John Eckert

John is passionate about discovering world-leading companies and mentoring great entrepreneurs. Through his investment in Lavalife, John met Bruce which eventually led to their co-founding of Round13 Capital.

Investing for over 25 years, John is one of Canada’s most experienced investors, having provided the initial funding to many of Canada’s world leading technology companies. In 1994, he co-founded McLean Watson Capital, Canada’s first software only investor. Start-up funding was provided to FloNetwork (sold to Doubleclick), Fortiva (sold to Proofpoint) and Skywave (sold to Orbcomm). McLean Watson was also the majority investor in i4i, and the driving force behind its patent infringement victory against Microsoft. John also provided the initial funding to Softimage, the world-leading 3D animation and first ever public company bought by Microsoft.

John has held senior positions in M&A and public financing with Wood Gundy. He is a past President and Chair of the Canadian Venture Capital Association and for several years, a judge of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award.