Aliya Ramji, co-founder and partner of MT>Ventures, believes that a company’s success is not just decided by the faces on its cap table.
“We often think of VCs as being the arbiters of who’s going to win or lose in this sector,” Ramji said. “In reality, there is an entire ecosystem at play, especially in Canada.”
“We’re not just here for your Series A, B, or C. Our team recognizes that you have problems in between.”
MT>Ventures, co-founded and led by Ramji, is part of that ecosystem.
Despite what its name might suggest, it isn’t a venture capital firm, a private equity fund, or an incubator. It’s a legal practice within one of Canada’s most established law firms, focused on providing unique support to tech startups.
Instead of getting involved only in high-profile transactions, the team embeds itself into the day-to-day realities of startup life, helping founders navigate everything from employment contracts to regulatory hurdles, and tapping into the firm’s larger network to facilitate meaningful connections.
This hands-on approach to legal support, combined with an unconventional billing model, are built on Ramji’s belief that the right legal support can be just as pivotal to a startup’s success as its financiers.
The guardrails to growth
After earning her Juris Doctor from Queen’s University, Ramji began her career in pharmaceutical patent litigation and trademarks. From there, she moved to an in-house legal role at Canadian Standards Association and pursued a master’s degree in law at New York University.
While these experiences sharpened her understanding of business and regulations, Ramji’s perspective on legal services shifted dramatically in 2014, when she joined Figure 1, where she ran legal and corporate affairs.
The environment was high-stakes and fast-paced, with Figure 1 expanding its platform from six to 196 countries in just over a year. It was Ramji’s front row seat to the interplay between law and business decisions.
“Startups are going to move fast and break things,” she said. “The lawyer is both guardrail and facilitator for the organization. When you’re on the inside of a company, you really understand that.”
Her work at Figure 1 caught the eye of McCarthy Tétrault, one of Canada’s oldest and largest law firms, which approached her in 2019 with an offer to let her build something new for the country’s tech sector.
“A lot of the other big firms had emerging markets or emerging tech practices, and McCarthy’s knew it had something unique to contribute to the sector,” she said.
Thinking like a VC
Today, MT>Ventures has carved out a role as an embedded legal partner for startups, blending legal smarts with strategic guidance and the ability to make valuable connections. It has grown its portfolio of clients to include ReturnBear, proptech companies Requity Homes and Placeholder, Walnut Insurance, and cleantech startup Canada’s Forest Trust.
While MT>Ventures fundamentally operates as a legal practice, Ramji said its approach mirrors the focus and strategy of a venture firm. That means the team doesn’t take on every prospective client.
“We’re picking the companies that we believe will go through life stages and will win the market,” Ramji said, adding the firm generally targets startups between pre-seed and Series B, though many others are bootstrapped.
For Ramji, picking winners requires a thorough diligence process not unlike that of an investor. “The most important thing to me is the founding team, and whether they’re more obsessed with the problem than anyone else in this space,” she said.
MT>Ventures specializes in complex industries where startups face larger legal and regulatory challenges, such as healthtech, cleantech, proptech, and EdTech.
To guide these companies through multiple stages of growth, Ramji and her team also introduce them to potential partners, suppliers, and advisors. They do this by drawing on McCarthy Tétrault’s broad client base in areas like tax law, real estate, and municipal law, among other areas.
“We have 800 people that we can make introductions for our clients,” Ramji added. “I think that makes for a really nice ecosystem within the firm itself.”
More than a deal-closer
Ramji believes MT>Ventures stands out from other tech-focused legal practices in Canada.
“We’re not just here for your Series A, B, or C,” Ramji explained. “Our team recognizes that you have problems in between those rounds.”
To support that differentiation, MT>Ventures created one of the practice’s most unique features: its pricing. While most legal firms bill hourly for their services, MT>Ventures offers a monthly fixed-fee billing model.
While some of MT>Ventures’ services do operate on the billable hour model, Ramji said the monthly option gives startups more predictability as they budget for legal services, and allows MT>Ventures to be more of a partner than merely a deal-closer.
“Startups are managing talent, creating supplier agreements, dealing with regulatory challenges,” she added. “Those issues come up constantly, and the billable hour doesn’t make sense in that context.”
A different measure of success
As MT>Ventures grows, Ramji aims to prioritize impact over volume. She hopes to maintain a client base of 75 to 100 startups—small enough to maintain quality of service.
“Anything past that, and you’re not able to think about all your clients on a regular basis. It becomes very transactional,” she added.
MT>Ventures’ approach also shapes how it measures success for the startups it supports. While the firm provides guidance on funding rounds and other deals, Ramji said the true markers of success go beyond transactions, and instead include more tangible progress, like building strong teams and expanding into new markets.
For Ramji, MT>Ventures’ own success is reflected in its clients’ ability to reach those milestones.
“We’re really in it to win it with them,” she added. “We want to help startups focus on their vision and let us handle the opportunities and obstacles along the way.”
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If you are a founder or a startup looking for counsel, learn more about MT>Ventures.
Photos provided by MT>Ventures.