Team

Investment Team

We’re former founders and operators with strong belief in the potential of people and their ideas. We’ve built a team that brings executional experience, creativity, and unwavering conviction to the table.

Matt Golden

Founder and Managing Partner

An experienced entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Matt has focused on startups his entire career. He has been engaged in all aspects of building and guiding disruptive companies from their very early stages.

In 2011 Matt started Golden Ventures, one of the earliest micro venture capital funds, with the goal of supporting early stage founders in their journey of realizing their vision and potential. Many funds later, Matt brings the same excitement when meeting founders building transformative technology companies. Matt previously led deals at BlackBerry Partners Fund and Brightspark Ventures. Matt cut his entrepreneurial teeth as a co-founder of Tira Wireless, a mobile games publisher and content deployment technology and services provider. Tira became a recognized industry leader in both mobile games publishing and content deployment. Matt is trained as a lawyer, specializing in business technology, financial services and M&A at Osler, one of Canada’s premier law firms. He has an LLB / MBA from the University of Ottawa, and a BA in Economics from York University.

Selected Investments

Skip the Dishes, Wattpad, Ritual, Top Hat, Avidbots, Xanadu

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Ameet Shah

General Partner

Ameet is an experienced founder, operator and investor. He has 15 years of product development and sales experience, wearing many hats in both early-stage startups and large enterprises. As an investor, his core interest areas are in commerce, consumer, communities, and marketplaces.

Prior to joining Golden, Ameet spent some years in the Bay Area before returning to Toronto to co-found Five Mobile, a premier product design and development firm. When Zynga acquired the company, he became a GM, overseeing the operations in Toronto. Key responsibilities included managing the P&L of several live games, launching the mobile ad platform and kickstarting the machine learning initiatives for the company. Ameet also was one of the first employees at Tira Wireless, later becoming the Director of Systems Engineering and Strategic Accounts. He has also worked as a software engineer at both IBM and Grey Interactive. Ameet studied at the University of Toronto and graduated with a B.Sc Hons in Computer Science and Economics. He is an active mentor, advisor, and angel investor in his community.

Selected Investments

Brightwheel, Inkbox, Medchart, Skywatch, WAVE

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Bert Amato

Venture Partner

With over 25 years of software and technology experience, as well as a proven track record in early-stage investing, Bert is our resident startup oracle.

Currently an investor, advisor, and director to multiple technology companies, Bert co-founded Delrina Corporation, best known for its communications software product, WinFax. As Chief Technical Officer of Delrina, he was responsible for all product strategy and R&D. When Delrina was acquired by Symantec Corporation for US$415M, Bert served as a Vice President of Symantec. As an investor, Bert has had a solid track record, placing his personal angel and seed stage money in ten companies which have sold. He is currently an angel investor in Wattpad, Farelogix, Echoworx and Jiffy. Prior to his work with Delrina, Bert held a technical development position at the IBM Canada Research Laboratory and was a co-founder and executive officer of Schematix Computer Systems Inc., a software and consulting company. He has an Honours Engineering degree from the University of Toronto.

Selected Investments

Benchsci, Form Hero, BlueDot

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Jamie Rosenblatt

Principal

Jamie works closely with portfolio founders, entrepreneurs, accelerators, incubators, and the broader startup community, to help find, fund and build exceptional companies.

Jamie began his career in corporate development at O’Leary Ventures, a private early-stage investment company owned and chaired by Kevin O’Leary. He then joined Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP where he practiced corporate law with a focus on M&A and corporate finance in the technology sector. Prior to joining Golden Ventures, Jamie was the Head of Business Development for Avid Life Media. He has a JD / MBA from the University of Toronto, and a BA in Philosophy from Western University.

Selected Investments

Composer, Crux OCM, KitchenMate

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Taylor Wilson

Associate

Taylor supports deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio management at Golden. Taylor spends her time looking at deals across all verticals, but is particularly interested in new consumer experiences and products.

Taylor is passionate about identifying ideas that have the potential to change the world and about helping founders see their vision come to life. Prior to working at Golden Ventures, Taylor was a Consultant within Accenture’s Technology Strategy and Advisory practice. While at Accenture, she specialized in large-scale technology transformation programs in the Resources sector. In addition to her consulting background, Taylor has experience working in biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals. Taylor holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Queen’s University.

Selected Investments

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Tarun Sachdeva

Entrepreneur in Residence

Tarun is Golden’s in-house operator expert on ed-tech. He brings a wealth of product leadership experience to his role.

Tarun is a tenured leader in media and edtech, bringing 20+ years of experience to his role. As SVP & GM at Endeavor in New York, Tarun managed the growing education vertical for the global media company. Prior to Endeavor, he was a GM at Wattpad. Tarun is an active angel investor in the community and a frequent blogger.

Selected Investments

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Operations Team

Our team delivers post-investment. We bring experienced operators to support founders in the areas we know best.

Mark Lahn

Head of Finance

Mark manages all back office operations for Golden Ventures. He brings 25+ years of experience to his role, from other VCs, several corporations (public and private) and public accounting.

Mark began his career as an auditor for KPMG. After obtaining his CA designation, Mark worked as Manager of Financial Reporting and Controller at Cineplex Odeon Corporation. Subsequent to that he was Controller at Galaxy Entertainment, completed a stint as a Canadian sales tax specialist, then worked as VP Finance at Turtle Island Recycling. Prior to Golden, Mark was VP Finance at Brightspark Ventures and worked as a consultant for several other VCs and technology companies. Mark holds a BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University and is a Chartered Accountant.

Selected Investments

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Ana Lopez

Operations Associate

Ana leads operations and platform at Golden. She brings a background in strategy & operations to her role, and is the go-to person for post-investment portfolio support.

Ana is a startup Swiss army knife, with operational experience at many of Canada’s leading technology companies. At Golden, she works directly with portfolio companies, manages platform and community initiatives, and designs the processes that keep Golden running smoothly. Prior to Golden, Ana worked at Snaptravel, where she was one of the first business hires and oversaw customer support and internal operations. She has also worked in operations and strategy roles at FreshBooks and Shopify. Ana has a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University and remains highly engaged as an executive of the Queen’s Venture Network. She volunteers as a Girl Guide leader and can be seen peddling cookies twice yearly.

Selected Investments

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