$100k Best of the Fest Investment Prize

Gary A. Pudles is a “serial entrepreneur” who focuses on helping organizations execute better and become more profitable all while having fun. He is the Founder and CEO of AnswerNet, and the co-founder of TextGen, SA Billing, Splendtastic, and Subout. He is a winner of the SmartCEO Best-Run Companies award and the prestigious “Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year” for business service providers and has led AnswerNet to the 21st spot on the Inc. 500. He also teaches Entrepreneurship at the University Of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School Of Business and is a regular participant in Startup Camp and the Intl’ Startup Festival. Pudles’ philosophy is that every project he is involved in must be with the intent of helping companies run their businesses more efficiently and profitably. However, it must be according to their unique style – not by forcing them into a predetermined template, but by replicating proven processes and adding that custom twist unique to their needs.

Anne Martel is a serial entrepreneur, most recently Co-Founder and CAO of Element AI, a Montreal-based AI company acquired by ServiceNow. There, she was responsible for the vision, design, implementation and continuous improvement of operations groups, namely finance, human resources, brand and marketing, government relations and public affairs, and legal functions. 

Anne previously had a successful exit in the medical sector in 2014, where her focus was on manufacturing and distribution of medical devices. She holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University), and bachelor’s degrees in Finance and in Fine Arts from Concordia University.

A passionate art enthusiast and philanthropist, she is involved in Montreal’s thriving community of entrepreneurs as a spokesperson, an angel investor, and a board member of OSMO Foundation, a non-profit established in 2009 to help grow the local startup community. She also sits on the boards of the Université de Montréal and of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Foundation.

Now a veteran Judge at the festival, Cary has been working for over 25-years to bring companies to the next level as a hands-on Angel Investor, seasoned C-Level Executive, active Board Member and a very outspoken accelerator program Mentor.

After co-founding and successfully bringing Web APM company Coradiant to exit, he’s managed several prosperous ventures and exits, currently he is helping bring bleeding edge AI and cloud camera technology to the world as COO of IONODES. He has over 300 million dollars in exits under his belt and is a strong proponent of boosting Canada’s tech scene on the world scale.

Lexi is a founder turned investor, currently serving as a Venture Partner with Pender while actively making angel investments. With a robust background in entrepreneurship, Lexi leverages this experience to identify and support promising startups. As the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of conversationHEALTH, Lexi spearheaded the development of an AI-driven platform that revolutionized engagement between healthcare companies and their customers. Their immense growth attracted the attention of Real Chemistry, leading to the acquisition of conversationHEALTH in April 2022. Before this milestone, Lexi started her entrepreneurial journey while studying engineering at Queen’s University, where she founded her first company and joined DDQIC and the Next 36 to engage with Canada’s top entrepreneurs. As a young leader, Lexi has learned how to assert her passion, unique expertise, and foresight to successfully initiate digital transformation initiatives in an industry that might just be the slowest to embrace change.

Jeremy has been an angel investor for 13 years.  He's invested in 125+ companies at the seed stage via direct investment or syndicate, mostly in deep tech, but also including a dress marketplace, makeup company, ghost kitchens, bras for tweens (from the Startupfestival stage!), and more!  He has deep experience in distributed computing and AI/ML infrastructure.  He was the first hired employee of reddit, first SRE at Netflix, worked on AI/ML infra for Alexa at Amazon, has worked at Apple, eBay, and PayPal, and is currently the CEO of DBOS, a company that makes the best platform for agentic AI.

Seasoned finance executive and COO with a strong background in distressed lending, operational strategy, and business transformation. With over 25 years of experience driving performance and navigating complex financial landscapes, brings a pragmatic, hands-on approach to finding practical solutions.

Now channeling that experience as an active angel investor, is particularly energized by early-stage tech startups. Looking for passionate founders and scalable ideas — not just the next big thing, but the next useful thing. While he comes from a finance-first background, he approaches the startup world with curiosity, humility, and a deep respect for builders turning vision into reality.

