Michele Romanow

Tech titan Michele Romanow is truly a Canadian unicorn.

As unbelievable as it sounds, “unicorns” are tech startups that reach $1 billion US in valuation – and that’s exactly what Michele did with Clearco. As co-founder, Michele grew the little startup to eventually invest more than $5 billion into over 10,500 companies across 13 countries – making them the biggest e-commerce investor in the world.

Ferociously committed to helping founders everywhere, Michele believes the world’s toughest challenges can be only solved by entrepreneurs. Michele has been named Fortune’s 40 under 40, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women and Canada’s Angel Investor of the Year. Alongside Sir Richard Branson, Michele co-founded the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative, a non-profit to support a more ambitious, inclusive and informed culture of entrepreneurship in Canada.

Beyond investing in other businesses, Michele is a serial entrepreneur herself – starting six companies before she turned 35. During her civil engineering undergrad at Queen’s University, Michele founded The Tea Room, the first zero-consumer-waste coffee shop (earning her the Queen’s Tricolour – the university’s highest honour). After completing her Queen’s MBA, she founded Evandale Caviar, a vertically-integrated commercial fishery. She also previously co-founded SnapSaves, which was acquired by American tech giant Groupon, as well as Buytopia.ca, which acquired ten other competitors.

In the media, Michele’s work has been profiled in Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, TechCrunch and The Globe and Mail. Michele is also currently a director for Vail Resorts and Queen’s School of Business, as well as a previous director for Whistler Blackcomb and Freshii.

In 2015, Michele became the youngest Dragon on Dragons’ Den, respected among Dragons and pitchers alike for her deep insights into e-commerce, tech development and digital marketing.