Born and raised in Montreal to two entrepreneurial parents, I was immersed in the world of business ownership from day one.
My father ran his business for about 40 years before selling it five years ago, while my mother is currently in year 43 of operating her business.
Their examples set the stage for my own path. Looking back, I realize that Montreal itself shaped my entrepreneurial mindset.
As Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify and fellow Montrealer, once articulated—something that hadn’t fully clicked for me until I heard him say it—Montreal is an inherently entrepreneurial city.
There’s something in the water there. Being from an immigrant-rich city, there’s this unspoken ethos: learn how to sell from an early age.
It wasn’t unusual to be in high school at 15 and have a t-shirt business, work as an event promoter, or sell some type of consumer product.
When I was living there, I didn’t fully appreciate how unique this environment was.
I simply thought, “Isn’t every community like this?”
Now that I’m farther removed, I can see how profoundly this cultural context influenced who I am and my desire to be my own boss.
The Journey Begins: First Ventures to Global Impact
I launched my first business at 18—a technology company that I ran for about five years before selling it.
Let’s be transparent: the sale did not provide “great money” by any means, but it validated the hard work and the capital I had invested.
While I might simplify this when selling myself professionally (“we sold the business”), the reality had important nuances that shaped my perspective on entrepreneurship.
After selling my first venture, I joined an old-school retailer, where I helped lead their digital transformation.
This position allowed me to take all the growth experience I’d gained from my own digital business and apply it to a more traditional, established business.
During two years there, I bridged the gap between startup innovation and conventional business practices.
My journey then took me to Oxford for my MBA—a decision that transformed my outlook in unexpected ways.
After Oxford, I moved to the Bay Area, first joining a startup to work on product and growth for two years.
Then came Netflix—a four-year journey that began just as they were expanding internationally.
The products I ended up building focused on scaling Netflix’s original content to 100+ countries, 40+ languages, and thousands of titles annually.
The Pandemic Pivot: Back to Basics
When COVID-19 arrived, I felt the entrepreneurial itch again. I wanted to build something from zero to one.
So I left Netflix and, like any great millennial founder, started a newsletter before launching a business.
This newsletter, The Infinite Learner, became the foundation for LOTI, a startup that applied Netflix-style personalization to professional development content.
While the business initially did well amid COVID-related shifts in learning and development, market changes and tech industry layoffs revealed that I had built a “vitamin, not a painkiller”—nice to have, but not essential.
After throwing everything at the wall in 2023 to see what would stick, I ultimately recognized that the customers we had wouldn’t support the large business I had envisioned.
A team member took over the business, and I moved on.
Back to Traditional Entrepreneurship
In 2024, perhaps slightly disillusioned with tech or perhaps drawn back to my roots in traditional entrepreneurship, I joined Enduring Ventures as an Operating Partner.
There, I served as CEO of Rango, one of their portfolio companies.
Did I know anything about broadband when I started? Absolutely nothing.
But did I understand how to own and operate businesses? Absolutely.
I managed to get the business back on track to a much healthier state, positioning it for a sale.
This experience confirmed my enjoyment of the traditional business world.
At the start of this year, I decided to look for something to own and operate myself under MTL Capital.
Currently, I’m exploring opportunities across light manufacturing, distribution, and tech-enabled services—searching for a long-standing business to own and operate for the long term.
Patience Is Everything
If I could sit down with my younger self, the first thing I’d emphasize is patience.
When you’re starting out—whether as an entrepreneur or employee—there’s this burning desire to have everything right now. That immediate gratification seems essential.
But after living through a few business cycles, I’ve recognized something: one year often goes by quicker than you think, but ten is a lifetime.
When you lack patience, you often don’t let things come to fruition.
You might abandon a promising venture before it blooms or pivot too quickly from a strategy that needs more time to yield results.
The best outcomes in business rarely arrive overnight—they’re built gradually, through consistent effort and a willingness to stay the course when others might give up.
Passion Follows Practice
Everyone loves to say, “follow your passion!” It’s practically a requirement in graduation speeches and business books. But this advice misses something crucial. At least it does for me.
While I certainly have passions in my personal life, I don’t necessarily have a specific professional passion that’s guided my entire career.
My soon-to-be wife is an architect and now a creative director at an immersive museum—she’s genuinely passionate about what she does. I’ve always admired that clarity of purpose.
For me, though, my passion is progress itself. And progress comes from practice.
If you pick something and practice it diligently, you will improve. That improvement creates a sense of satisfaction, which eventually transforms into passion.
You don’t need to be in love with something from day one. Working toward becoming really good at something, and the passion will naturally follow.
This mindset has liberated me from the paralyzing quest to find my “one true calling” before getting started.
Instead, excellence breeds enthusiasm, creating a virtuous cycle that can turn any field into your passion.
The Power of Irrational Confidence
Business is hard—undeniably, unrelentingly hard.
The statistics make this abundantly clear: 9 out of 10 startups fail, 50% of businesses don’t make it past year five, and so on…
If you were purely rational, you’d look at these numbers and never start anything.
That’s why entrepreneurship requires what most think of as “irrational confidence”—a belief that somehow, despite the odds, you can make it work.
You need this slightly unreasonable faith in yourself to push through the inevitable challenges.
This doesn’t mean blind arrogance; humility must balance this confidence.
You should recognize what you don’t know and seek help accordingly. But that core belief in your ability to figure things out, even when the path isn’t clear, is essential.
Taking Responsibility Beyond Yourself
As your business grows, so does your responsibility. The moment you hire even two people, you’re no longer just responsible for your own livelihood.
These individuals depend on you to pay their rent, fund their children’s education, and put food on their tables.
This responsibility should be taken seriously. It’s a profound shift from being accountable only to yourself to becoming someone others rely on for their financial security and professional growth.
Understanding this transition is crucial for any entrepreneur moving from solo founder to organizational leader.
Throughout this winding path—from teenage entrepreneur to Netflix product leader to business acquirer—I’ve embraced a philosophy that has served me well: you either win or you learn. There are no failures, only lessons that prepare you for future opportunities.