Top 10 Entrepreneurs in Toronto taking it to the NEXT level

We’re taking a dive into Toronto’s core to find entrepreneurs with unprecedented motivation and hunger for success. Each of their stories can inspire you to take your next steps towards greatness. Let's meet these incredible people!

9. & 10. Cole MacDonald and Nathan Mah

Founders of Mero Technologies

The 3rd year ECEI with a specialization in computer science Queen’s University student Cole MacDonald and his co-founder Nathan Mah founded a ground-breaking IoT start-up called Mero Technologies in March 2017. Their platform allows cleaners and property managers to get deep insights into their day-to-day business. It not only allows companies to manage the cleaning staff, but additionally allows user to accomplish their goals to create sustainable environmental practices. The software updates the supply levels in real time, gives managers performance insights and access to cleaning metrics.

Nathan Mah is the other co-founder of Mero Technologies describes himself as a born entrepreneur on his website. He grew up in the family real estate and retail business. From a young age he was confronted with several challenges of the daily business hustle within a company. The Queen’s and Alberta University alumni gained work experience abroad in Singapore and Myanmar that still shape his life today and helped him to growth his business. At Mero Technologies he is responsible for financing, marketing and sales.

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8. Allegra Shaw

Founder and Co-owner of Uncle Studios

One of Toronto’s resident it-girls, Allegra Shaw found success as an early partaker in content creation on YouTube, eventually leading to her rise as an influencer in social media marketing. Her followers are especially drawn to her raw and real deliverance of fashion and lifestyle advice and updates to do with her own life. With over 780K subscribers, Shaw decided to use her platform to advocate for an ethical and sustainably-made source of affordable, high quality fashion through the creation of her own clothing line, Uncle Studios. Her company focuses on everyday, basic clothing staples with a unique edge for men, women, and anyone in between or beyond. The company is built to make consumers feel good in their own skin “‘cause when you feel good, you do good and the world could use a little more good”.

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7. Joanna Griffiths

Founder and CEO of Knix Wear Inc.

From nothing but a strong belief in her novel business idea, Joanna Griffiths managed to create one of the fastest growing companies in Canada. Her Knixwear intimates brand introduced the idea of leak proof underwear for women before adding another groundbreaking product to the company’s lineup. Knixwear’s 8-in-1 Evolution bra set a Kickstarter record as the platform’s most-funded fashion project of all time raising $1.6 million in just 40 days. Since then, Griffiths has led the firm to a 640% growth in revenue over a 2-year period as of the end of the 2017 fiscal year, seeing $2-5 million in revenue in 2016. The brand’s commitment to promoting female empowerment launched their marketing initiative to “reinvent the intimates category, one item at a time”, where they aim to dispel traditional female stereotypes and impossible ideals.

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6. Ray Reddy:

Co-Founder and CEO of Ritual

Founded in 2014, Ray Reddy’s creation of the app, Ritual, allows users to pre-order and pay for food and drinks straight from their smartphone. Reddy explains “Ritual makes it easy for teams to order and bring food back to the office for colleagues. Once restaurants have one customer on Ritual, they are giving that customer a tool to save time when they order and pick-up, and turning that same customer into an advocate for its brand in the workplace, leveraging a network effect that drives additional lunch orders and deliveries”. The firm has since signed over 100 business in the Greater Toronto Area and boasts over 100,000 users in Canada and the US. Even more, they surpassed a successful series B which raised $53 million CAD with an even more impressive $90 million CAD raised in a Series C this past spring. Reddy found his inspiration while on vacation in London; in developing a rapport with the bartender, he envisioned how every interaction could feel similar by incorporating technology.

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5. Matthew Corrin

Founder of Freshii

Matthew was 23 years old when he started building a restaurant chain that most of us are familiar with, seen on the high-street or in the shopping malls: Freshii. Matthew and his team are currently building a brand that puts the emphasis on healthy and convenient fast-food instead of the classic fast-food burger. And one thing is for sure, they are doing amazingly well at performing their strategy and scaling business. They even do better than McDonalds or Subway when it comes to growing their business in the moment. Today, the chain is present in more than 18 countries around the world. The former student of Western University is one of the prime examples of people taking the unconventional route after finishing university.

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4. Manu (Swish) Goswami

Founder of Trufan Inc

Manu (21 years old) was born in Singapore and is quite literally a super entrepreneur. Not only has he already started several business, but he also has been on a TEDx stage three times and acted as a consultant for a few Fortune 500 companies such as Google or American Express. Additionally, the student of the University of Toronto is a board member at Dunk (a media network focused on basketball) and the League of Innovators (Canadian Charity). All of his ventures have an high impact on the society and include a social aspect. For instance, he founded “FoodShare” to bring together people in need, who can’t afford a meal with restaurants and private persons having leftovers. Likewise, he is one of the curators of the world’s first youth social capital fund, which nowadays cooperates with the World Bank to support social initiatives. One of the many awards that he received was the “2015 Canada’s Top 20 under 20” award.

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3. Adam Rivietz

Co-founder of #paid

Rivietz is a true inspiration, proving there is no “traditional” route to success. Rivietz founded his first business in high school, showing his keen entrepreneurial drive. During his studies at the University of Western Ontario, he began teaching himself app development and soon decided to drop out of school to pursue this full-time. Rivietz founded Entourage Apps, helping others with app development and providing mobile solutions for business owners. But he didn’t stop there. Rivietz along with his co-founder Bryan Gold, recognized the fast growing social media trend with its impact on business initiatives, which led to #paid: an online based service that connects marketers with media personalities for influencer marketing. The company emphasizes creating truly authentic collaborations by using a combination of AI and human touch, to facilitate matches that best fit the influencer’s interests with world-class brands. #paid is at the forefront of the influencer marketing industry, creating an entirely new market with their business model. Rivietz proves it is key to recognize evolving technological and consumer trends to remain RELEVANT and DISRUPTIVE in today’s marketplace.

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2. Brittany Charlton

Founder of Ohh Foods

In an effort to tackle a substantial public health issue, Ohh Foods was founded to influence an allergen free consumption lifestyle. Charlton understood the struggles of living with dietary restrictions, and recognized that many people are limited to food options and are often faced with situations to either eat food everyone else is having and suffer the consequences, or eat nothing at all. Charlton saw an opportunity to leverage this issue to make an impact on people’s lives. Ohh Foods produces nutritional on-the-go snacks that lack the top eight allergens with the mission to create safe and inclusive snacking for all! Charlton proved her perseverance when she grew her presence from selling in seven stores, to over 50 stores across Canada. She is a real inspiration, showing that global issues and innovation can work collaboratively to make real social impact! #InclusiveSnacks movement.

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1. Jimmy Chan

CEO and co-founder of Odyssey 3D

As an aspiring entrepreneur, Chan identified key issues in the real estate industry: as a highly saturated market it can be difficult for realtors to gain a competitive advantage, 2D property photos lack accuracy and emotional evocation, and the industry is still very traditional. Chan leveraged emerging technologies to address these inefficiencies and disrupt the industry for home owners, home buyers, and realtors alike. Odyssey 3D is redefining the house hunting process, by allowing home buyers to screen properties online through an immersive 3D virtual reality experience, where users can navigate through the home as if they are there. In the competitive environment of real estate, Odyssey 3D allows realtors to stand out from competition with property listings capturing depth reality and improved accuracy. Chan has created a GAME CHANGER in an otherwise, old school industry, taking real estate to a whole new level. Watch out Canada.

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