Momentum at MaRS

Krista Jones is the chief delivery officer at MaRS Discovery District, North America’s largest innovation hub and Canada’s leading science and technology innovation ecosystem. MaRS builds communities of innovators and provides direct support for startups at every stage of growth. MaRS-supported companies currently employ over 33,000 workers, and have contributed over $29.6B to GDP since its inception. Since joining MaRS in 2008, Krista has focused extensive entrepreneurial and leadership experience to advise executives, motivate teams and develop programs aimed at scaling Canada’s most innovative companies. With a unique combination of technical expertise and a deep understanding of innovation ecosystems, Krista serves as a catalyst for change, enriching the ecosystem through initiatives such as the MaRS Momentum program, which targets high-growth companies to achieve $100 million in revenue. With over three decades of experience navigating complex stakeholder environments, Krista's leadership emphasizes adaptability, determination and excellence, fostering collaboration and employing data-driven strategies to seize growth opportunities. Passionate about addressing societal challenges, Krista's career is defined by her ability to inspire teams and transform ideas into reality. Before MaRS, Krista worked in successful venture backed startups like Personeta, Metronet and Allstream and large telecommunications companies holding technical leadership roles were marked by groundbreaking achievements that have left a lasting legacy on the Canadian tech landscape. She currently serves on the boards of BioConnect and TriOS College.

Scale-up experience: CEO of Argus Software

• Scaled to $60M ARR/$15M EBIT
• >80,000 customers in nine countries with 40,000 SMB users
• Transitioned company to SaaS model

• Company in turn-around; stabilized and refocused business to supporting 2.4M daily travelers
• Launched an innovative customer experience

• Ranked Wall Street analyst, Managing Director RBC Capital Markets. Covered B2B, B2B2C and other tech companies
• President, Rogers New Media
• BS/MS Engineering MIT; MBA from Harvard
• Creative Destruction Lab Mentor

• Optimizing your value proposition, demand generation and product value pricing strategies
• Positioning your company for success in public markets and late-stage financing, including understanding and managing investor and board stakeholder perspectives

Scale-up experience: Vice President, New Markets at Skype

• Employee #13 at Skype responsible for 90% of Skype’s total revenue via their telecom business revenues
• Led the market development strategies for Asia, South America, Europe
• Grew organization from $0 to $800MM in revenue – 90% of revenue base

• Responsible for establishing and running all Rdio territories outside the U.S.
• Established and opened offices in 85 different markets including India, Singapore, Australia, the UK, Germany, Japan, Brazil, Mexico and more

• Set-up multiple international joint ventures with business leaders from Nova Entertainment, and Grupo Bandeirandtes de Comunicaçã0 while at Rdio, and tom.com while at Skype
• Supported Starbucks as they expanded into China via local license holder including site selection and negotiating market entry
• Active entrepreneur of A Retail Space, navigated headwinds caused by COVID in the physical retail space to a successful merger

• International expansion
• Scaling international sales processes

Scale-up Experience: Head of Drug Development at Allelix Biopharmaceuticals

• Successful product development partnership with multinational Pharma
• Team member raising venture capital financing and eventual IPO
• Early-stage research through to clinical development

• Growth of drug development programs from 10 staff to over 200.
• Successful regulatory approval and marketing authorization

• Founder of Advanced Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering Consortium - industry-academic partnership
• Integrated multi-site contract manufacturing and clinical development facilities

• Biotech strategic partnerships
• Therapeutics product development strategies
• VC interactions and financing
• Product licensing (in-/out)

Scale-up experience:

• HR executive for several later-stage companies
• Scaled headcount from 30-50% YOY
• Significantly decreased turnover and re-engaged employees
• Supported the HR integration of two smaller companies and spun out of another

• Co-author of 2021/22 People Benchmarking Report for High Growth SaaS Companies
• Frequent contributor to The Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, HR Reporter
• Top 25 Human Resource Award winner

• M&A cultural integration
• Building a magnetic employer value proposition
• How do you measure up to external HR benchmarks

Scale-up experience:

• CEO of TransGaming (now FinDev, TSX-V: FDI), a leading digital media company Previously served as CFO/COO
• Took company public via RTO and raised over $25M
• Through strategic M&A acquired key talent and titles/brands to become first cloud-based games provider in cable TV segment
• CFO of Viron Therapeutics
• Raised US$20M Series B including venture and strategic investors

• Directly involved in over $500M of financing and M&A transactions in the past 10 years
• Past-CEO of Equation Angels, Canada's second largest Angel network, whose model he helped architect in 2017
• Investor and Past-Chair of the Board of Sensory Technologies, a health-tech venture
• Chartered Business Valuator

• Strategic Planning
• Inorganic growth / M&A
• Pitching for capital
• Mentorship

Petia leads program development for Momentum, a MaRS program that supports high-growth companies on their way to reaching $100 million in revenue. She started her career in foreign policy before pivoting into accelerating the growth of Canadian companies, helping them expand into international markets, connect with customers, and tap into funding.

Scale-up Experience:

• Global CMO of Ceridian
• Scaled Dayforce from $0 to $20M leading to acquisition by Ceridian
• Led Ceridian marketing team to most successful tech IPO of 2018 and $1B in revenue
• Restructured marketing organization into Revenue Center of Excellence leading to 40% of revenue driven by marketing
• VP Marketing of Workbrain
• Scaled Workbrain from $10 to $200M leading to acquisition by Infor
• Grew marketing organization from team of two to 20 people

• Founder of ACCELLE Women in Leadership, which accelerates the personal and professional success of women
• Board member of Orion Talent, Trios College

• All things pre-sales and marketing: brand, awareness, demand generation, PR, performance marketing, etc.
• Sales and marketing operations
• Leadership, organisation structure and team engagement
• Corporate scorecards, metrics and analytics

Scale-up experience: Executive Vice President, Pentair

• Grew company from $55M to $180M in 11 years
• Managed five integration projects
• Developed and championed Sales Process Excellence initiative across $250M global business unit
• Deployed globalization and channel growth strategy

• CEO of PE-owned company acquired for $32M and sold for $165M in five years
• Improved EBITDA margin from 9% to 20% via operational excellence strategy
• Acquired one bolt on company as vehicle to enter new market
• Built new US and Belgium plants to expand operations

• Investor and Board member of 2 growth ventures
• Investment thesis advisor to two PE firms

• Sales process
• Product portfolio management
• Strategy execution
• Operations/manufacturing continuous improvement

Scale-up Experience: Chief People Officer, League Inc

• Grew company from 160 to 800 globally in 4 years
• Introduced innovative recruitment programs, hiring ~200/year with ~20% becoming top performers in 6 months
• Spearheaded 20% increase in employees from underrepresented groups
• Developed talent management and total rewards programs that drove 85% employee engagement

• As Chief Talent Officer for Deloitte Canada led the transformation of a 170 person team (including a 30% headcount reduction) and managed a $30M budget
• Founding Partner of Move the Dial and BPTN (Black Professionals in Tech Network)

• Scaling people and culture
• Moving the dial on DEI
• Strategic planning for talent