Entertainment industries; helping them drive profitable sales while using Google's entire suite of advertising products.
Justin Pedro
Engineering Manager, Google | Technical Anchor Mentor
Justin has had a long history of advancing technology within startups and large enterprise settings. As Technical Director of Cloud DX Inc., he was honored with the Ontario Regional Winner for Startup Canada Award for Innovation (2015) and the Qualcomm Tricorder X-Prize Bold Epic Innovator award. Justin is currently a manager for Google Nest and helping build the next generation of Assistant-enabled devices.
Kenny Vassigh
Technical Program Manager, Google | Technical Anchor Mentor
Kenny is a Technical Program Manager (TPM) in Google Cloud's technical networking infrastructure. He is passionate about technology, product development and anything deep tech. Kenny has been a startup mentor over the past two years at several Silicon Valley incubators and accelerators including Draper University, Founder's Embassy and Bay Angels. His technical background is diverse across hardware, software and system development.
Kevin Lai
Software Engineer, Google Canada | Technical Anchor Mentor
Kevin is a tenured software engineer at Google and has experience working on popular Google products like Display Ads, Gmail and Currents. Prior to Google, Kevin has worked in multiple startups and excited to have the opportunity again to engage and help startups grow.
Lauri Harrison
Technical Account Manager (TAM), Google Cloud | Startup Success Manager
Google Cloud Technical Account Managers are trusted cloud advisors and represent the voice of customer health on the Google platform. Lauri proactively guides customers to operate effectively and efficiently in the cloud. She has nearly two decades of start-up experience, as an employee and as a consultant. The startup's energy and passion for their mission is what motivates her to continue as a Startup Success Manager this year.
Lee Payne
Staff Software Engineer, Google | Technical Anchor Mentor
Lee is an accomplished software innovator with a wide breadth of experience including: product management, design, programming, and marketing. His career has been focused on user-centric software that can grow to meet ever-changing demands. He has a passion for building a healthy and inspiring culture to maximize the creativity and productivity of himself and his team. Creating software that can truly improve the lives of users motivates him above anything else.
Mieke Goeijenbier
Senior Account Manager, Google | Startup Success Manager
Mieke is a Senior Account Manager working with the largest entertainment brands in Canada, helping them promote their new content across Google & YouTube. She started her career in the startup scene in Amsterdam/Berlin working with startups & organizing accelerators, before joining Google to focus on digital marketing & brand strategy.
Murilo Figueiredo
Account Executive, Google | Startup Success Manager
Murilo has been at Google for about 10 years, helping large advertisers to grow and make the most of the Google ecosystem. Previously he worked with companies in Tech, Telecom, Media and Entertainment, Retail and Travel in both Brazil and Canada.
Nazih Almalki
Software Manager, Google | Technical Anchor Mentor
Nazih is an Engineering Manager of Chrome Graphics at Google. Prior to Google, Nazih was a consultant in the areas of machine vision, wearables, drone power system, mobile OS security, and sensors, for startups and global companies. Nazih aims to provide technical and management mentorship to startups, in the area of hiring, technical architect, medical grade sensors, battery life estimation and safety mitigation, manufacturability and scalability.
Nima Jafarian
Product Manager, Google | Startup Success Manager
Nima is a former semiconductor R&D engineer turned Google PM. He spent six years in the LED manufacturing industry focused on horticulture, outdoor, and consumer lighting. Surfing, snowboarding, gaming, and copious amounts of kombucha help him maintain a healthy work life balance.
Osmond Ng
Enterprise Customer Engineer, Google Cloud | Technical Anchor Mentor
Osmond is an experienced Google for Startups Agent and technical mentor, with solid experience in helping startups to realize their design and map to cloud/open technology.
Steven Bergsieker
Technical Lead/Manager, Google | Startup Success Manager
Steven is a tech lead/manager at Google, working on developer tools that make building and testing software easier at scale. Prior to Google, he worked at a startup that was ultimately purchased by a leading company in its space. He's knowledgeable about scaling systems from proof-of-concept to production at scale--and knowing what trade-offs to make along the way.
Todd Lee
Senior Software Engineer, Google | Technical Anchor Mentor
Todd has been involved with a number of startups, mostly focused on Android based products spanning Mobile, TV & Wearables. He joined Google a little over 4 years ago through a startup acquisition. He enjoys any opportunity to engage with startups in the area of development (both of the technology and people variety).
Willy Kuhne
Senior Account Executive, Google | Startup Success Manager
Willy is a digital media executive for Google in Canada. From 2016-2018, he served as the Head of Agency for Google Philippines and prior to that he was a Senior Agency Consultant in Germany. Willy has worked with global brands such as PepsiCo, WPP, Walt Disney & Publicis. Outside of work, he is a new dad to a wonderful little girl and a passionate cook.