President, Equation Angels

Mentorship – Jess Joss

“Be strong in your goals but flexible in your methodology.”

Jess Joss is the CEO of Equation, a joint venture that brings together three angel investment networks, Co-founder of Insiteful Solutions, and Partner in Spyder Capital Corporation. Leveraging more than 20 years of business leadership, entrepreneurial expertise and investment experience, she played a pivotal role in the realization of Equation, and its impactful investment collaboration.

Jess’s passion for entrepreneurship was ignited during university when she founded a web development company that continues to thrive today. As the founder, she grew the business, evolving and scaling the business into an integrated online marketing firm. In 2001, with a proven business model, established revenue streams and new partners, Jess shifted her focus from leading Insiteful Solutions to investing in high-growth startups. With extensive business experience, Board and volunteer management expertise, Jess was appointed Executive Director of the York Angel Investors (YAI) in 2014. This built directly on her strong track record as an active angel investor with the group for many years.

Capitalizing on her entrepreneurial, business, and marketing acumen, Jess worked with the YAI team to grow membership by over 450 percent, and significantly increase deal flow, the number of deals completed, and amount invested per deal. This renewed energy and motivation earned YAI the honour of being ranked among the top five angel investor networks in Canada in 2015 and 2016; and first place in 2017 and 2018. During this period, YAI established the largest membership of angel investors in Ontario and second