A Road Down The Timeline...
John started his entrepreneurial journey very early in his life. He spent his summers during high school teaching himself how to program and then develop Web applications. “I was passionate, diving into anything I could get my hands on.” At 16, he built his first website, winning a prestigious MIT-affiliated award that recognized him as a top young web architect. In 2002, after winning a large contract with a leading Fortune 500 company, John dropped out of the University of Toronto in his second year and launched Intrafinity.
Intrafinity provided a game-changing suite of enterprise web content solutions that captured clients throughout North America, including organizations as diverse as universities, hospitals and world-leading private sector companies.
In 2008, John started SharpSchool after the web and mobile communication products gained market traction with U.S. school districts. SharpSchool grew to serve close to 10% of the K-12 schools, handling more than a billion web and mobile views per year, thousands of healthcare organizations, and hundreds of municipalities in the U.S. and Canada.
In 2015, John sold Intrafinity and SharpSchool to West Corporation and then led a global technology team serving over 100 million parents and students in the U.S. and Canada.
In West, John was part of the Education unit’s senior leadership team, and they scaled the business from $40M ARR to $70M ARR over three years.
Today, he is dedicating his time and expertise to building and blooming new SaaS startup ideas. His latest venture, FutureSight, has committed to co-creating the next generation of world-class companies with SaaS entrepreneurs. John is a strong partner and mentor to the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence in FutureSight and is truly harnessing his skills, experience and expertise to change the world, one venture at a time.
John has been honoured with numerous entrepreneurial awards, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the National Research Council’s National Innovation Leader Award, and BDC’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. However, John is most proud of the people he has had an opportunity to invest in over the years.
Being an avid reader, John loves exploring topics on leadership, philosophy, and religion. He appeared in several speaking engagements as a keynote speaker. He believes in the power of sharing knowledge and has authored numerous articles.
To read John’s latest article, click below!
