Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
Welcome, Taylor, Ana and Tarun!
At Golden Ventures, our mission is to build an enduring franchise that empowers the highest potential founders to create transformative technology companies. We’re extremely proud of the work done by the entrepreneurs we’ve backed, as well as the platform we’ve built to support these companies.
Over time, the number of our portfolio companies has grown, and their individual needs have changed as they mature. The landscape has also evolved, with several industries emerging as new opportunity areas for our fund to gain exposure and deepen knowledge. We’ve been looking for ways to augment our existing team to continue to be a valuable member on the cap table through all stages.
We’re excited to (officially) welcome Taylor Wilson (Investment Associate), Ana Lopez (Operations Associate) and Tarun Sachdeva (EIR) to the team! They will be helping us continue to build the franchise, expand our networks and support our growing portfolio.
Taylor Wilson (Investment Associate)
Taylor may already be familiar to some of you, as she joined us last June as an Investment Associate. She’s working with our team to source and diligence new opportunities across North America. Before joining Golden, she worked at an early-stage biotech startup and was a consultant at Accenture. She holds a degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, as well as a degree in Economics. During the recruitment process, Taylor developed an investment thesis around same-day / last-mile delivery that helped our team get up to speed on a competitive opportunity that resulted in an investment a few weeks later. She also started a Shopify storefront to complement her delivery investment thesis and became intimately familiar with the e-commerce giant’s platform and ecosystem. She’s excited to meet with founders from all walks of life and is particularly interested in new consumer experiences and products.
Three Things About Taylor:
- Her personality test revealed she had a Michael Jordan like drive and competitive spirit.
- If she didn’t study Engineering and Economics at university, she would have chosen Psychology; she loves to understand what makes people think and behave as they do.
- After graduating from university, she spent a year flipping properties and knows how to tile a bathroom.
Twitter: @taylorwilsonsip
Ana Lopez (Operations Associate)
Ana is our first full-time Operations Associate. She joined us in January of this year, and her primary responsibilities will be to help the fund and the portfolio scale. As mentioned earlier, companies' needs change as they grow, and it’s important to us that we continue to add value throughout the journey. Ana is in a ‘glue’ role, where she will work directly with portfolio companies to develop and share best practices, resources and foster connections internally and externally. She will also continue to develop the Golden platform. Ana managed operations at Snapcommerce, where she was one of the first business hires overseeing customer support and internal operations. She has also worked in operations and strategy roles at FreshBooks and Shopify. Ana has a B.Comm from Queen’s University, where she was President of the Commerce Society.
Three Things About Ana:
- An immigrant from Colombia, she is skilled in the art of coffee brewing (preferably with Chemex, fresh beans only)
- Ana once negotiated a summer-long train sponsorship with VIA Rail, travelling coast-to-coast before starting her career.
- Ana was the first hire that we’ve never met in-person.
Twitter: @anamarcelopez
Tarun Sachdeva (Entrepreneur in Residence)
Tarun joins us as our first-ever EIR as he develops a framework for his next venture. We’ve known him for nearly 20 years, having worked side-by-side in companies and investing in ones he’s been a part of. He was most recently SVP & GM at Endeavor in New York City and previously a GM and Head of Product at Wattpad. Tarun has been passionate about ed-tech for many years and brings a wealth of product leadership experience to this role. He’s become an active angel investor in the community and interested in meeting early stage founders. Tarun has a BASc in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Three Things About Tarun:
- He grew up living in many different countries around the world, including India, Denmark, Malawi, Saudi Arabia, The Philippines and eventually Canada.
- He and his wife have twin girls.
- He started a successful t-shirt company as a side hustle.
Twitter: @tarunsachdeva
Farewell, Jill!
At the start of 2020, our very own Jill Watson was supposed to take a gap year and travel the world. Due to Covid-19, those plans ended up changing. She returned to Canada and worked with the team and portfolio companies throughout 2020. Her contributions to the Golden team and our portfolio companies were wide-ranging, and she was instrumental in helping us recruit some of the new team members. Jill’s true passion is on the operating side of startups, working on the complex problems they face every day. While we’ll miss her greatly, we’re happy to say she’s not going very far, having joined Underground Cellar (a portfolio company!) as their VP of Revenue. We wish her all the best and are excited to keep collaborating in the future!