A Team Dedicated
to Supporting Your Mission
Brought together by our passion to help and guide entrepreneurs in the creation of society-impacting companies, our team offers the multiple view points and specializations that will help your company go the extra mile.
Katy Yam
General Manager
Katy is a natural connector of people and ideas in service of helping good people succeed. As General Manager of FounderFuel, her ambition is to create an environment that helps founders level up quickly by filling knowledge and experience gaps with pairings from Real’s rich mentor ecosystem. She believes deep personal accountability and a #givefirst mindset will enrich every startup and accelerate their traction at FounderFuel and beyond. She is a multilingual executive with a 20-year history of managing high-performing product, business intelligence and marketing teams across various public and private industries including telco, CPG, gambling and AI.
Sarah Bezeau Gervais
Program Manager
Driven and people-focused, Sarah joined the Real team as FounderFuel Program Manager in November 2018. Her past experience in the technology industry, both improving and building processes, and working in customer support and success, brings together a combination of organizational and interpersonal skills that are crucial for running a fast-paced venture accelerator. Sarah studied IT and operations management at HEC Montreal and sees herself as a jack-of-all-trades. When she’s not building processes and solving problems, Sarah loves to travel, knit, hike in the Adirondacks, eat pho soup and cuddle with her puppy.
Sylvain Carle
Mentor-in-Chief
Sylvain Carle has spent the last two decades living and breathing emerging technologies. He’s also spent most of his career as a startup entrepreneur at the confluence of media, technology and networks. A self-proclaimed nerd, socialist and pragmatist, Sylvain believes in technology as a means to change the world, and loves investing in ideas and people to transform industries. As a Real Ventures pre-seed partner, Sylvain plays a key role in nurturing the local tech ecosystem, and also works closely with our portfolio companies.
A committed team backed by Canada’s leading seed-stage VC
FounderFuel is powered by Real Ventures, a leading source of capital for game-changing entrepreneurs and a driving force behind emerging tech ecosystems.
More about Real Ventures
Mentorship is at the heart of the FounderFuel experience.
From kickoff to Demo Day, our network of seasoned founders, investors, and executives are crucial partners in the acceleration process.
Get InvolvedOUR MENTOR COMMUNITY
FounderFuel’s mentor community is one of Canada’s premier startup networks. Since 2011, hundreds of mentors have participated in the program, sharing their expertise, insights and connections with our founders. They embody the pay it forward mentality that is at the heart of thriving startup ecosystems.
BECOMING A MENTOR
FounderFuel seeks to continuously renew our mentor pool to bring fresh and diverse perspectives to our teams. If you are a founder, executive or investor who is looking to give back to your community, hone your craft and build your own network, we welcome you to reach out to see if the program could be a fit.
WHAT’S INVOLVED AND EXPECTED
Mentors commit to FounderFuel for at least one 3 month cohort. All mentors should also be open to acting as a lead mentor, who meet at least every other week with a team for the duration of the program. Mentors give freely of their time, expertise and connections without expectation of direct remuneration. They support companies with honest but empathetic advice that is strong but loosely held. Our best mentors listen as much as they talk and learn as much as they teach.
