{"id":76504,"date":"2021-05-25T14:48:59","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T18:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=76504"},"modified":"2025-10-20T09:25:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:25:43","slug":"alumni-launch-angel-investment-group","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/alumni-launch-angel-investment-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton Alumni Launch Angel Investment Group to Fund Women, Non-Binary Founders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Carleton Alumni Launch Angel Investment Group to Fund Women, Non-Binary Founders\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

A group of Carleton University alumni have teamed up with their Shopify co-workers to found an angel investment group focused on projects from more diverse founders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group, called Backbone Angels<\/a>, is made up of 10 founding partners with varying technical and operational backgrounds. The women met while building their careers at Shopify. The group specifically invests in women and non-binary founders, with a focus on investments in Black, Indigenous and women of colour-led companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Konval
Konval Matin, BCom\/12<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the years, we became a support system for each other, to help drive our careers forward or get us through challenging times,\u201d says Konval Matin, director of merchant stories at Shopify.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIn the past few years, we talked about how unique and beneficial this was for us, and how we could find a way to share it with others. This is when Backbone was created. We realized we had a deep passion for supporting women and non-binary founders. We knew that the combined expertise of the group could really have an impact on their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Since launching on International Women\u2019s Day in March, reaction to the group has been positive. \u201cWe\u2019ve had an overwhelming response to our launch,\u201d says Brittany Forsyth, who worked as the chief talent officer at Shopify until mid-May before departing to focus full time on entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNeedless to say, we\u2019ve been busy. We expected the incoming decks to slow down since launch, but it has been steady. It\u2019s amazing to see all the wonderful female, non-binary founders hard at work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matin and Forsyth are both graduates of Carleton\u2019s commerce program<\/a>, Forsyth finished with a specialization in managing people and organizations, and Matin did a specialization in marketing and international business. \u201cI learned how to learn at Carleton and it really was the foundational element for my continued learnings in talent and culture,\u201d says Forsyth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brittany
Brittany Forsyth, BCom\/09<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Matin credits Carleton\u2019s co-op program with benefiting her in the workplace. \u201cMy co-op placement was actually at Carleton University, and I had great leads like Andrew Riddles and Richard Lefebvre who encouraged me to test and experiment when I pitched ideas to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the appeal of the Backbone Angels is the experience the powerhouse founders bring to the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe experiences of building great teams and products, and telling compelling stories while scaling, are what I\u2019m most excited to share with women and non-binary founders,\u201d says Matin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learned great lessons along the way, and now we can pay it forward with money and knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forsyth\u2019s experience has been in hypergrowth. Over the last decade she has helped take Shopify from a team of 20 to well over 6,000 employees worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI have a unique perspective of each phase of growth that I want to share with founders to help them avoid some pitfalls and take advantage of the opportunities,\u201d says Forsyth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI believe every organization is only as strong as the team of people you have building it. This is where I can help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—
\nMore Stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of Carleton University alumni have teamed up with their Shopify co-workers to found an angel investment group focused on projects from more diverse founders. The group, called Backbone Angels, is made up of 10 founding partners with varying technical and operational backgrounds. The women met while building their careers at Shopify. The group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":76546,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[17,1931,1917],"cu_story_tag":[1924,1930,1922],"class_list":["post-76504","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-alumni","cu_story_type-social-innovation","cu_story_type-the-new-economy","cu_story_tag-advancement","cu_story_tag-equity-diversity-and-inclusion","cu_story_tag-sprott-school-of-business"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/76504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/76504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97473,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/76504\/revisions\/97473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=76504"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=76504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}