Janet Bannister
Partner, Real Ventures
About Janet Bannister
Working in tech can be an isolating place for women, and especially for those who work at VC firms. Seventy per cent of Canadian venture capital firms have no female partners, while only 12 percent of all partners are women, according to a report by Move The Dial.
Janet Bannister is on a mission to increase those numbers one startup at a time through her work at Real Ventures, Canada’s largest and most active early-stage venture capital firm. As a partner, she leads investments in over a dozen companies and works actively with diverse founders to help them build large, sustainable businesses. Bannister is probably best known for launching Kijiji.ca and growing it into one of the most visited websites in Canada and her work at eBay in Silicon Valley where she helped transform the e-commerce site into a mainstream marketplace.
“The most important thing is to be your own self and pursue your own passions; live your own dream, not someone else’s. Staying true to my values and doing work that energizes me has led me to have an extremely rewarding and fulfilling career.”
To learn more about how women across Canada are influencing the tech industry visit The Review.