Northside Exits: A Founders Only Fireside Chat
Northside Ventures is hosting an intimate ‘founders only’ evening with 50 founders and a fireside chat with three incredible entrepreneurs including Kirk Simpson and Allen Lau who each scaled their previous companies to half billion dollar+ exits and Amar Varma, a 3x founder including successful exits to Pivotal, Interactive Corp and Ford Motor Company.
We will have an open discussion under Chatham House Rules about lessons, learnings and advice founders wish they knew earlier in their journey before they sold their company. We will cover topics like:
What do you wish you knew before your exit, that you know now?
How did you manage difficult board members and investors?
How did you know it was the right time to sell the company?
After the exit, how did you find the spark to build again?
And any other questions the audience would like to discuss.
Drinks and passed food will be provided.
Bios:
Kirk Simpson, Co-founder & CEO of Qui Identity Inc.
Kirk has a long history as a tech entrepreneur, with a half-billion-dollar exit under his belt and a new venture underway.
In late 2022, with an $8.5M seed round, Kirk co-founded Qui Identity Inc. along with Peter Carrescia. Qui brings trust to online interactions by ensuring all information is cryptographically signed and endorsed by a real person or organization.
Prior to Qui, Kirk co-founded and led Wave Financial Inc., a provider of financial services and software to small business owners. Under Kirk's leadership as CEO, Wave grew to 370 people and $100M in annual revenue. Wave was acquired in June 2019 by H&R Block for $537M – at the time it was the 7th largest tech exit in Canada since 2001. The same year, Kirk was named Canada's Most Admired CEO in Waterstone's growth category.
Kirk is also active in the North American startup scene as an angel investor and advisor.
Allen Lau, Operating Partner, Two Small Fish Ventures
Allen Lau is an operating partner at Two Small Fish Ventures.
He is also the co-founder and former CEO of Wattpad, the world’s leading social storytelling platform. Allen directed a global team to leverage groundbreaking technology to fundamentally disrupt the entertainment industry Under his leadership, Wattpad grew into a community of nearly 100 million users, raised USD $120 million from top VCs around the world, and realized a successful exit in a transaction valued at more than C$840M -- one of the largest tech acquisitions in Canada
Allen is a visionary serial entrepreneur, a leader in Canada’s tech community, and a sought-after speaker and authoritative voice on entrepreneurship, the innovation economy, and the benefits of a diverse workforce.
He is a member of the Canadian Council of Innovators, a lobby group that advances the interests of Canadian technology companies at all levels of government. He also sits on the board of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and MaRS Discovery District, North America’s largest urban innovation hub.
Allen received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Toronto’s Electrical Engineering program. In 2020, he was inducted into the Engineering Alumni Hall of Distinction at the University of Toronto.
Amar Varma, Co-Founder & CEO at Mantle
Amar started his tech journey working in Silicon Valley’s semiconductor industry, where he contributed to several essential technologies including the PC graphics card and the USB1.0 interface. After stints at both public and private companies, he joined a VC firm where his passion for entrepreneurship blossomed.
Since then, Amar has founded several companies and funded dozens of others. He’s always looking for a challenge and cultivating solutions where current gaps exist.
Previous companies founded include Xtreme Labs (acquired by Pivotal which went public and was acquired by VMware), Hatch Labs (parent company of Tinder acquired by Interactive Corp (IAC)), and Autonomic (acquired by Ford Motor Company).
