Rob Hunter
General Partner at Speaker Ventures
Rob Hunter
General Partner at Speaker Ventures
Toronto, Ontario
Overview
Work Experience
General Partner
2024 - Current
Speaker Ventures helps entrepreneurs acquire venture-backed startups that have built solid, revenue-generating products but are no longer on a unicorn trajectory. We're aiming to help entrepreneurs "hit doubles" rather than striking out trying to hit a Grand Slam.
Faculty
2022
Coming back to teach Entrepreneurship at Ivey in the HBA, MBA, and MSC programs has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my professional career. I've had the chance to engage with hundreds of incredible students, and was very fortunate to be awarded the David G. Burgoyne teaching award by my HBA's in 2023.
Chairman
2019
Providing guidance, strategic planning, cheerleading, and financial oversight while pursuing new adventures.
Founder & CEO
2014 - 2019
HigherMe uses data and video to help retail and restaurant employers find, screen, and hire better employees faster. We're part of the Winter 2015 Y Combinator batch.
CEO & Co-Founder
2019 - 2021
Lexria makes the bankruptcy intake process simple and easy for lawyers and their clients. Lexria allows lawyers to onboard a new consumer bankruptcy client in less than an hour - so lawyers can spend their time helping more clients and not chasing paperwork. For bankruptcy clients, the process of filing can feel confusing, intimidating and lengthy causing many to never finish the steps required to file. By making it easier for bankruptcy attorneys to work with their clients, more Americans can achieve the fresh start that they deserve. Interested in a Demo? - Click Here (https://www.lexria.com/intake)
Adjunct Professor
2014 - 2017
I moonlight as an adjunct professor at Wentworth, typically getting in 1-2 classes every year. I love it. It's tutoring, theater, and mentorship all in one. I've met some wonderful students and am hopeful I haven't screwed them up too badly.
Data Scientist
2013 - 2014
Mobee is gathering and organizing the world’s offline data. Sound familiar? It’s built by former Googlers, who realized that not all of the world's data and information is available online. We gather this data through our “smartphone army” and distill it into actionable insights that brands like Gap, Subway, and Coke require but are unable to obtain.
Owner / Operator / Franchisee
2007 - 2014
Immediately after graduating from undergrad, I signed a franchisee agreement with Marble Slab, and opened the chain's first location in Kitchener in April 2008. The store did very well! So I opened another one as quickly as I could in Waterloo in April 2009. This one did even better! So I set out to open as many locations as quickly as I could. This turned out to be a very bad idea! The chain struggled, with about half of the locations open across North America closing down. Mine were no exception. Between 2009 and 2010, I opened an additional five locations - and then unfortunately closed five of the seven down in 2011. I held onto the Waterloo store for a few years in an effort to starve off bankruptcy, but finally had to sell it and move on. While I suffered significant financial losses from my Marble Slab experiences, the personal growth and grit I experienced are priceless, and I would not have been able to have a successful entrepreneurial career had I not been knocked down a few pegs in my 20's.
Rental Agent
2011 - 2013
• Rented hundreds of properties to prospective tenants throughout London Ontario, with a focus on student rentals for the University of Western Ontario and Fanshawe College.
Owner / Operator
1999 - 2007
I sold Japanese professional wrestling VHS tapes & DVD's online! It was super fun. I was a fan of the content myself, which allowed me to have a good sense for what customers were looking for. Enough time has passed that I can admit - I was a bootlegger. I would import tapes from Japan and then utilize a 16-VCR setup in my Mom's basement to dub additional copies, including my bestseller - a "mix tape" set of the best matches of any individual year. As goofy and silly as this experience was, I made a lot of money doing it and cultivated my interest in entrepreneurship at an incredible young age (I sold my first tape on eBay at 14).
Education
Latest Articles
There’s something off about Ontario’s COVID-19 numbers
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