Michele Romanow is a founder with heart and soul. She began her career as an entrepreneur in college when she launched her first business in 2006, a coffee shop on campus. After graduation, she started Evandale Caviar, a fishery that sold high-end sturgeon caviar to luxury hotels and restaurants. After further ventures and an 8 figure exit, she co-founded Clearbanc together with her companion Andrew D’Souza, in 2015.

Clearbanc is a new breed of VC firm that is completely redesigning the game. Their strategy is to fund startups through equity-free investments with the promise of being specifically founder-friendly. In our Bits & Pretzels Podcast, she talked about how they want to give the power back to the founders: When Clearbanc invests in a company, the startup repays a certain percentage of its income on a daily basis until a fixed amount is paid back. If they cannot make it, there's no reason to be worried about losing personal or company assets, because „We are relying on just the revenue that’s coming into your business. […] We are taking true risks“, Michele explained in our Podcast.

Since 2015, Michele has also been a part of the cast of the TV-show ‘Dragons' Den‘ which is the Canadian equivalent to ABC’s Shark Tank. In this show, young and aspiring entrepreneurs present their businesses and ideas to a panel of VCs (the so-called ‚Dragons‘) hoping for financial assistance and partnerships. 

Don’t miss the chance to meet business-allrounder Michele Romanow at the Bits & Pretzels Networking Week (Sept 27th to Oct 2nd) at our A View from the Top track, where you get a highly analytical deep dive into one of the top-topics of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, lead by visionary founders or investors from our international community.