Founding partner, Defined Capital
Age 39
What career highlight are you most proud of?
Beating the odds to found a venture capital firm and oversubscribe Defined’s first fund amidst the most challenging fundraising market in a decade. We have demonstrated our ability to punch above our weight by partnering with industry luminaries such as Steve Jurvetson, an early investor in Tesla and SpaceX, and Ray Lane, the ex-president of Oracle. We have secured institutional backing, including support from a global bank—a rare achievement for a first-time fund. Our efforts were recently recognized when selected as one of the Top 100 emerging VC firms globally by leading institutions at RAISE Global in San Francisco.
What has been your toughest business or professional decision to date?
When I decided to launch Defined in summer 2022 markets were tumbling. I was starting a family and leaving a successful career at the largest venture capital firm in Canada to take a bold bet on myself and AI. As we started towards first close, ChatGPT was released and we found ourselves in this technology platform shift. Unfortunately, an anchor investor that was going to be a third of the fund didn’t come through and I had to take a tremendous personal financial risk to close on less capital to not miss the opportunity in front of us.
How do you lead?
I believe leadership is about empowering others to do their best work and creating something greater than the sum of its parts. This requires intentionally communicating the vision you’re driving toward and leading by example in achieving set goals. For me, true leadership means feeling inspired to teach others, being open to receiving feedback and continuously improving to help the team work and adapt together effectively.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in business?
Every year you will have thousands of interactions with people and each year a handful of those interactions will change your trajectory or open possibilities you couldn’t have imagined. The challenge is you don’t know beforehand which interactions will lead to what outcomes. What you can control is how you prepare and show up to those interactions every day and how you follow through on your say-to-do ratio. I’ve found that consistency of process creates intensity of outcomes.
Best piece of advice ever received?
Denzel Washington’s commencement speech: “Nelson Mandela said there is no passion to be found playing small and settling for a life that’s less than the one you’re capable of living. I’m sure in your experiences and deciding what you want to do with life that people have told you to make sure you have something to fall back on. But I’ve never understood that concept. If I’m going to fall, I don’t want to fall back on anything except my faith. I want to fall forward, I figure at least this way I will see what I’m going to hit.”
What is your definition of success?
Success for me is being resilient in the face of adversity and maintaining radical self-belief because then anything can be overcome. I know am succeeding when I can feel myself pushing on the world.
What are you most passionate about outside of work?
Seeing the world through my almost two-year-old daughter’s eyes together.
What’s left to accomplish?
Each day I remain focused on advancing our mission to empower visionary founders to build companies from zero to one that become driving forces in their field. Our ambition is to scale up our platform as part of our Fund II to build a globally successful firm based out of Vancouver and growing into other geographies so we can support founders with a range of capabilities to help address their challenges in scaling into iconic global companies.
Is there anyone you would like to thank or acknowledge?
My wonderful wife for believing in me and being the wind at my back. My sweet daughter for inspiring me. My parents and family for their love and support. My friends for the good times and being in my corner. The thousands of people who have given me a helping hand to get where I am today, including my business mentors and colleagues, Sean Brownlee, David Roberts, Johnny Dewan, Yoran Beisher, Gautam Chintapenta and especially the investors, founders and advisors who have partnered with Defined and believe in our mission.
A personal motto, favourite phrase or saying that resonates with you?
“Chop wood, carry water”—a Zen Buddhist principle to remind myself to embrace mindfulness by focusing on the present moment and enjoying the process
A philanthropic, charitable or community cause or organization you support?
I am an associate mentor at the Creative Destruction Lab whose mission is to enhance the commercialization of science for the betterment of humankind
What do you do to unwind, relax or de-stress?
Read with my daughter (she loves books like her father); go on adventures in nature and travel with my family; surf in Tofino; meditate; handstands
Favourite place in the province?
Tofino
Favourite restaurant(s)?
Via Tevere Pizzeria as it reminds our family of our trips to Italy
A book or podcast you would recommend?
Investing the Last Liberal Art, to think in mental models like Charlie Munger; Your World Within (podcast), my secret weapon to be relentless
What is your best habit?
A curious mind that is always learning
A B.C. business leader you admire?
Co-founders of DarkVision Stephen Robinson, Graham Manders and Osman Malik whom I backed as an investor, that are incredible technologists and execution machines
Tell us one surprising or little-known fact about yourself.
I summited Stok Kangri, one of the highest trekkable mountains in the world, at 6,153 metres in the Himalayas
