Meet the Experts and Champions Powering Founder Lab Cohort 8

Why This Cohort Hits Different:

Behind every Founder Lab cohort is a community of people willing to share what they know and help founders put it to work.

For Cohort 8, our experts and Champions in Residence bring experience across entrepreneurship, venture capital, commercialization, finance, law, and leadership. Together, they’re helping founders strengthen their businesses, prepare for investment, and approach their next steps with greater clarity.

The Experts Bringing Learning to Life

Our experts bring practical experience to the questions founders are navigating, from telling their story to understanding their numbers and negotiating a deal.

• Jason Thompson — Strategic Storytelling Consultant
  With more than two decades in film, television, and animation, Jason now helps people communicate through his strategic storytelling practice. In Telling a Story that Stands Out, he helps founders shape a narrative that connects with investors.

• Kristen McGill — Kristen McGill Consulting
  A fractional COO and executive coach, Kristen helped build the operational foundations behind ZayZoon’s growth. In CEO Filter, she brings that experience to the priorities, decisions, and leadership challenges founders face as their companies grow.

• Patricia Koyich — SAIT
  An entrepreneur and educator, Patti teaches entrepreneurship, leadership, and high-performing teams at SAIT. In Leading with Values: Decision Making that Aligns, she helps founders consider how their values can guide the way they build and lead.

• Carrie Fanai — ConvergX
  Carrie brings extensive experience helping startups and scale-ups commercialize technology and work with corporate partners. In From Tech to Traction, she connects innovation with the strategies and relationships needed to reach the market.

• Justin Dunnion — GreenSky Ventures
  Part of the investment team at GreenSky Ventures, Justin brings a venture capital perspective to startup financing. In The Money Mechanics: How Deals Are Structured & Valued, he helps founders understand fundraising vehicles, valuation, and the mechanics behind an investment.

• Michelle Gurney — Shift Consulting
  Founder and Principal of Shift Consulting, Michelle brings a background in strategic communications, facilitation, and leadership development. In Presenting with Power: From Fear to Confident Founder Delivery, she shares practical tools for communicating with clarity and confidence.

• Claudia Durkin — The51
  As Principal at The51, Claudia brings the investor perspective into Founder Lab. In Inside the Investor’s Mind: Navigating the Venture Capital Landscape, she helps founders understand how VCs assess opportunities, approach due diligence, and evaluate the businesses behind the pitches.

• Amit Jethani — Mantle
  Co-founder of Mantle, Amit is building tools to help founders manage equity with greater confidence. In Structuring for Scale: Cap Table & Futureproofing Your Business, he helps founders understand ownership, dilution, and how today’s equity decisions shape future options.

• Karen Keck — Legal Sneakers
  Founder of Legal Sneakers, Karen works with startups on legal structuring, governance, equity financings, and commercialization. Through the governance component of Structuring for Scale and The Fine Print: Term Sheets Without Tears, she helps founders navigate the legal foundations and investment terms that matter as they grow.

• Amanda Tso & Jeannette Toner — BDO Canada
  Amanda is a Partner in Financial Advisory Services and a Chartered Business Valuator. Jeannette is a Partner in Assurance with experience supporting businesses from pre-revenue startups to established enterprises. In Show Us the Growth: Building a Financial Plan that Scales, they bring financial advisory, accounting, and reporting expertise to help founders connect their growth ambitions to a credible financial plan.

• Kate Grant — Fasken
  A Business Advisor with Fasken’s Emerging Tech practice, Kate brings experience across venture capital, operations, and ecosystem development. In Boss Moves: Answering Hard Questions & Owning the Room, she helps founders prepare for challenging conversations and approach investor negotiations with confidence.

The Champions in Residence Turning Insight into Action

Champions in Residence are the glue that holds it all together. They roll up their sleeves, lean in, and give founders the kind of honest, one-on-one coaching that can’t be found in any playbook.

Learning takes on new meaning when you can apply it to your own business. Our Champions in Residence provide that space through one-on-one conversations, honest feedback, and support tailored to each founder’s questions and priorities.

