Michele Romanow (born June 12, 1985) is a Canadian tech entrepreneur, television personality, board director and venture capitalist. She co-founded SnapSaves, which was acquired by Groupon in June 2014 and renamed Snap by Groupon. She co-founded Buytopia.ca, a Canadian Deal site that was #3 on Canada's list of fastest growing companies. She is on the list of 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada and was named as one of the Forbes Top 20 Most Disruptive "Millennials on a Mission". Romanow joined the cast of CBC's Dragons' Den in Season 10.
Video Michele Romanow
Personal life
Born in Calgary, Alberta, she attended Queen's University and graduated with Civil Engineering and MBA degrees. She was the sole winner of the highest tribute at Queen's, the Agnes Benidickson Tricolour Award, in 2007. Michele is the daughter of Marvin Romanow, the former President & CEO of Nexen.
Maps Michele Romanow
Business
Romanow launched her first business, The Tea Room, a zero consumer waste coffee shop, in 2006 while studying at Queen's University. Romanow then partnered with two colleagues from her engineering class, Anatoliy Melnichuk and Ryan Marien. Together, they founded Evandale Caviar, Buytopia.ca, and SnapSaves without raising any external capital. Romanow graduated and started Evandale Caviar, a vertically integrated fishery that distributed high end sturgeon caviar to luxury hotels and restaurants. She then became the Director of Strategy for Sears Canada. In 2011, Romanow started Buytopia.ca which, by 2013, had 2.5M subscribers and had provided over $100M in savings through deals for products, services, events, and travel, with merchants including brands like Cirque du Soleil, Porter Airlines, and Staples. Buytopia also grew by acquiring six competitors. Romanow started SnapSaves, a mobile couponing app that gives shoppers cash back when they buy certain items in the grocery store by partnering with consumer packaged goods companies. Groupon purchased SnapSaves in June 2014, relaunched in the U.S. as Snap by Groupon.
In June 2017, Ruma Bose, the former president of Chobani Ventures LLC, founded the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative with support from Michele Romanow. According to the Globe and Mail, the not-for-profit is meant to help small-business owners get inexpensive financing, and Romanow promised any female entrepreneurs applying through the initiative a 10 percent discount on loans obtained through her financial services platform, clearbanc.com.
Romanow is currently a director for Whistler Blackcomb (TSX: WB) and Shad Valley International.
Television
Romanow was announced as one of the new dragons on Season 10 of the Canadian reality television series Dragons' Den in 2015, alongside Joe Fresh founder Joe Mimran and Manjit Minhas of Minhas Breweries after the departure of Arlene Dickinson, David Chilton, and Vikram Vij, and continues to appear in 2017.
Romanow previously starred in Season 1 of Dragon's Den NextGenDen, a Dragons' Den series aimed at tech companies for entrepreneurs below 40.
Awards
Romanow has been recognized with several honors and awards including:
- #31 Fastest Growing Company on Profit Magazines Profit Hot 50 Ranking
- #21 Fastest Growing Company on the W100 (3,163% 3 year revenue growth)
- EY Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist
- WXN 100 Most Powerful Women
- RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award Finalist
- Toronto Board of Trade Business Excellence Award
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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