Mandy Potter

FROM IMAGINARY OFFICES TO BOARDROOMS. From a young age, Mandy Potter learned to leverage her differences as strengths. Growing up in Canada, she displayed an entrepreneurial spirit early on, trading Saturday morning cartoons for setting up makeshift offices with old cash registers and computers. This founder mentality flourished when, at 19, Mandy co-founded her first company, Cleanify, an online marketplace for cleaning services.

Cleanify’s success propelled Mandy and her brother into the Silicon Valley startup scene. Despite raising millions in venture capital, Mandy faced significant biases. “Walking into rooms 15 years ago as a queer woman covered in tattoos, I saw firsthand the bias in the VC world. They would only direct questions to my brother,” she shares.

This experience ignited Mandy’s long-term vision to help create a more inclusive venture capital environment. After Cleanify, Mandy returned to Vancouver to start Canada’s first on-demand cannabis delivery company. Inspired by her cousin’s battle with cancer and the stigma surrounding cannabis use, Mandy launched a service that quickly went viral. “We were on a multi-million dollar run rate in the first few months,” she says. Mandy gained invaluable experience from building a company in a regulated space and eventually went on to sell the company.

In early 2020, just as the world was grappling with the onset of COVID-19, Mandy faced a life-threatening health crisis. Diagnosed with a rare disease, she spent a month in the ICU and underwent a grueling nine-month recovery. This period of forced introspection taught Mandy the importance of balance, a lesson she hadn’t prioritized before. “I learned that if I’m not well, my company’s not running right,” she reflects.

During her recovery, Mandy stepped into executive roles at various companies, savoring the stability and free time it afforded. She embraced a balanced lifestyle, learned pottery, wrote a children’s book, and had a daughter with her partner. Yet, the entrepreneurial itch remained.

With her partner, Mandy co-founded Joey, a company designed to “help people make babies at home” through at-home insemination kits. “We wanted to create something safe and comfortable for other people,” Mandy explains. The project, initially aimed at queer families, found unexpected success among heterosexual couples as well. “85% of our consumer base are straight couples, which is not at all what we expected” she reveals.

TURNING ADVERSITY INTO OPPORTUNITY. Mandy’s latest venture, Misfit Ventures, is a culmination of her journey and vision. As Canada’s first LGBTQIA+-focused venture fund, Misfit Ventures aims to support underrepresented and overlooked founders. “I always knew I wanted to get into the VC side one day,” Mandy says. After many conversations with mentors and peers, she decided to create a fund that addresses the gaps she experienced firsthand.

Misfit Ventures is not just about funding; it’s about impact. Mandy emphasizes the importance of having diverse voices in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. “I have the privilege of going without a paycheck to build this fund, but not everyone has that luxury, and so it’s my responsibility to do something good with that privilege,” she notes. The fund seeks to provide marginalized founders with the opportunities they need to succeed without facing the biases Mandy encountered.

Mandy hopes her legacy is one of impact and inclusivity. She wants her daughter, who is Indigenous, to see her differences as strengths. “I want to create a future where people like my daughter don’t have the same experiences I did,” she says. Through Misfit Ventures, Mandy is paving the way for a more inclusive and diverse entrepreneurial landscape, ensuring that future founders can embrace their uniqueness and thrive.