​Rotman Commerce Venture Capital (RCVC) Group’s flagship event, Venture Summit, in collaboration with Two Small Fish Ventures, Google, OpenSesame, and Cove is designed to engage students in the Toronto startup ecosystem. It features a series of panel sessions, startup pitches, and networking opportunities, bringing together students, founders, and venture capitalists. The event will be hosted at the Google Toronto office.

​Event Structure

​​12:30 - Registration & Opening
1:30 - Panel - Journey of Building a Startup
2:00 - Startup Pitches
2:30 - Fireside Chat with Allen Lau
3:00 - Networking & Food
4:00 - Event Ends

​Meet the Speakers

​Akshay Maharaj (Co-Founder of Aview) - Akshay is Co-Founder of Aview (Techstars '23), a global content management platform enabling creators and enterprises to monetize their media to international audiences. Our one-click solution offers multi-language translation, voiceover dubbing, global distribution and brand deal opportunities.

​John Uncu (Co-Founder, CTO of Asepha) - John is the CTO of Asepha, a venture-backed healthcare startup using AI clinical tools to enable automation and personalization in pharmacies. Asepha participated in NEXT 36, winning the Venture of the Year Award, and was part of Techstars Toronto 2023.

​Hussam Ayyad (Executive Director, Startup Rotman) - Hussam is currently an Assistant Professor and the Founding Executive Director of Startup Rotman – Rotman’s newly established venture builder for Rotman students – at Rotman School of Management. Earlier in his career, Hussam built and operated companies, and supported other entrepreneurs in doing the same. He ran and oversaw 40+ startup accelerator cohorts and different business incubators that supported 1,000+ entrepreneurs between 2016 and 2023.

​Sunil Sharma (Managing Director, Founder's Institute Toronto) - Over the past decade, Sunil has invested in tech startups, amassing a portfolio of 150+ active investments through various funds, including Techstars. Previously, Sunil was a Managing Partner at Extreme Venture Partners, where he co-founded Extreme Startups—an early equity-based pre-seed accelerator in Canada. Additionally, Sunil supports over 450 portfolio companies launched through the Founder Institute's pre-accelerator program, representing the largest active startup portfolio in Canada. Sunil has run 27 consecutive cohorts of the Founder Institute in Canada, making him one of the longest tenured accelerator operators in the world.

​Allen Lau (Co-Founder, Two Small Fish Ventures) - Allen is the co-founder and Operating Partner at Two Small Fish Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that focuses on the next frontier in computing and its applications. The firm is renowned for backing founders and their promising startups that later became world-class companies, such as SkipTheDishes, BenchSci, Sheertex, Printify, and Ideogram, among many others.

​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 AI and data to disrupt the entertainment industry. Under his leadership, Wattpad grew into a community of nearly 100 million users, raised US$120 million from top VCs around the world, and realized a successful exit in a transaction valued at more than US$660 million -- one of the largest tech acquisitions in Canada.

​​​​​Registration

​​The event is open to all, not only to University of Toronto students. Founders, investors, enthusiasts, and students from outside UofT are also welcome.

​​Rotman Commerce (RC) students can register through the RC Portal or Luma, and UofT students can register via Luma. You'll receive the event confirmation and details before the event.