Michele Romanow

This founder started six companies before she turned 35. And one of them became a unicorn.

Michele Romanow is a Canadian engineer turned tech founder.

While still an undergrad at Queen’s University, she launched The Tea Room: the first zero-consumer-waste coffee shop in the country.

She also co-founded Buytopia.ca, acquired ten competitors including Shop.ca and WagJag, and landed on the Profit Hot 50 list of fastest-growing companies in Canada.

In 2013, she launched SnapSaves and sold it to Groupon within a year.

Two years later, she co-founded Clearbanc.

Traditional banks didn’t understand digital businesses.

They wanted collateral. Pizza ovens. Real estate.

They didn’t know how to underwrite an e-commerce store or value customer acquisition costs.

Clearbanc (later rebranded Clearco) offered something else: non-dilutive capital.

Founders could get funding based on performance data, not pitch decks.

No equity, no board seats, no personal guarantees.

Just a flat fee on future revenue.

By 2021, Clearco had deployed over $3.2B into more than 10,000 companies across 13 countries.

It backed founders in all 50 U.S. states and funded 25x more women than the VC industry average.

Clients included Public Goods, Haus, Vanity Planet, Monos, and Glamnetic.

That same year, SoftBank led Clearco’s $215M Series C at a $2B valuation. Their first Canadian investment.

Romanow also joined Dragons’ Den in 2015, becoming the youngest Dragon on the show.

She stayed on for over six seasons and made dozens of angel investments, including Endy (acquired for $89M) and TruLocal (acquired for $17M).

In 2017, she co-founded the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative with Richard Branson.

Clearco gave women applying through the platform a 10% discount on capital.

The goal was to make entrepreneurship accessible to founders who didn’t have pedigree, connections, or traditional credit profiles.

She was named Angel Investor of the Year by the Canadian Innovation Awards.

The only Canadian on Forbes’ “Millennials on a Mission” list.

One of Canada’s Most Powerful Women.

And a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

In 2023, after a series of layoffs, she stepped down as CEO of Clearco and became Executive Co-Chair.