Whoever says that women were meant for home and look after kids, belongs to the stone age. Every now and then, we get to read and learn more about such vibrant, young women who are making it big as entrepreneurs. Michele Romanow is no exception. She started Clearco, formerly Clearbanc, as a platform to reimagine businesses. She co-founded the company in 2015 with an idea to offer the most founder-friendly monetary solutions for SaaS, e-commerce, and mobile app business founders. Also considered to be a Tech Titan, Michele is the youngest entrepreneur ever to join CBC’s super-hit show – Dragon’s Den.
How did it Happen?
Michele Romanow, before becoming a woman founder, spent her childhood in Regina, a small town in Canada. She grew up with her folks amidst the farms. Because of this, she has always been very grounded. From a very young age, the value of hard work got instilled in her. She believed in putting her foot down and doing it all to take her business to the place where it is now. Her first business was a caviar fishery. People were really excited about it in the beginning. However, the supply chain part was not so glamorous.
Before her 33rd birthday, Michele Romanow founded five companies and exited two of them before her 30th. She has been the co-founder of SnapSaves, which was later on acquired by Groupon, and Buytopia.ca, which acquired ten of its competitors including WagJag and Shop.ca. in 2015, she joined as the youngest ever judge on CBC’s Dragon’s Den and has been a successful ‘Dragon’ for the last five seasons.
About Clearco
Formerly known as Clearbanc, Clearco is one of the pioneers in being an innovative, founder-friendly investment start-up in Canada. The company, instead of taking a stake in the companies it supports financially, Clearco offers them the funds which are needed in exchange for a flat 6% fee. This is paid back to them by the start-ups as and when they start earning revenues. To date, the company has invested more than $1 billion for 2,800 + organizations. Recently, Clearco launched a different kind of valuation appraisal platform for start-ups which is driven by Artificial Intelligence.
Clearco offers various products for all types of founders. Starting from inventory and marketing funding for the e-commerce businesses (ClearCapital), flexible financing for SaaS companies (ClearRunway), access to capital, an extensive network of apps, investors, and agencies, and data-driven advice (ClearAngel), Clearco aims at supporting start-ups in every way possible. Also, the company offers three free tools – ClearPartners, ClearValuation, and ClearInsights – to help businesses track and quantify their growth.
Wrapping it Up,
Clearco was co-founded by Michele Romanow in 2015 with an aim to be a constant support system for start-ups. The company believes in sticking with its start-up clients throughout their business lifecycle. This means, they are not only present to support the start-ups financially but are always beside them through thick and thin. Currently, the company deals in financing for e-commerce and subscription-based SaaS companies. And to be able to avail its financing for the ClearCapital and ClearRunway, the companies should have 6+ months of revenue more than 10k/month. For the ClearAngel financing, the company should be a registered corporation or limited liability company in North America, with 2-20k monthly revenue.
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Michele Romanow’s mantra has always been, ‘Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do’
Michele was a high achiever in academics. She did her civil engineering at Queen’s University. However, within the first year of her stay there, she understood that she was meant for bigger deals in life. At 19, she decided on opening a zero-waste café on her university campus and for that, entered several business plan competitions to raise funds. She didn’t win but she never lost hope. She opened The Tea Room during her fourth year there and today, 10 years later, it’s still run by the student government at Queen’s.
During her journey of being one of the most coveted young women entrepreneurs in Canada, she never listened to the naysayers. She believed dearly in herself, in her dreams, and launched 5 businesses before she turned 33. She also knew well the trick of leaving a place when necessary and therefore, exited two companies before the age of 30.
