Stand Up Ventures
We champion breakthrough companies led by women.
Our Philosophy
Women-led ventures succeed more often, with better returns
01. Women-led companies think outside the box.
First Round Capital took a look at 300 of its portfolio companies and almost 600 founders — they found that teams with at least one female founder did 63% better than the all-male founder teams.
Moreover, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.
"The fastest growing companies," the survey report noted, "at 200% + growth, are 75% more likely to have a female founder."
02. Women-led companies recruit great talent.
In the companies where a woman serves as the chief executive, 48 percent of the executive team is female, compared with only 11 percent when the CEO is male.
Canada has a better track record than most, according to the #movethedial report. In Canada, 13 per cent of tech companies had at least one woman founder. The country's leading city for tech startups is a hot spot for female entrepreneurship. Among the new ventures, almost 30 per cent have at least one woman on the founding team.
Diversity can improve the bottom line of companies and lead to unfettered discoveries and breakthrough innovations.
03. Women-led companies create and serve bigger markets.
Women represent the largest disruptive force in business — and the business world is unprepared.
Not only are women the dominant users of the fastest-growing mobile and social platforms, they make or influence 85 percent of all consumer purchases.
Our Team
Michelle McBane, Managing Director (Toronto)
Michelle joined the venture world when she was seconded (having no idea what that meant at the time) to an early-stage fund. She found the people she loves collaborating with and launched StandUp to make sure she could do it every day. She's happiest hanging with her family or swimming in the ocean with all of the beautiful fish.
Lucas Perlman, Principal (Toronto)
Lucas has spent his career supporting and investing in early stage companies in Canada and in East Africa. He’s a CPA, and is a sucker for some good SaaS metrics. Lucas is a die hard Montreal Canadiens fan, but currently resides in enemy territory (Toronto).
Katheleen Eva, Senior Associate (Montreal)
A Venture for Canada alumni and previous Director on their Alumni Council, Katheleen has a background in neuroscience and building venture-backed startups. She is deeply passionate about enabling more equitable access to entrepreneurship, and can be found reading the New York Times on a patio with her standard poodle Timothée or wearing Patagonia on Zoom somewhere in South America.
Jessica Weisz, Venture Partner (Kelowna)
Jess uses a cornucopia of experience from the business world (from McKinsey consultant to SaaS operator to social enterprise founder) to help companies be both profitable and socially good. Her happy place is either cooking a big meal or being with her wonderful partner and toddler. She's also got a pretty cool blog - Rule Breaker.
Meredith Powell, Venture Partner (Vancouver)
Meredith is a Vancouver-based Venture Partner with Standup. Previously, she served 7 years with Voyager Capital, Seattle’s leading B2B tech VC fund. An angel investor, she acted as Global CMO at Microsoft for Startups, a $500m program for early-stage entrepreneurs. Prior to joining Microsoft, Meredith built multiple companies of her own including a B2B marketplace that was acquired in 2014.
Address: 101 College St., Suite 250, Toronto, ON M5G 1L7, Canada
