Michele Romanow is a Canadian woman tech entrepreneur, venture capitalist and television personality famous for founded five companies before her 33rd birthday. In 2015, Romanow became the youngest person to serve as a judge on CBC Dragons’ Den on its 10th season.
Michele Romanow is worth an estimate of $170 million. Her earnings are from her tech companies, her appearances of television personality and investments as a venture capitalist.
CBC announced Michele Romanow as one of the panelist of CBC Dragons’ Den reality television series for its 10th season in 2015. She was joined alongside two new dragons, another young entrepreneur Manjit Minhas known as the ‘Beer Baroness’. This article gives a breakdown of the youngest ever CBC ‘dragon’ Michele Romanow’s net worth, her husband, house and dragons’ den investment.
Early Life
Michele Romanow was born on 12 June 1985 in Calgary, Alberta just like fellow panellist Manjit Minhas but Romanow grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan. Romanow is a native Canadian though she has Ukrainian descent and her parents are Marvin and Dogmar Romanow. Marvin Romanow was the former CEO and president of Nexen. She has three siblings, a brother and two sisters; and she grew up with her siblings in a farmhouse in Canora. Romanow attributes her success as an entrepreneur to her father’s influence. Romanow attended Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario where she obtained a degree in Civil Engineering and later acquired MBA degrees from the same university. She received the Agnes Benidickson Tricolour Award at Queen’s University in 2007.
Michele Romanow’s Businesses
Romanow took her first step into business in 2006. She launched a student coffee shop while still in the university, which was the first zero consumer was coffee shop in the university. With success in this venture, Romanow partnered with two of her classmates to go into fishery. She started Evandale Caviar which supplied sturgeon caviar to hotels and restaurants; however, the business did not last long as it was affected by the 2008 recession, forcing her to shut down and venture into retailing. While working at Sears as the director of strategy in 2011, Romanow leverage on the rise in retail and partnered with his engineering classmates Anatoliy Melnichuk and Ryan Marien to launch Buytopia.co and Snapsaves as co-founders.
Romanow confessed Anatoliy Melnichuk taught her how to sell anything and take a risk as an entrepreneur. As friends, they spent time brainstorming over ideas or business that could profit them. Buytopia.co is an eCommerce company with about 2.5 million subscribers having provided over $100 million in savings through deals for products, events, merchants and services. Buytopia.co grew and acquired other competing companies and joined Emerge Commerce Inc. founded by Ghassan Halazon, which later acquired more deal sites such as WagJag and Shop.ca.
Romanow and Anatoliy Melnichuk co-founded their third company SnapSaves. SnapSaves is mobile couponing which was later acquired by Groupon in 2014 and later renamed Snap. The app partnered with consumer packaged goods, allowing shoppers to get cash back when they buy certain items in the grocery store. When Romanow joined the Dragon’s Den panel she found out that the space of time for the shooting of the Show did not allow many founders enough time to pitch, she was inspired to create another platform for many of these founders. She founded Clearbanc. Clearbanc is aimed at developing the fastest and most affordable way for the founders to fund their company. She offered founders $100k in exchange 5% of their revenue until they paid back the investment. Through the Clearbanc AI and machine learning model, the company has been able to invest in over 2000 companies totalling nearly $1 billion across multiple countries. Romanow stated that books like I love Radical Candor by Kim Scott and Little Black Stretchy Pants by Chip Wilson had a significant influence on her while setting up ClearBanc.
In 2017, Romanow teamed up with Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative founded by Ruma Bose as a non-profit venture where she promised female entrepreneurs applying through the initiative 10 per cent discount on loans obtained through her platform clearbanc.com. This is a way to assist small businesses to get inexpensive financing. She is the director of Vail Resorts since 2016, and the youngest of all the directors. Also, she serves as the director Queen’s School of Business and Shad International – a transformational program that develops the entrepreneurial potential of exceptional Canadian youth.
As Romanow rose in the ladder of business success, she received a lot of awards and recognition such as Toronto Board of Trade Award for entrepreneurs under 30, Canadian Innovation Award Angel Investor of the Year, WXN 100 Most Powerful Women and as the only Canadian on Forbes magazine’s “Millennial on a Mission” list. One of the uniqueness of Romanow is her ability to let others, especially her employees, learn from her. This is proven in the number of her former employees who had gone on to launch their businesses and become successful. Hence, she explains that her motive at Clearbanc is not only to create more entrepreneurs but to empower people within her organisation to be able to go off and build one thing if they want.
Michele Romanow and Dragons’ Den
Michele Romanow joined CBC reality business television series as a member of five investors on the panel in 2015, for the Show’s 10th season. Romanow was among the trio who replaced the trio of Arlene Dickinson, David Chilton and Vikram Vij. Her appearance made her the youngest panellist on the Show, and she remains the youngest till date. She has been on the Show for five series and remarkably known as the angel investor.
Michele Romanow Net Worth
Michele Romanow’s worth is an estimate of $170 million. Her earnings are from her tech companies, her appearances of television personality and investments as a venture capitalist.
Michele Romanow’s husband
Michele Romanow is not married. Instead, she has a boyfriend which she flaunts on her social media handle. Romanow seems to be genuinely in love with her partner Andrew DeSouza who is also her business partner. She co-founded Clearbanc with Andrew; also, Andrew is the CEO of Top Hand. They don’t have children yet as they are, however, to exchange vows.