People First, Product Second: A Consumer Deep Dive with Maveron
The best consumer companies don't start with a product. They start with a behaviour. A shift in how people discover, decide, and buy. The founders who see those shifts before they're obvious build the companies that last.
Maveron has operated on this belief since 1998. Co-founded by Howard Schultz (former CEO of Starbucks) and Dan Levitan, Maveron invests in businesses that transform consumer lives across a wide variety of industries including ecommerce, marketplaces, wellness, personal finance, workforce empowerment and the future of play. For 28 years, they've backed non-normal founders who look beyond convention. Their portfolio tells the story: eBay, Zulily ($2.4B exit), Flywire (IPO), Course Hero (exited at unicorn valuation), Thirty Madison, Rebelstork, Trupanion, Lovevery and more.
Jason Stoffer, Chief Investment Officer & General Partner at Maveron, sits down with Alex Norman for a deep-dive fireside. How Maveron identifies behavior change before consensus. Why they invest in how customers feel, not what they buy. What Canadian founders should know before pitching a US consumer investor.
The session also features Canadian consumer founders on stage. Spotlights on what they're building, who they're building for, and the behavior shifts they're betting on.
Featured Speaker
Jason Stoffer has spent 18 years investing in consumer companies from seed through IPO and acquisition. As CIO and General Partner at Maveron, he helps lead investment strategy across the firm's $225M fund, focusing on companies where a shift in consumer behaviour or a technology shift (AI!) creates an opening.
Jason's current portfolio includes Toronto-based Rebel, Lovevery, Remedy Meds, Unvault, and Necessaire. Jason writes about consumer business models and public market dynamics at Ringing the Bell on Substack.
Jason holds an MBA from The Wharton School and a BA in Economics (Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of Michigan.
Tech titan Michele Romanow is a serial entrepreneur who started six companies before her 35th birthday. A “Dragon” on CBC’s hit show Dragons’ Den, Michele is the Co-founder of Canadian unicorn, Clearco (formerly Clearbanc), the world's largest e-commerce investor, investing over $5B to 10,000 entrepreneurs in 13 countries. She previously co-founded SnapSaves, acquired by American tech giant Groupon, and Buytopia.ca, acquired by Emerge.
In 2015, Michele became the youngest judge on CBC’s Dragons’ Den (Canada’s Shark Tank), and has been a ‘Dragon’ for nearly a decade. A prolific investor, Michele was named Fortune’s 40 under 40, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women, Canada’s Angel Investor of the Year and winner of RBC’s Women of Influence, Innovation Award.
Michele has created digital solutions for many of the world’s leading brands, including P&G, Netflix, Starbucks, and Cirque du Soleil. In the media, Michele’s work has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, TechCrunch, and The Globe and Mail.
Michele is a director for Vail Resorts and Queen’s School of Business. Previously, she was a director for BBTV, Freshii, Whistler Blackcomb, SHAD International and League of Innovators. Michele also co-founded the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative non-profit with Sir Richard Branson.
Tyler Handley is a Canadian entrepreneur best known for co-founding Inkbox, a temporary tattoo technology and brand that redefined self-expression. Under Tyler's leadership, Inkbox was one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada, culminating in its acquisition by BIC for $90M (CAD) in 2022. He is now redefining the Car Freshener category with Olauto, and is an active investor and advisor in numerous startups.
Beyond his entrepreneurial endeavors, Tyler has many passions and hobbies, including music production, astronomy, fashion, and design.
Peter Hwang is a seasoned entrepreneur, operator, and investor with 25+ years of experience building and scaling ventures across diverse industries. He has founded five startups and successfully exited four through strategic buyouts, private equity, and public markets. Currently on his sixth venture, Peter is the Founder and CEO of Tre’dish Inc., an AI-powered D2C grocery platform transforming the food supply chain to make groceries more affordable while supporting local suppliers. He also serves as Managing Partner at Alyst Ventures, a venture advisory studio and multi-family office investing in early-stage companies across tech and emerging markets. With a track record of disciplined execution and cross-sector success, Peter brings a unique perspective to founders and investors alike, with a strong focus on building ventures that drive meaningful, long-term impact. Peter also admits to being a terrible surfer, although it's on his bucket list to one day do very well.
Jack Chorley is the Co-founder and CTO of Tre’dish Inc., a Toronto-based startup taking on the grocery industry by cutting out the supply chain middlemen and passing real savings directly to consumers. Before building Tre'dish, Jack spent nearly a year as an iOS Engineer at Monzo Bank in London, one of Europe's most recognized fintech companies. He holds a BEng in Computing from Imperial College London and has since taken on engineering advisory and leadership roles across the Toronto startup scene, including Alyst Ventures and The Workshop. He's a builder at his core, the kind of founder who ships first and figures out the rest after.
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