OMERS Ventures

Hootsuite CEO Irina Novoselsky is building for a new and exciting era of social interaction – which is a unique and fulfilling challenge at a company that originally helped shape quality online engagement, basically from social media's inception. 📗 Read our brand new profile to find out all about how Irina arrived at this point in her career, what she's learned on her path to leadership, and how she's putting that to work in helping Hootsuite define the future of social brand management and audience engagement ↘↘↘ https://lnkd.in/gVf7KqnP

Whether you're a Jack of all  ̶t̶r̶a̶d̶e̶s̶ Tech or a Queen of Code, the annual Players Poker Tournament is back. ♠️♥️♦️♣️ Join us this year for more tables, higher stakes, and the chance to steal this year's trophy. All ticket proceeds support Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation and our host, Laura Lenz has promised she'll do a karaoke version of Poker Face if tickets sell out in the next two weeks. If you go to buy a ticket and see they're wait listed - add your name. New tickets are released every day, so you should get a notification within 24 hours with a link to purchase yours. Link in comments.

The future is NOW! 🚀 Today at Jobber Now we announced EIGHT new products and features including Jobber AI Receptionist 🤩 Stay open for business even when you're not working! Check the link in the comments to join the waitlist for Jobber AI Receptionist, watch the full event video, and check out all the other announcements! 👇

Great to be back in my favorite city with OMERS Ventures hosting a group of fellow VCs from the early stage ecosystem. Thanks to everyone who came out to chat about the current state of venture and tech in NYC. We're just scratching the surface of the continued strength of the startup scene here! #NYCTech

Always great being back in New York with OMERS Ventures and Julianna Vitolo. Thanks to our friends in venture and founder community for joining us. And special thanks to our co-host Ben Shephard at CIBC.

Last night OMERS Ventures hosted our Fintech Family Dinner, this time in NYC. It was a delightful evening in a beautiful space at Palma with thoughtful founders and candid conversation. The energy in the room was palpable, and the passion of what each founder was building, from capital markets data to stablecoins to business banking, was inspiring. Some themes from the dinner included: - Unified data is everything, data can no longer reside in single-purpose applications - There is a need for innovation in the capital markets tech stack, but ripping out the heart of a profit center is extremely difficult – who is bold enough to take this challenge on? - PLG has been replaced by true enterprise sales and reference customers are key to success - When analyzing addressable market size, there is an inherent Silicon Valley bias that excludes most businesses in America focusing on current TAM versus evolving market demand - Everybody is thinking about GenAI, but the Fintech community is cautious to adopt due to fear of hallucination and regulatory risk - Everyday and legitimate use cases for defi, Stablecoin in particular, are finally appearing – such as cross boarder payment and remittances and payroll. Boring and killer! - CEOs are not happy with their payroll provider - Well defined and adhered to company values in town halls, performance management, and customer interactions is paramount to success

Deadline tomorrow!

This year will be my second as the official host of the annual OMERS Ventures charitable tech poker tournament. Started by Damien Steel more than a decade ago, this event has been bringing the Toronto tech community together each year for a little friendly competition (and some world-class chirping) for a host of great causes in our community. This year, we’ll once again be supporting Holland Bloorview, an organization near and dear to my own heart, and many others with children living and thriving with a disability.   Tickets are available now and more will be released daily. If I were a betting woman, I’d be all in that these will sell out faster than Damien folded last year 😉   Tech founders, creators, builders and champions, this tournament is for you. Come join us at the tables.   October 24, 2024 @ The Quay https://lnkd.in/gmdR4_dZ?

🔜 Join us next Weds for the debut of our "Vertical AI Deep Dive" episode with Marissa Moore, CFA and Taku Murahwi from OMERS Ventures Link to their 152(!) page Vertical AI Framework in the comments.

Depending on how familiar you are with OMERS Ventures, you may or may not know that we focus on four core areas: Infrastructure, Fintech, Vertical Software, and Horizontal Software. Our deep focus in these areas helps us identify top talent and emerging trends in the often noisy, always competitive software startup landscape   At OMERS Ventures, Julianna Vitolo and I spearhead the Horizontal Software category. To build on our authority and evolve our thinking, we are always diligently re-examining and re-defining the essence of this sector. Horizontal SaaS, to us, encompasses enterprise software that can adapt across industries or functions, unlocking its full potential.   Horizontal Software is an admittedly expansive category, and so we’re homing in on a few key specific criteria for successful businesses to help us narrow our focus: 1) We're evaluating whether a product can integrate smoothly into existing tech stacks, adapt to future AI advancements and, more importantly reinvent workflows and help organizations manage change. How will it arrive at this – a wedge in? A full platform build? 2) We're looking at different distribution strategies to ensure rapid market penetration and competitive advantage. Is faster distribution a key moat in the age of AI?    We believe in evolving our investment approach with transparency as a core feature, and welcome insights from people building in the field. While refining our investment thesis, your input is key as we chart our path – a path we can hopefully walk together.    Stay tuned for updates as we shape our investment strategy, and more importantly, share your thoughts with us!