Annie Hebert-Lalonde is a seasoned executive with over 18 years of experience in the global technology consulting industry. She has held key leadership roles, most notably heading the largest platform business group in Canada, where she led complex transformation initiatives and drove growth across multiple sectors. Annie is known for her strategic vision, collaborative leadership style, and ability to navigate large-scale, high-impact projects. She is now pivoting into a more client-centric executive role, where she continues to bring innovation, insight, and a deep understanding of client needs to the forefront of her work.

Beyond her corporate achievements, Annie is an active contributor to the Montreal community. She has served on various non-profit boards, sharing her expertise to support mission-driven organizations, and has acted as a judge in MBA case competitions, mentoring and evaluating the next generation of business leaders. Her commitment to community engagement and talent development reflects her passion for both professional excellence and meaningful impact outside the boardroom.

Felicity Meyer leads BoxOne's investments in cleantech, foodtech, and agtech. With her operator mindset and expertise in life cycle assessment, she provides an optimistic and practical viewpoint for future-proofing environmentally significant industries.

Felicity actively supports the BoxOne portfolio, leveraging her experience managing lab operations for Boston's top biotech accelerator and leading teams across early stage med device and foodtech. During her graduate studies she was both a McGill Sustainability Education Fellow and FRQ Grad2VC Fellow. Today, Felicity is a Board Member of McGill Ventures and mentor for Simmons University’s NASA-funded DREAM-WSTEM program.

She is both an avid climber and skier. Felicity holds a M.Sc. in Bioresource Engineering from McGill University, as well as a B.S. in Chemistry and B.S. in Physics from Simmons University in beautiful Boston, Massachusetts.

Phil may have an engineering background, but this seasoned entrepreneur got a taste of the startup world fresh out of university. His journey started in the early 90s pre-internet era when he joined Public Technologies Multimedia—a startup that grew from a handful of people, to hundreds of people in just a few short years. Although he launched his career as a programmer, Phil was quickly drawn into the business side of startups and has pursued this vocation ever since. From PTM he joined Locus Dialogue, a speech technologie firm aquired by Nuance Communications. In 2003 Phil decided to start his own business centered on bringing innovation to the enterprise market. Despite his 20+ years of executive experience driving strategic business development, his heart was always in startups so he created a series of events that have now come to be the largest events in Canada for entrepreneurs. Phil is also a board member of the Osmo Foundation, lecturer at McGill University and is the President and Chairman of the Montreal Startup Foundation. Phil is the Founder of Startupfest, the Elevator World Tour, and FWD50.

Steven Abrams is Partner in BDC Capital’s IT Venture Fund, Women in Technology Venture Fund and Thrive Venture Fund. He joined BDC in 2001, after almost nine years in investment banking with ScotiaMcLeod and two years as CFO of an interactive advertising agency.  He holds an MBA in Finance from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science from McGill University.

Board Director or Observer/Investor in BDC portfolio companies: Hopper, Sonder, Crowdriff, Salesfloor, Sanctuary AI, Manifest Climate, Lufa Farms, Waabi, Innerspace, Private AI, Sheertex, Symend, Odaia, GoodeeWorld, Plum.io, HiMama/Lillio, Aifred Health, Uvaro, Swept, Magnestar, Permalution, Ohh Foods, Omy Labs and past investments: Coveo (IPO), Unsplash (Getty Images), Sampler, Calendar Hero (Vendasta), Invidi (WPP/Dish/DirectTV), RenoRun, Delve Labs (Secureworks), Datacratic/mldb.ai, Mightycast, Vantrix, Bunch (Varagesale), Guestful (Tacit), Trumpet (VEC). Immunio (Trend Micro), Beyond The Rack, Bluestreak (Espial), Third Brigade (Trend Micro), Max-T (Avid). 

Steven has been a charter member of the C100, a network of Canadian VCs and tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, for 14 years. Steven is a past Vice-Chair of the Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation of Montreal and is a Director of the Upside Foundation.