Congrats #uofgrad22

Thank you, Professor Regehr, for the kind introduction.?

It’s an incredible honour and privilege to stand before you on this momentous day. Congratulations graduates! Today is a celebration of you and all your achievements.? And friends and family in the audience: Congratulations as well! Without a doubt, your love and support played an important role in their journey.?

Thirty years ago, in 1992, my father attended my graduation to show me the same love and support I feel in this room. Unfortunately, he was ill that day and had to miss a lot of the ceremony. At the time no one - not even my dad - knew he had Stage 4 Cancer. He passed away weeks later. Being here on this very special day of yours, I carry his memory with me.?

I say this not to put a damper on today’s festivities, but to remind you – graduates, families, and friends – to cherish this moment. It signifies the end of one journey and the start of another.

And progression is a wonderful thing.?

After today you will begin a new journey … which will eventually end. And then you’ll start another, and that will end. And so on. And so on. And so on.?

There will be many beginnings and endings throughout your career and over your lifetime. Lots of starts and stops. It’s important to embrace them all. Find purpose in them. Be better because of them.

Today I’m a venture capitalist who’s invested in incredible companies that’ve been featured in outlets like the New York Times and the Globe and Mail.?

Before this, I was part of the founding team at Wattpad, a company that’s disrupting the entertainment industry and was recently sold in a transaction that’s considered one of Canada’s largest technology exits of all time.?

But before getting here, I reinvented myself many times over.?

My journey started when I was accepted to U of T. Like some of you in this room, I graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Industrial Engineering.?

Soon after I joined a software startup as a test engineer. It’s here I embraced risk-taking, learned how to hustle, and surrounded myself with some of the very best entrepreneurs in Canada.?

I took what I learned to my next role at a semiconductor company. I knew nothing about semiconductors. Absolutely nothing.?

But again, I embraced the journey.?

It wasn’t easy, but when it was over I had learned how to be quick on my feet. I learned from an awesome team and witnessed how they pushed technology to the limit to achieve the unthinkable.

These roles created a solid foundation for my next journey at Wattpad?

I applied everything I had seen, heard, and learned throughout my career to this exciting new adventure. I took risks and embraced the disruptive power of technology.?

Wattpad leveraged many emerging trends at the time – mobile computing, social networking and machine learning – to create a completely new storytelling experience. Some people were skeptical about the idea, but because of my time in the tech industry, I understood the potential of technology. It gave me the confidence to stay the course and not lose sight of our long-term vision to disrupt the publishing and entertainment industry.

And we did.

Wattpad scaled from hundreds to tens of millions of users. In the process we upended how people read, write and discover stories. We create an outlet for people to share stories about the things that matter to them. We helped people see themselves in the stories they read. We gave people a new way to earn a living from their creativity and passion.?

We changed lives, millions of them.

Last year, Wattpad was sold for over eight hundred million dollars. It’s a fantastic end to one of the most thrilling journeys I’ve ever been on.?

And now, as a VC, I’ve translated my learnings from Wattpad into a product framework to help other startups in their journeys. It’s being used by other visionary entrepreneurs who are reinventing the way we socialize, commute, work, play and live.?

I share this with you not because I want you to follow in my footsteps. You can’t.?

Your journey will be as unique as you are. There is no blueprint, no master plan, no map for what comes next.

But each step you take paves the way for the next.?

And every journey propels you forward.

Make sure these journeys are filled with great people who you can learn from and who – and this is critical – bring out the best in you. People who recognize your uniqueness, who value it, and who nurture it.?

The world is a wonderfully diverse place full of people with varied perspectives, experiences, and ideas. Please recognize your inherent value. Embrace what makes you unique. Be open to learning from others who think differently from you. Use all of this to build a better world.?

You already stand apart from the crowd. To graduate from the University of Toronto – the number one engineering school in Canada – is a privilege and it will open the door to many amazing opportunities.?

You are the next generation of engineers and innovators who will develop world-changing ideas and solutions. Perhaps one day in the future, I’ll be investing in one of your great ideas.??

Although no one can offer you a blueprint or map to the journey you are about to embark on, what I’ve said will, hopefully, help you chart your own path.?

This is just the beginning.

I ask you, again, to embrace the ups and downs, the starts and stops along the way.? Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself over and over again. Try new things.?

Rely on the support systems around you - the people you know today, and the ones you’ll meet tomorrow.?

And don’t be too hard on yourself if you try something new and fail. That’s part of the journey too. Take the lesson from that failure and transform it into success when you embark on the next adventure – it’ll be here before you know it.?

Congratulations, everyone. We’re so proud of your achievements and eager to see what you do next.

Thank you.?