See the Ideas Come to Life!
Join the Pythons' and the Highschool and Open Category Finalists on Saturday, March 23, 2013 at the Ron Joyce Centre in Burlington, Ontario to see their ideas come to life.
About the MC – Sean Wise
Prof. Sean Wise, BA LLB MBA PhD (ABD)
"Dragons’ Den" Advisor & Entrepreneurial Evangelist
Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University
Entrepreneurial evangelist, lawyer, professor and business mentor, Sean Wise – MBA, helps make entrepreneurial dreams come true. Wise specializes in helping emerging and high growth potential organizations raise funds, turn a profit and be successful. His intense, entertaining and direct approach has earned him a loyal following of disciples who swear by his lessons and best practices for business success.
A self-confessed entrepreneur by the age of 13, Sean Wise has helped train over 3500 entrepreneurs who have now collectively raised more $2.1B from a wide variety of investment sources.
In September 2008 his newest book was released in the US by Penguin Publishing (NYC) titled: How to Be a Business Superhero. Sean’s first book, Wise Words: Lessons in Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship, is now in its second printing. Wise also writes a popular national online column on Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship for the Globe and Mail titled Wise Words, and his blogs and podcasts can be found online at: www.SeanWise.com. The Journal of Private Equity, for March 2008, features Sean’s academic research on Secondary Variables that impact M&A Pricing. Sean’s third book, HOT OR NOT: how to know if your business idea will fail or fly! was released 2012.
Sean Wise has been dubbed the “Dragons’ Keeper”, for his recurring role as Online Host and Industry Advisor for CBC television’s hit business reality show, Dragons’ Den. Dragons' Den originated in Japan and is an international success, including in the UK on the BBC. On the show, aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their business concepts and products to a panel of business moguls who have the cash and the know-how make it happen. In addition to screening and advising contestants, Sean also led the show’s community presence through his extensive blogging and speaking schedule.
Sean has teamed with a Manhattan-based private equity firm to change the way startup companies are funded. With offices in Manhattan and Toronto, Sean Wise is the Founding Partner of Spencer Trask Collaborative Venture Partners, LLC which is reinventing the business of seed venture capital funding.
Sean Wise studied Engineering and Economics at Carleton University before earning his Law and MBA degrees from the University of Ottawa. He is the Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management, and this fall will pursue his Ph.D in Business, focused on Collective Business Intelligence in Collaborative Online Information Networks, at the University of Glasgow. Sean sits on the Boards of several young technology companies, as well as the Banff Venture Forum, the Canadian Innovation Exchange and the Toronto Venture Group. He is a Law Society member and member of the Canadian Venture Capital Association.
Sean helped found Canada’s Ernst & Young Venture Capital Advisory Group and now undertakes selective engagements from young companies looking for strategic guidance on growth, through his personal holding company, Wise Mentor Capital, the premiere provider of mentoring services for high growth companies seeking funding, bridging the gap between entrepreneurs and equity.
Featured in media and events across North America, Sean is recognized as a leading expert on raising Venture Capital and is a successful international public speaker. According to Profit magazine he is “one of the country’s foremost mentors of high growth CEOs.”
Over the last 10 years, he has lectured at more than 100 bootcamps, financing forums and industry conferences, training entrepreneurs with his interactive lectures to school them on the art of building a successful business and raising Venture Capital and Angel money.
Since 2007, Sean Wise has been teaching at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. In 2008, he was appointed to the faculty as a Professor of Entrepreneurship & Strategy where he lectures undergrads and MBAs on the starting a business, venture capital and innovation.
He is currently working on his PhD in Business at the University of Glasgow, studying collective business intelligence through collaborative online information networks in the department founded by one of his heroes, the father of modern economics, Adam Smith.
Sean’s intense, entertaining and direct approach as Canada's Entrepreneurial Evangelist has gathered a following of disciples, who swear by his lessons and best practices for success.
