Tough Commerce

Tough Commerce (YC W20) is a VC-backed B2B SaaS start-up delivering operations software for construction suppliers across Canada, USA, and Australia.

My role is to manage the business's day-to-day operations and strategy, leading Finance, People, Customer Success (Onboarding, Retention, Support, Expansion), Corporate Services, and Special Projects. I also serve as the Board Secretary.

Backed by Y-Combinator, MaRS IAF, Xploration Capital, L-Spark and more.

Vice President, Operations & Finance

Vice President, Operations

Amazon

Directed daily business operations for Amazon's largest site in Canada, leading a team of 180+, with a daily budget of $200K, consistently exceeding productivity, cost, quality, and employee satisfaction targets. Recipient of Amazon’s highest leadership rating in annual reviews.

Senior Manager, Operations (L5)

Manager, Operations (L4)

DirtMarket

Built DirtMarket, which became North America's largest soil marketplace, working with Fortune 500 construction teams including PCL, EllisDon, Aecon, Bird, LaFarge and GFL to re-use soil across project sites in Canada and USA and cut earthworks costs.

Backed by L-Spark. Featured in Canada Construction News, Top 10 Fastest Growing Start-ups in Canada by FoundersBeta, CKTB Radio, and more.

Founder & CEO

Brock University Students'​ Union

Elected President of the unviersity's student body, managing an annual budget of $13.5m and ~200 staff. Key projects included leading the Zone Fitness Centre Expansion project ($35m & 35,000 sq. ft.  award winning facility), managing and negotiating COVID-time transit contracts ($4m) with municipalities, and redefining the ancillary fee ($10.5m) structure to support students during COVID.

President

Vice President, Finance

Operations Associate

Dynacare

Coordinated the rebranding of 150+ Gamma-Labs locations to Dynacare after the acquisition.

YouTube

Launched and grew a YouTube channel from 0 to 4M+ subscribers with our team, gaining 400M+ views. Featured in hundreds of news outlets and magazines globally, including GQ.

Channel: @MyBollywoodBody

YouTuber

Empire Fitness Canada

Launched a fitness supplement retail business, achieving $150K in sales. Expanded to 10+ commissioned staff, serving over 300 customers across 3 countries.

Founder

Currently the Vice President, Finance & Operations at Tough Commerce, a Y-Combinator backed B2B SaaS startup. I lead core operations including Finance, People, IT, Corporate Services, Customer Experience and Special Projects.

Before joining Tough Commerce, I co-founded and led DirtMarket, a tech startup that revolutionized the way soil is managed by empowering earthmovers to utilize the circular economy. I bootstrapped the venture, built, and scaled from zero to over 1,000 customers (including Fortune 500), won multiple pitch competitions and awards, and secured funding to grow the business. I also worked as a Manager II, Operations at Amazon, where I cut my teeth in managing large scale projects and teams, directly managing teams of 180+ at Canada’s largest FC. I launched several initiatives to improve safety, quality, and productivity that had seven-figure impact. 

I studied professional accounting at the University of Toronto, and have a BBA (Honours) from the Goodman School of Business. I am currently advancing towards the CPA designation through CPA Canada.

Asad Jalib, PMP LSSBB

Ripple Ventures

To get in touch with the quickest reply, please email me at dom@rippleventures.com

Ripple Ventures leads pre-seed rounds in software companies transforming legacy industries and tech stacks in Canada & the US. We aim to be the first and most committed partner to help change the arc of success for companies.

Partner

RippleX Fellowship

Learn more here: fellowship.rippleventures.com

I started this fellowship program because I felt the struggles that every student out there faces when it comes to learning and gaining access to industry experts in startups/VC. Most programs out there were focused on sourcing, and none were focused on student development. 

Our fellowship program is anchored on content, and success of students that are either starting their own businesses as founders, or aspiring venture capitalists. We provide the content, experience, and guidance that trains the next generation of founders and VC's. 

