Managing Director

John Carbrey

As a passionate entrepreneur and tech enthusiast, John has successfully repeatedly founded, built, and sold B2B software companies SharpSchool, CivicLive, and Talentova. Most recently John has founded FutureSight which is a venture studio focused on building B2B software as a service and AI technology companies.
John has been honoured with numerous entrepreneurial awards, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, National Research Council’s National Innovation Leader Award, and BDC’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

What is your superpower?

I feel most alive when I’m with a community of friends diving into deep, authentic, and vulnerable conversation about what matters most.

What is your personal mission?

To be a catalyst for the growth of entrepreneurial leaders and teams.

Why did you join FutureSight?

I believe that moonshot ventures in the hands of values-driven leaders have the ability to make a unique and compelling impact on the world.
View my full founding story here

Chief Financial Officer

Joshua Auslander

Joshua has always been attracted to business, with a focus on finance and accounting. He was an assurance partner with Schwartz Levitsky Feldman, in which he had the joy of being involved in small businesses and startups. The best part of his extensive experience is participating at earlier and earlier stages of the business life cycle and witnessing the speed of entrepreneurism evolve in tech with his experience in Triversity, Digital Rapids, Intrafinity, Omnego and EventMobi. FutureSight is the culmination of that journey.

What is your superpower?

I say it like it is and am not concerned about or afraid of who is “in the room”.    This allows me to ask the hard questions of founders and other team members that need to be answered to allow for discovery as early as possible in the life-cycle of any business.  There are no bad answers.

What is your personal mission?

Like most people,  I value money as a reward for my work and skills.   But what drives me is the desire to earn the respect of my peers and be seen as a valuable resource to the team.  With FutureSight, I get to achieve this by sharing knowledge in my areas of expertise and from the wealth of experience I have had over a long career. 

Why did you join FutureSight?

I am excited to join various founders’ journies at the earliest, riskiest stage of the business.
View my full founding story here

VP of Operations

Prathna Ramesh

As VP Operations at FutureSight, Prathna leads the studio’s talent function, investor management, ecosystem development and supports the new venture investment & creation process. Prior to joining FutureSight, she served as Managing Director of Canada’s largest angel network (Maple Leaf Angels) and was the GP of their angel funds. Prathna has been an active player in the Canadian tech ecosystem mentoring early stage tech founders for the last 5 years and is delighted to be at the forefront of the emergence of this asset class in the country. She holds a Commerce degree from the University of Toronto and an Executive MBA from Queens University. 

What is your superpower?

I’ll ask the questions that others may not. 

What is your personal mission?

I am no stranger to self-doubt and imposter syndrome especially as a woman in venture. What I’ve gotten better at over the years is being aware of it, and it’s implications. I strive to increase my consciousness around this and help others with theirs if I can. I truly believe you are the master of your own mind. 

Why did you join FutureSight?

I understand seed and pre-seed very well, and my experience as an early stage investor for over 6 years running Maple Leaf Angels and as an active mentor in the Canadian venture ecosystem allows me to assess new venture opportunities and founders while being able to contribute to their development in areas related to their business model design, their go to market strategy, their team composition and capital strategy.
View my full founding story here

VP of Venture Development

Kevin Nguyen

Kevin has spent 9 years in SaaS as a Product Manager building solutions for education, local governments, eLearning platform for enterprise organisations and most recently for Maintenance Departments in the manufacturing and industrial space. After a brief stint as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at FutureSight, Kevin has joined as Director of Venture Development and Product to help founders go from ideation and validation to prototyping, testing and launching. 

What is your superpower?

My superpower is constant curiosity. He will spend hours learning, researching or reverse-engineering the what, how, and whys of any number of topics, industries or systems. 

What is your personal mission?

To not shy away from important things even if failure is a probable outcome. And doing so with compassion and humility. 

Why did you join FutureSight?

I want to help build the next generation of impactful SaaS business and believe in the values of the Venture Studio model.
View my full founding story here

VP of Venture Development

Alan Smith

Over the last 12 years, Alan created and sold $120,000,000 of products and services, built teams up to 100 people, and sold 3 million books. He and his team at Strategyzer created one of the worlds most popular business systems while having a ton of fun. The tools are curriculum in 2,000+ post secondary institutions in the US alone, and used by millions of entrepreneurs, coaches, and corporate innovators worldwide. His journey made him a believer that the basics done wrong kill potential, and done right unlock success.

What is your superpower?

Early stage discovery, validation, and getting from zero to one. 

What is your personal mission?

Bring important ideas to life. Feel Curious. Be Creative. Stay Connected. Spread Positivity. Be Ambitious.

Why did you join FutureSight?

To work at scale with inspired entrepreneurs changing their world.

