Sean Wise

TMU

Dr. Sean Wise is an expert on startups and venture capital. He uses this expertise in his various roles as a university professor, bestselling author, international business speaker, and partner at Ryerson Futures, a seed-stage venture capital fund and technology accelerator.

Dr. Wise has mentored hundreds of technology-focused startups, collectively raising more than $2.1 billion in capital. He studied economics and engineering at Carleton University, earned his MBA and Law degrees from the University of Ottawa, and received his PhD in Business from the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow. Dr. Wise has published five books and more than two dozen peer-reviewed research papers and case studies of high-growth startups.

Dr. Wise has been an entrepreneur himself since the age of 13. He has founded five startups to date, with his most recent selling for millions in July 2018.

Dr. Wise spent five seasons as a consultant for CBC

 on the mega-hit venture reality show Dragons' Den before moving in front of the camera as the host of the Naked Entrepreneur, which aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

In 2018, Dr. Wise became a featured weekly columnist for Inc.com. Since then, he has written more than 100 articles that more than 500,000 people have read. Dr. Wise is the Executive Director (and founder) of TMU's Startup School, which has delivered more than 60 free seminars, keynotes, and working sessions for entrepreneurs in Toronto over the past five years.



Dr. Wise has been called the Dr. Phil of Entrepreneurship, and in 2014, Startup Canada named him Entrepreneurial Mentor of the Year.