We have three main pillars to the fellowship: 
1) Flagship Program: Every school semester we bring together 20-25 underrepresented student founders and aspiring VCs to teach them how to build venture-backable businesses and become investors. 
2) Online Course: Free self-paced resource for students who want to access the content we provide in the flagship program. (https://medium.com/rippleventures/launching-the-ripplex-fellowship-course-f76a7a90fef4) 
3) Fellow Fund: Investing $25-50K checks into student-led or first-time founders building in enterprise software, developer tooling, or web3 infra.

Founder & Program Lead 

Lula

Board Observer

Zenhub

Centro

Board Member

University of Waterloo Student Venture Fund

Currently helping the next generation of UW SVF students learn the ropes of venture capital by providing guidance on investments, market dynamics, and fund management. Proud alumni with the honor of paying it back. 

I was a part of building the foundation for the UW SVF as an Associate in 2018, helping source opportunities and going through diligence alongside other VCs and angels. During this time, I helped SVF create processes and frameworks to scale the program.

Investment Committee Member

AAAIM

Member

Gold House

Gold Rush is the nation’s leading API-focused accelerator that celebrates and supports the most promising Asian founders. Twice a year, 8-10 companies are selected to participate in a 12-week program. 

I'm working with founders in this program around go-to-market and fundraising.

Advisor - Gold Rush 

Various

I was an early advisor/mentor to many outstanding founders still in school, or recently graduated. Helped with everything from company formation, problem validation, GTM, financial management, and fundraising.

I've also freelanced with a few emerging managers early on in my career helping with pitch decks, fund modeling, portfolio construction, thematic research, and more.

Advisor / Mentor

Waterloo Alumni Angels

Helped source and analyze early-stage startups for an emerging angel investment group.

Scout & Selection Team 

To get in touch with the quickest reply, please email me at dom@rippleventures.com

Leading pre-seed rounds into software companies transforming legacy industries and tech stacks at Ripple Ventures. Also supporting underrepresented student and recent grad founders with $50-100K investments building in the same categories through the Ripple Fellow Fund. 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/_dominiclau
Ripple Ventures: https://www.rippleventures.com/
RippleX Fellowship Program: https://fellowship.rippleventures.com
RippleX Fellowship Course: https://ripplexfellowship.thinkific.com
Fellow Fund: https://www.fellowship.rippleventures.com/fellowship-fund

My job at Ripple Ventures is to help founders navigate challenges, be a thoughtful sounding board, and create value (GTM, hiring, fundraising). I'm extremely passionate about building communities to support underrepresented founders and aspiring investors, which led me to build the RippleX Fellowship program.

Dominic Lau

One of our fastest growing companies at Ripple Ventures. Like Matt Cohen posted about this, we couldn’t believe it until we saw the Stripe accounts and contracts they were signing with customers. 

Such an amazing story having met Matt Espinoza ✦ through RippleX many years ago when we made an exception to take someone typically “too young” for the program! Best decision ever 😅

Partner @ Ripple Ventures 🌊 (Inception-stage investing in exceptional founders building in critical industries)

Partner @ Clover (we're hiring!)—a holding company for internet businesses // mattespoz.com

We scaled Clover Labs from $0 to $700K/mo in 6 months.

Shared the entire story on The Product Market Fit Show 🎙️.

1/ Here's the unreleased story: 🧵
- The distribution hacks that took my first company from 0 to 250K users in a few months
- How we engineer millions of views without paying influencers.
- Why "volume negates luck" is the only growth strategy that matters

2/ The Clover Mission
Most founders obsess over product.

Second-time founders obsess over distribution.

AI solved the first problem.
We're solving the second.

3/ The podcast covers: 
- The exact cold email strategy that books us 13-18 demos per day
- How we guarantee num. 1 rankings on Google (and now ChatGPT)
- Why 30% of our revenue comes from referrals

4/ If you're trying to crack distribution at scale, this episode will change how you think about growth. Link in comments 

P.S. — We're hiring aggressively. Engineers, growth hackers, and operators who are obsessed with speed. Apply at Clover Labs 🍀

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Asad Jalib, PMP LSSBB

Dominic Lau

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The Battle

Asad Jalib, PMP LSSBB

Dominic Lau

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Dominic Lau's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreDominic Lau's LinkedIn Performance