Founder Scout

Anu Joshi

As the Founder Scout at FutureSight, Anu is responsible for finding promising co-founders. She works closely with the Venture Studio team and the Portfolio Ventures to find high-quality candidates, build a strong talent pipeline, attract the best founders and early employees to support the rapid growth.
Before joining FutureSight, Anu has been a Talent leader for over a decade in the Tech Start-up/Scale-up Ecosystem in Canada, USA, Europe and India. She has an MBA in Human Resources Management ( Gold Medalist for Academic Excellence)

What is your superpower?

My super power is my agility – I have a knack for analyzing the situation, learning and adapting and taking action to deliver results

What is your personal mission?

To lead an intentional life. Work towards making myself the best version of what I can be, by consistently challenging myself, learning and growing, while taking the time to enjoy the simple joys of everyday life.

Why did you join FutureSight?

To support capable entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life and to support the building and growth of life changing products.

Senior Venture Analyst

Cindy Gamal

Cindy’s entrepreneurial spirit led her to start businesses in web development, food & beverage, and education after beginning her career as a financial auditor at EY. Now at FutureSight, she brings her expertise to helping founders in finance and fundraising. She also plays a key role in finding the best co-founders, generating awareness on entrepreneurship and venture studio, and supporting in early-stage venture formation.

What is your superpower?

My superpower is simplification – sometimes complex problems need a simple lens to find the quick solutions and next steps. 

What is your personal mission?

My greatest mentor showed me that good leaders look at their people’s goals and provide them the path and skill to achieve it. That’s why I’m excited to raise people up to be more than they can be and get them closer to their dreams.

Why did you join FutureSight?

The Studio approach was something I’ve wanted when I was starting my business. It’s exciting to be that support system for other venture builders.

Venture Analyst

Eman Ibrahim

Eman is a Venture Analyst in the Business Design and Validation team. She works closely with the Entrepreneurs in Residence once they are onboarded to FutureSight. She recently completed her Master’s in Management Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Queen’s University. Eman’s background is in business strategy and market research and analysis, working with emerging startups in North America in health-tech, e-commerce, and building B2B SaaS solutions.

What is your superpower?

The ability to stay calm, rational, and emotionally stable under pressure

What is your personal mission?

I strive to empower vulnerable groups and be a positive force in the lives of others, helping them and myself to positively impact society and leave a better world for future generations.

Why did you join FutureSight?

To be surrounded by entrepreneurial mindsets and work with values-driven entrepreneurs to build impactful companies from scratch.

Venture Analyst

Asit Deva

With a decade of experience in software engineering at scale, Asit embarked on his professional journey in India, working with Fortune 500 giants like Siemens, JnJ, and Equifax. Transitioning to Canada in October 2021 as an MBA student, Asit, equipped with a diverse technological background encompassing web development to robotics, now directs his attention to cultivating a comprehensive skill set dedicated to the creation and expansion of startups for optimal success.

What is your superpower?

Jack of all trades—a versatile generalist adept at absorbing, assimilating, and applying technologies across various business domains.

What is your personal mission?

My mission is to be a tech entrepreneur who understands business, creating a strong base to build something incredible, like the next big success story.

Why did you join FutureSight?

I joined FutureSight to immerse myself among founders, entrepreneurs, and builders. This environment allows me to leverage my experience, putting my capabilities to the test and aligning them with my mission.

Executive Assistant

Kathy Charalambous

Kathy is a seasoned Executive Assistant with a background in supporting high-level Executives. At FutureSight is the main administrator supporting the Managing Director and team.

What is your superpower?

To foresee upcoming administrative requirements to better support the team and alleviate administrative burdens

What is your personal mission?

To play a part in the success of FutureSight and its ventures. If what I do can help achieve that, I feel content.

Why did you join FutureSight?

I joined FutureSight as the role aligned with my need for work/life balance. Being in the entrepreneurial space was new to me and I found it very intriguing. I’ve learned a lot and continue to every day.

Executive Coach In Residence

Sean Reid

Sean Reid, the founder of Arrowhead Coaching, is a certified leadership coach, and a recognized expert in operational planning and execution, leadership communication, and team performance. Prior to launching Arrowhead, he led for ten years the Eastern regional division of a national construction association in Canada. He also served as a corporate communications executive with Cognos, one of the world’s leading business intelligence software companies at the time.

Legal Counsel

Ian Bies

Ian joins FutureSight representing Caravel Law. Caravel is a leading Canadian technology IP and Law Firm that services innovative startups using a unique, flexible, and cost-effective approach. They specialize in Commercial, Employment, and Intellectual Property Law.