Meet the people supporting Cohort 8:

• Aisha Mayne — Mayne Ideas Consulting
  A marketing and brand leader with experience across food CPG, women’s sports, and fintech. Aisha brings expertise in brand strategy, marketing, and go-to-market planning.

• Allison Swelin — Allison Swelin Growth Advisory
  A technology and health innovation leader who co-founded and scaled Garmin Health. Allison supports founders with commercialization, partnerships, product strategy, and growth.

• Anita Ruohio — NYA Ventures
  Principal at NYA Ventures, with a background spanning genomics, biotechnology, and startup acceleration. Anita helps founders think through commercialization milestones, technical risk, and early-stage capital strategy.

• Daneal Charney — FIVEX
  A fractional HR leader and leadership coach who has advised B2B software companies from seed stage to IPO. Daneal supports founder-to-CEO development, hiring strategy, and effective leadership teams.

• Emily Dalphy — Meteor Strategy
  Founder and Principal of Meteor Strategy, Emily brings experience in strategy, operations, and organizational change. She helps growing companies build clear priorities and the systems to execute them.

• Emily Hicks — Recoolit
  Co-founder and former President and COO of FREDsense Technologies, Emily helped grow the company from an idea to beyond Series A. She brings firsthand experience in operations, government funding, and pitching.

• Faye Cooper — Agropur
  A senior operations and engineering executive with experience across manufacturing, energy, and technology. Faye brings expertise in capital investment, commercial negotiations, and organizational transformation.

• Gabrielle Kolotinsky — Export Development Canada
  A growth equity investor with experience across technology, cleantech, and manufacturing. Gabrielle supports founders with fundraising, investor presentations, and term sheet negotiations.

• Irene Saliendra — DigitalFlow Consulting
  Founder of DigitalFlow Consulting, Irene brings a background in enterprise B2B software sales. She helps founders build repeatable sales processes, clearer positioning, and effective revenue systems.

• Jasmine Kassam — TELUS Health
  A customer success and go-to-market leader with experience at Accenture, DoorDash, and Lyra Health. Jasmine brings perspective on customer journeys, operational scaling, data, and automation.

• Jessica Ma — Jessica Ma CPA, Professional Corporation
  A fractional CFO, strategic finance advisor, and angel investor. Jessica helps founders build financial models, understand their numbers, and connect business decisions to growth and fundraising plans.

• Kenya Rasmussen — Smart Mortgage Solutions / Indi Mortgage
  A strategy and operations leader with a background in consulting, technology, and client experience. Kenya helps founders define their problem, test their business case, and communicate a compelling pitch.

• Kristen McGill — Kristen McGill Consulting
  Supporting the cohort as both an expert and a Champion in Residence, Kristen brings her operator and coaching experience to conversations about leadership, strategic planning, finance, and scaling.

• Laura Sinclair — This Mother Means Business
  An entrepreneur, business mentor, and angel investor who has built businesses across several industries. Laura supports founders with go-to-market strategy, marketing systems, and leadership.

• Linda Biggs — joni
  Co-founder and CEO of joni, Linda brings firsthand experience building a sustainable period-care brand. Her expertise spans consumer products, B2B and direct-to-consumer sales, people operations, and growth.

• Lori Oliver — Women’s Equity Lab / Lori J Oliver Inc.
  A CPA, former tax partner, and active angel investor. Lori supports founders with financial planning, funding strategy, due diligence, and navigating the investment process.

• Mert Yucesoy — Boundariez
  A venture investor and advisor with experience backing B2B software companies across international markets. Mert works with founders on fundraising, expansion, partnerships, and growth strategy.

• Nadia Lachman — Amplitude Ventures
  An investor with experience across therapeutics, medical devices, digital health, and B2B software. Nadia brings perspective on commercialization, financing pitches, sales and marketing, and product development.

• Nannette Ho-Covernton — The ETC Foundation
  Executive Director of The ETC Foundation, Nannette brings experience supporting energy-sector startups through programming and wraparound services.

Thank You for Being in Our Founders’ Corner

To our experts and Champions in Residence: thank you for sharing your time, asking thoughtful questions, and bringing your experience into this community.

Your support gives founders people to learn from, ideas to test, and practical guidance as they build their businesses and prepare for what comes next.