Ryan Poissant has been named the first COO of Toronto-based Nudge Rewards.
Poissant’s focus will be on ensuring operational excellence as the company scales. In the past, Poissant has acted as executive lead of corporate engagement at the MaRS Discovery District, where he helped corporate partners connect to the innovation ecosystem, delivered executive education programming, and advised growth-stage ventures.
Prior to MaRS, Poissant was VP of marketing and business development at Customer1, an enterprise software company focused on the CRM market. He also established the Canadian operations of eStara, a customer engagement solutions company acquired by ATG, which was subsequently acquired by Oracle); and was the co-founder and CEO of Cobblestone, a startup enabling multi-channel CRM program execution.
“Ryan is a respected entrepreneur and advisor within the Canadian tech ecosystem. He is uniquely talented in not only building great businesses, but growing teams and supporting the people within them. He will bring value to every stage of our business as we scale,” said Lindsey Goodchild, CEO of Nudge Rewards.
While at MaRS, Poissant was an advisor to Nudge Rewards and worked closely with the founding team for over five years.
“As an advisor, I was fortunate to have a front row seat to the Nudge Rewards journey from seed stage startup to one of Canada’s top scaling ventures,” said Poissant. “As leading brands increase their focus on empowering frontline team members to drive better performance, the company continues to see strong demand from Canadian, US, and international customers. I looking forward to helping shape the organization during this next growth phase.”
In November 2017, Nudge Rewards raised a $5 million Series A from BDC Capital, Brightspark Ventures, and MaRS IaF-managed fund StandUp Ventures, a new venture firm dedicated to investing in companies with at least one woman founder.