Accounting Manager

Ratan Chakraborty

Ratan is a highly motivated, dynamic, and detailed oriented accounting professional.  With over 15 years of experience in Accounting/Finance systems, he delivers a full range of accounting services with sound financial, analytical and customer service skills. Areas of specialization include Auditing, Financial Accounting, Taxation, and Payroll within technology, financial service, trading, and manufacturing organizations. Ratan has managed a company’s entire accounting function as a trusted professional in various organizations as an Accounting Manager.  He earned his M.Com from the National University of Bangladesh and obtained his CPA designation from CPA Ontario. Ratan manages the finance and accounting at FutureSight.

What is your superpower?

My strength would be producing various financial reports for the investors in timely and accurately with great details. I would be a great helper for any new ventures that FutureSight will build in terms of managing their start up accounting, budgeting and forecasting and external reporting. The studios will be benefited by using my experience as I have used various accounting, payroll, CRM and taxations systems/tools. 

What is your personal mission?

My personal mission is to add value and grow with the company. The company will be required to manage it’s day to day financial operation effectively and efficiently. In addition, the company will need to prepare and present various financial reports to investors and users. I think I can help with that.

Why did you join FutureSight?

I have been working with John Carbrey since 2013. I have been managing the accounting function for Intrafinity Inc as a holding company after being acquiring it’s assets. After FutureSight has been set up by John Carbrey, I wanted to keep working with the new venture so that I can expand my knowledge and expertise in addition to my contribution to FutureSight as I found this business model very interesting and challenging. 

Government Funding Expert

Denise Baril

Denise Baril is the founder of The GrantSherpa, specializing in non-SR&ED R&D, Training, Expansion, Export and Hiring grants. She was an entrepreneur for 25+ years and currently helps founders in a variety of sectors.

Writer

Becky Cook

Becky is in her second career after raising and home-educating her three children. With a passion for writing and editing, she began freelancing, serving clients in non-profit, entrepreneurial, and investment spaces. She’s edited books for innovative investors, poets, and pastors. Becky is helping craft short and long-form content to communicate the values and principles that drive FutureSight.

What is your superpower?

My superpower is being ‘Watson’ to ‘Sherlock’ so an audience understands the message.

What is your personal mission?

I want to care for and engage people by listening fiercely, speaking truthfully, and giving generously.

Why did you join FutureSight?

John invited me to collaborate on writing projects and I have become fascinated with the work and wisdom of the whole team, wanting to both learn from and contribute to the excellence of the company.

Web & Graphic Designer

Brittany Hannon

Brittany is a multidisciplinary designer who has experience working in teams ranging from large companies to startups. She create deep engagement and delightful interactions into FutureSight’s various touchpoints and branding. She has also been involved as the UI/UX designer of LeverageIT and was the lead web-UI designer for west corporation.

What is your superpower?

Brittany enjoys designing engaging product experiences for humans. She takes complex problems and turns them into user friendly designs. 

What is your personal mission?

I strive to take every opportunity to grow through teammates, trainings, industry events and online resources. I continually test emerging tools and methods to find the most effective workflow.

Why did you join FutureSight?

I joined the FutureSight team to provide help in the everyday design tasks and saw it as an opportunity to continue to evolve as a designer. 

CEO, Medibanx

Ian Taylor

Ian has had a varied career. He spun out a molecular diagnostics company out of his PhD work. He ran that company for 5 years before becoming a Management Consult at the Boston Consulting Group. As a consultant he worked across industries but was primarily involved in private market due diligence, health care and implementation of Artificial Intelligence. He has been working in the early stage start up world for several years with a family office VC division and other venture studios. At FutureSight, I an is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence working in the applications of medical data to support patient care and new therapies.

What is your superpower?

I have literally come back from the dead (for about 10 minutes). Good superhero compatriots in coming back from the dead/ being hard to kill (e.g. Captain America, Wolverine)

What is your personal mission?

Empowering patients in a health care system that has been built to empower every other stakeholder

Why did you join FutureSight?

Values. Values. VALUES! I have learned (often the hard way) that true success in business is doing great things with great people who believe in doing right by each other and the world.

CTO, Crewscope

Ehsan Foroughi

As a Technical co-founder and an entrepreneur, Ehsan is in charge of building amazing software products. He comes with 18 years of experience in cyber security and SaaS software and has been a CTO and Head of Product in fast growing start ups. His focus is in leading early stage B2B SaaS products from zero to $20M ARR.

What is your superpower?

I learn from a point of deep understanding how stuff work from inside (from transistors, to logic circuits, to assembly, drivers, OS, applications, network, and modern software …). It helps me be resourceful when needed and apply what I know across domains quickly and come across experienced!

What is your personal mission?

I am a builder! I love turning ideas into products that consumers love and need

Why did you join FutureSight?

I found the thesis of venture studio intriguing. I was also impressed about how much rigor goes into idea validation. I decided I want to learn more by rolling up my sleeves and getting busy.

