speaker photo

Katy Yam (she/her)

General Manager, FounderFuel

Partner, Real Ventures

Katy is a natural connector of people and ideas in service of helping people with good intentions succeed.

Partner at Real Ventures and General Manager of FounderFuel, Katy brings over 20 years of multilingual executive experience in managing high-performing teams from product management, business intelligence to marketing, in both public and private industries, including venture capital, artificial intelligence, gaming, consumer packaged goods, telecommunications and nonprofits.

Katy is ICD.D board certified and serves as an independent board member for Loto-Québec, the MT Lab Incubator and Réseau Capital. As an early-stage investor, she sits on several startup boards as a member or observer. Since 2013, Katy has also led TEDxMontréal, a non-profit dedicated to showcasing Montreal-born ideas on the global TED stage.

Katy’s mission involves helping founders level up by fostering their self-awareness, cultivating a #givegenerously mindset and learning from Real Venture’s rich network of mentors and founders. Prior to her role at Real, Katy spent 3 years at Element AI, contributing to its global growth from pre-Series A to becoming the largest AI company in Canada before its acquisition by ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW).

Beyond her professional pursuits, Katy is a guest lecturer and triathlete. She finds solace in reading fiction of all sorts and likes to swim, bike or run to unwind.

Sessions

Keynote

Speed Circles

Pairs of founders meet a mentor one-on-two, connect, pitch, and get feedback—fast. Then we rotate the founders so you never have the same conversation twice. See More.
Keynote

Mentor Meetups

Small huddles with subject matter experts tackle common startup challenges, from culture and fundraising to product and pitching. Join our amazing mentors and get the help you need on the problems you’re facing! See More.
Keynote

Mentor Madness chain reaction panel

Mentors take lightning-fast turns as interviewer and interviewee onstage, sparking a conversation that heads in surprising and fascinating directions. See More.
Keynote

Hive mind

We crowdsource questions, upvote the best ones, and display stream-of-consciousness solutions our mentors can riff on from the stage. See More.