“Golden Ventures has been a phenomenal partner to work with and has consistently added value to help our startup succeed. This includes things like helping recruit top executives for key roles, providing advice on critical strategic decisions and helping make relevant introductions. I couldn’t have asked for a better investor to work with!”
“Golden Ventures was our first investor and remain very active to this day. They’ve helped us attract senior talent, fundraise and most importantly, helped me grow as a founder and CEO. Their operational experience keeps them in touch with the fundamental issues entrepreneurs face on a day-to-day basis.”
“Golden was one of the earliest investors we engaged with at Hush. Their past entrepreneurial experience and network have been valuable in building our company. Above all else, Golden puts founders and their companies first. Whether that’s through a late-night strategy session or sharing their network, I’ve found they’re authentic, easy to work with and always have our backs.”
“Golden Ventures was the honest and supportive VC we needed. They helped us identify critical milestones, attract strategic investors and mentors, and supported us in growing (and ultimately exiting) our company. I would highly recommend working with the Golden team if you ever have the opportunity.”
The partners at Golden Ventures have been a force multiplier for Snowball and Socialdeck in good times and tough; in everything from the initial fund raise to growth to corp dev Golden’s focus on being founder-first shines through. When I build my third company I know who my first call’s going to be.”
“Golden was the first investor we pitched because I knew they would be honest, direct and helpful. Luckily for us, they invested and have been instrumental in our growth. The team at Golden are smart, hard working and dedicated to their portfolio companies’ success. If you get the chance, I highly recommend partnering with them.”
“Golden Ventures was an early supporter of Wattpad and their initial investment in our Series A round, as well as subsequent rounds, helped propel the company forward. Their continuous support, invaluable advice, direct mentorship and willingness to help make connections has helped Wattpad transform into the global multiplatform entertainment company it is today.”
“Golden Ventures has been a phenomenal partner to work with and has consistently added value to help our startup succeed. This includes things like helping recruit top executives for key roles, providing advice on critical strategic decisions and helping make relevant introductions. I couldn’t have asked for a better investor to work with!”
“Golden Ventures was our first investor and remain very active to this day. They’ve helped us attract senior talent, fundraise and most importantly, helped me grow as a founder and CEO. Their operational experience keeps them in touch with the fundamental issues entrepreneurs face on a day-to-day basis.”
“Golden was one of the earliest investors we engaged with at Hush. Their past entrepreneurial experience and network have been valuable in building our company. Above all else, Golden puts founders and their companies first. Whether that’s through a late-night strategy session or sharing their network, I’ve found they’re authentic, easy to work with and always have our backs.”
“Golden Ventures was the honest and supportive VC we needed. They helped us identify critical milestones, attract strategic investors and mentors, and supported us in growing (and ultimately exiting) our company. I would highly recommend working with the Golden team if you ever have the opportunity.”
The partners at Golden Ventures have been a force multiplier for Snowball and Socialdeck in good times and tough; in everything from the initial fund raise to growth to corp dev Golden’s focus on being founder-first shines through. When I build my third company I know who my first call’s going to be.”
“Golden was the first investor we pitched because I knew they would be honest, direct and helpful. Luckily for us, they invested and have been instrumental in our growth. The team at Golden are smart, hard working and dedicated to their portfolio companies’ success. If you get the chance, I highly recommend partnering with them.”
“Golden Ventures was an early supporter of Wattpad and their initial investment in our Series A round, as well as subsequent rounds, helped propel the company forward. Their continuous support, invaluable advice, direct mentorship and willingness to help make connections has helped Wattpad transform into the global multiplatform entertainment company it is today.”
ABOUT
Golden Ventures is a leading seed-stage venture capital fund, investing across North America. We back bold teams and their transformative ideas.
NEWSLETTER
Where we invest
Based in Toronto and investing across North America
Taylor Wilson is an Associate at Golden Ventures. In her role, Taylor supports deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio management. She is passionate about identifying ideas that have the potential to change the world and about helping founders see their vision come to life.
Prior to working at Golden Ventures, Taylor was a Consultant within Accenture’s Technology Strategy and Advisory practice. While at Accenture, she specialized in large-scale technology transformation programs in the resources sector. In addition to her consulting background, Taylor has experience working in biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals.
