John Stokes

Chief Wrangler

John co-founded Montreal Start Up in November 2007. He is currently Managing Partner of the Fund and sits on the boards of Beyond the Rack, Book Oven, Oneeko, Emotify, KeenKong, Mobilito and Standout Jobs.

John has more than 15 years of experience, both as a founder and an investor, in start-up, early stage and growth companies.

In June 2000 he founded Piermont Ventures; a Hong Kong based boutique investment and advisory business with a focus on media, technology and financial services. His approach for analyzing a market opportunity is reflected in Piermont Ventures’ early stage investments in wireless companies such as Forte Communications (GSM Messaging solutions; acquired by Bulletin.net) and RoamAD Holdings (Wi-Fi Mesh infrastructure); internet services such as StaffCV (parent company of QuietAgent.com); and consumer finance companies such as Bluestone Mortgages (acquired by ABN AMRO).

Earlier in his career, John held pivotal roles within the Wireless Industry such as Aethos Systems (acquired by Logica CMG (LSE: LOG)) (India, Taiwan, China, SEA) and Brightpoint Inc. (NASDAQ: CELL) (Philippines, Taiwan, South Africa, Australia), and was Chief Operating Officer for Livedoor Group Inc., Japan’s first free Internet Service Provider, where he was part of the team that secured a venture capital investment (Newbridge Asia, Texas Pacific Group) to the tune of $US30 Million, which at the time was the largest ever investment in a Japanese start-up entity.

In addition to John’s role at MSU, John also acts on behalf of the UK Government providing advisory support to budding entrepreneurs via the UKTI’s Global Entrepreneur Program.

John received his BSc. (Hons) from MMU (Manchester, UK) and is a citizen of the UK and New Zealand.