I was always taught that your kindness is determinant of your character. That your perspective and understanding of the world and people around you make up who you are. And that good karma will always come back to you.
I grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, and while being Canada’s capital, it was quiet and steady. Unmoving and comfortable. I soaked in that bath growing up, and it was the best childhood I could have asked for. Then my world was thrown upside down when my family got the call to move to Singapore. I had just witnessed my dad exit his own startup, and at the ripe age of 13, I was moving halfway around the world with no idea what was to come. I was yanked out of that bath at seemingly light speed.
With this new opportunity in front of me, I itched to burst the bubble I lived my whole life in. I found solace in the mountains, in the ocean, and all of the places in between. I travelled to 20+ countries in the span of a few years and completely expanded my worldview. I was enamoured with the idea of connecting with others and expanding my peripherals.
When I decided to come back to Canada to study business, I knew it would be to work closely with other people and some broad stroke of “wanting to change the world” (didn’t we all?). In my first year of university, I remember being educated about venture capital, it clicked - this perfect yin and yang of give and take, meeting with inspired people building world-changing companies, and being on the forefront of those journeys. I interned at a generalist fund in NYC in my first year of school and, once again, my world was flipped in the best possible way. Glimmer in my eye and 3 more years of school in front of me, I was ready to build my career in VC.
Fast forward through university, I worked at a number of early-stage funds, built my own VC course and was the first hire at a CPG startup launching in NYC. I fell in love with building community, operating, helping founders and supporting aspiring underrepresented funders. From there, I landed in a role at an emerging fund in Toronto and helped them deploy over 4.5 years, building everything from platform to investing in dozens of companies.
I carried with me the ethos of always giving and never expecting anything back. That good karma will always return, and that your character is deterministic of who you are - and the kind of investor you want to be. When the opportunity to join Drive arrived on my doorstep, I knew they believed in these mantras as well. They believed that perspective shapes character, which ultimately shapes who you are as an investor. I aspire to carry the values that people from all around the world have taught me - the mountains, the oceans, and everything in between.