Taylor holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Queen’s University.
Jillian Watson manages Platform at Golden Ventures. In her role, Jillian supports post-deal portfolio management. Through her work, she aims to ensure Golden Ventures is delivering on it’s promise to develop companies.
Prior to working at Golden Ventures, Jillian was a Manager within Accenture’s Management Consulting practice. While at Accenture, she focused on strategic transformations within the retail space, acting as solution architect on multiple engagements. Before her consulting endeavours, Jillian gained experience working in Investment Banking/M&A as well as Loyalty Analytics.
Jillian holds an MBA from the DeGroote School of Business and a BSc from the University of Western Ontario.
Ameet Shah is a Partner at Golden Ventures. He has 13 years of product development and sales experience, wearing many hats in both early-stage startups and large enterprise. As an investor, Ameet has worked with a number of successful startups including Brightwheel, Inkbox, ResQ, Skywatch and WAVE.
Prior to joining Golden, Ameet spent some years living in the Bay Area before returning to Toronto in 2005 to co-found Five Mobile, a premier product design and development firm. Zynga later acquired the company in 2008, where he became a GM, overseeing the operations in Toronto. Key responsibilities included managing the P&L of several live games, launching the mobile ad platform and kickstarting many of the machine learning initiatives for the company.
He also was one of the first employees at Tira Wireless and became the Director of Systems Engineering and Strategic Accounts after moving to San Francisco. He also worked as a software engineer at both IBM and Grey Interactive.
Ameet attended the University of Toronto and graduated with a B.Sc Hons in Computer Science and Economics. He has been an active mentor, advisor, and angel investor in the community.
Bert Amato is a Venture Partner at Golden Ventures. With over 25 years of software and technology experience, as well as a proven track record in early-stage investing, Bert is our resident unicorn hunter.
Currently an investor, advisor, and director to multiple technology companies, he co-founded Delrina Corporation, best known for its communications software product, WinFax. As Chief Technical Officer of Delrina, he was responsible for all product strategy and R&D. At Delrina, Bert also held the positions of Director and Executive Vice President of the corporation. Acquired by Symantec Corporation for US$415M, Bert served as a Vice President of Symantec.
In investing, Bert has had a solid track record, placing his personal angel and seed stage money in ten companies which have sold. He is currently an angel investor in Wattpad, Farelogix, Echoworx and Jiffy.
Prior to his work with Delrina, Bert held a technical development position at the IBM Canada Research Laboratory and was a co-founder and executive officer of Schematix Computer Systems Inc., a software and consulting company. He has an Honours Engineering degree from the University of Toronto.
Jamie Rosenblatt is a Principal at Golden Ventures. In his role, Jamie works closely with portfolio founders, entrepreneurs, accelerators, incubators, and the broader startup community, to help find, fund and build exceptional companies.
Jamie began his career in corporate development at O’Leary Ventures, a private early-stage investment company owned and chaired by Kevin O’Leary. He then joined Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP where he practiced corporate law with a focus on M&A and corporate finance in the technology sector. Prior to joining Golden Ventures, Jamie was the Head of Business Development for Avid Life Media.
Matt Golden is the Founder and Managing Partner of Golden Ventures. An experienced entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Matt has focused on startups his entire career and has been engaged in all aspects of building and guiding disruptive companies from their very early stages.
Matt was previously a partner at the BlackBerry Partners Fund and the Director of New Ventures at Brightspark Ventures. As an investor, Matt has worked with a number of successful startups including Skip The Dishes (acquired by JustEat LSE: JE), Wattpad, Ritual, Top Hat, Tempo (acquired by Salesforce.com Nasdaq: CRM), SocialDeck (acquired by Google Nasdaq: GOOG) Nexage (acquired by Millennial Media Nasdaq: MM), and Yesware.
From 2001-2008, Matt was a co-founder of Tira Wireless, a mobile games publisher and content deployment technology and services provider. As SVP sales, business and corporate development, Tira became a recognized industry leader and pioneer in both mobile games publishing and content deployment.
Prior to entering the startup world, Matt was a lawyer for Osler, one of Canada’s premier law firms specializing in business technology, general corporate, financial services and mergers and acquisitions. He has a law / MBA degree from the University of Ottawa, and a BA in Economics from York University.