Katy Yam
“My job in life is to elevate others.”
Katy is a natural connector of people and ideas in service of helping good people succeed. Partner at Real Ventures and General Manager of FounderFuel, Katy is a multilingual executive with a 20+ year history of managing high-performing product, business intelligence and marketing teams across various public and private industries including venture capital, artificial intelligence (Element AI), gaming (Loto-Québec), consumer packaged goods (Maple Leaf Foods), telecommunications (Bell Canada) and nonprofits (TEDxMontreal).
Her contributions to the startup community include being a board member at Front Row Ventures and the MT Lab, an All-Star mentor for TechStars (Montreal, Toronto, Melbourne), a steering committee member for SaaS North, a CDL Mentor and a mentor-ambassador for StartupFest.
Katy also serves as an independent board member at Loto-Québec, a crown corporation, following her nomination by the Quebec Cabinet. As an early-stage investor, she sits on 9 startup boards as a member, observer or advisor and is ICD.D certified. Since 2013, Katy has also led TEDxMontréal, a non-profit dedicated to elevating Montreal-born ideas onto the global TED stage.
Her ambition is to help founders level up quickly by cultivating their self-awareness, developing a #givegenerously mindset and filling knowledge gaps from Real’s rich network of mentors and founders. Prior to joining Real, Katy spent 3 years at Element AI, scaling from pre-Series A to its global footprint as Canada’s largest AI company prior to its exit via acquisition.
A guest lecturer, board member, public speaker and triathlete, she adores reading fiction of all sorts and riding/running to unwind.