CEO, Crewscope

Calvin Benchimol

Calvin’s leadership journey began in Algonquin Park leading wilderness canoe trips for Camp Arowhon. After undergrad he joined Lafarge through their leadership development program and gained management and operational experience across Construction, Aggregates and Logistics. Searching for greater meaning and impact from his work, Calvin got his MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona and began his entrepreneurial journey. He joined a technology incubator in Barcelona (ICFO) with a team of scientists to spin-out a Quantum Random Number Generator (Quside). Returning to Toronto, he joined the founder of eCompliance, a SaaS startup providing health and safety tools to front-line workers in dangerous industries. Over 2 years he grew the business from 40 to 90 employees, increased growth 3x and secured the exit to Alcumus in August 2019 for $40M. The experience growing a business with a significant positive human impact had a profound impact and motivated him to do it again, this time as a founder.   

What is your superpower?

Comfortable with ambiguity.

What is your personal mission?

1. Give more than I take.
2. Enjoy the journey.
3. Adventure is the elixir of life.  

Why did you join FutureSight?

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has (Margaret Mead). 

CEO, Landslo

Jason Gamblen

As an EIR, Jason explores breakout business models across high-growth industries by following our best-in-class Studio Processes to churn out ideas and hone them until we find the perfect one and identify the ventures to fund. Prior to FutureSight, Jason co-founded InnerSpace Technologies, a Toronto-based  firm that specializes in indoor location data for commercial real estate. Jason has been active in the startup ecosystem in Silicon Valley and Toronto for the last 11 years and couldn’t be more thrilled to be innovating in this new asset class with the best talent globally. 

What is your superpower?

Jason can see around corners.

What is your personal mission?

Jason believes strongly in the pursuit of fortunes while also pursuing the growth and prosperity of the community that surrounds a venture.

Why did you join FutureSight?

I believe in John’s vision, to facilitate values-driven leaders towards ideas that will drive impact to our society and community.

Serial Entrepreneur and Product Executive

Marc Morin

Marc is one of Canada’s most accomplished entrepreneurs with experience founding, scaling, and exiting multiple software companies. Most recently, Marc founded Auvik which grew and eventually sold a majority stake to Great Hill Partners in 2021. Previously, he co-founded PixStream (acquired by Cisco in 2000), Sandvine (publicly traded on the TSX), and Emforium. Marc grew up in North Bay, Ontario, and travelled West to the University of Waterloo for engineering and never left town.

CFO and Investor

Brice Scheschuk

Brice is the Managing Partner at Globalive Capital and Chief M&A Officer of Globalive Technology. He was previously the CFO of then Wind Mobile, now Freedom. He brings over 20+ years of experience building and operating large-scale companies. Brice has also worked with several companies like Cranson Capital, Creative Destruction Labs, Founder Institute and even Techstars, both as a board member and an advisor.

Software and Product Executive

Steve Judges

For 30+ years, Steve has been in senior product leadership and strategic advisory positions in startup and enterprise software companies. He is a serial executive and specializes in a broad range of industry verticals. Steve was one of the early founding members at FutureSight.

Venture Capitalist and Web3.0 Founder

Peter Carrescia

Peter has an extensive history founding, managing, operating and investing in high growth technology companies. He is the co-founder at Qui Identity, a company working to accelerate the adoption of user-controlled decentralized identity. Previously, he was the former President of NEXT Canada, Managing Director at OMERS Ventures and has served as a valued advisor for over 20 years to numerous funds and founders.

Serial Software Builder and Investor

Dave Brereton

Dave is the Founder and former CEO of Tecsys (TSE:TCS), a leading international provider of software solutions. His company has been recognized as one of Canada’s Best Managed Private Companies. Dave has extensive experience building software businesses and is an active investor and acquirer of software companies.

Serial Entrepreneur and Investor

Nish Bhalla

Nish Bhalla is an Entrepreneur, Angel Investor & Advisor. He exited his Toronto-based Security Compass Group, a bootstrapped Cyber Security business of 15+ years where he had the pleasure of working with over 225 immensely talented people from over 55 countries in Toronto.

Mr. Bhalla is a published author and noted speaker who has been interviewed by and spoken at multiple conferences & media outlets. While Nish is currently taking time off to rediscover himself and figure out his next adventure, he is also spending time with startups to help them.

Serial Entrepreneur and Investor

Joel Lessem

Joel Lessem is the founder of Firmex, a leading virtual data room software with top decile glass door ratings and investor IRR through a series of successful transactions over 16 years.

Prior to Firmex, Joel drove PointForce’s expansion into US, leading to a successful acqusition in 2004, and co-founded Crescent logic, an equity research publishing tool for investment banks.