At Best Startup Canada we track over 100,000 Canadian startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top British Columbia based CEO’ operating in the Messaging space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.ca.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Stewart Butterfield
Co-Founder and CEO of Slack
Stewart Butterfield serves as the CEO and Co-Founder at Slack Technologies, Inc. Stewart Butterfield serves as the President of LudiCorp Research and Development Ltd. Stewart Butterfield directed the 11-member design group (creative/visual/UI, production & QA) at Communicate.com, where he acted as design lead or managed teams on millions of dollars worth of projects for companies like HSBC and Sears Travel. He co-founded Flickr at Yahoo! Inc. Stewart Butterfield has served in the W3C’s XForms working group and has been active in many other professional organizations. He has also a long consulting interaction design career, most recently with Telus, the CBC and The Economist. Stewart Butterfield founded the 5K competition, a lo-fi, high-profile design award, which has been featured everywhere from Playboy to Le Monde to USA Today. He serves as a Member of Advisory Board at Wantoo Networks Incorporated. Stewart Butterfield is a frequent speaker on design and technology topics at professional and academic events across Europe and North America. He was recently named to the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences and is a nominating judge in the Webby Awards (for Best Practice). In 2001, he was nominated for a Chrysler Design Award. In 2006, Time magazine’s put him on their list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Stewart Butterfield received a BA (Hons. with Distinction) in philosophy from the University of Victoria, and an MPhil in philosophy from Cambridge University, graduating with a First.
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About Slack: Slack is an enterprise software platform that allows teams and businesses of all sizes to communicate effectively.
Jesse Joudrey
CEO, Co-Founder of VRChat
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About VRChat: VRChat is a virtual reality social platform that allows users to easily build social virtual reality content.
Chris Jensen
Co-Founder & CEO of Left™
Chris began his career in the UK working for multi-nationals and banks and continued on in the banking and brokerage industry upon moving to Canada. He has a strong understanding of the finance markets and has lived the pain of raising capital for early stage companies during the beginning stages of growth, from 25 to 80+ employees. He has founded several start-up companies in his career, two of which have now won BCTIA Tech Impact Awards. In his role as CEO for Left, Chris thrives on understanding the big picture and on moving the levers that drive the company forward. This includes financing, strategic partnerships, and corporate development. Chris holds a BSc (Honours) in Economics and History from Queen Mary University of London.
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About Left™, RightMesh: Left is a multinational media and technology company with holdings in a diversified portfolio of mobile and Internet-based businesses.
Dan Zitting
Managing Director & CEO of Diligent
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About Diligent: Diligent is the largest GRC SaaS provider, with 1M users, across 23,000 organizations, valued at $7B+ and $500 million+ in revenue.
Steve Kaufmann
Founder and CEO of LingQ
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About LingQ: LingQ is an online community offering learning systems and tools to language learners with membership.
Sean Herman
CEO of Kinzoo
Founder of Kinzoo, a video-sharing app where children can connect and parents can be sure they’re safe. Kids use Kinzoo to access the best of what technology has to offer — empowering creativity, connecting with friends and family, and learning about the things they love — within closed, managed communities. Entrepreneur, CFA Charterholder, and business leader with extensive experience ranging from founder and CEO to project manager and corporate finance analyst.
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About Kinzoo: Kinzoo is a new private messenger that turns screen time into family time.
Yury Buryanau
Founder & CEO of Frandom
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About Frandom: Two people in the same room blindfolded
Kehar Gill
CEO of yWorld
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About yWorld: yWorld is an online platform that allows its users to chat and have HD video conferences while collaborating on documents.
Kehar Gill
CEO of yWorld
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About yWorld: yWorld is an online platform that allows its users to chat and have HD video conferences while collaborating on documents.
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