About
Adam
McNamara.
Computer scientist, founder, and Shopify's first VP Product. Writing first cheques into deep-tech founders since 2012.
Backing the scientists
and engineers building the future.
I co-founded a mobile product company that Shopify acquired. I stayed on as Shopify's first VP Product and spent three years helping build what's now one of the most important commerce platforms on earth.
I'm a computer scientist by training, and my favourite part of this work is learning fundamentally new science from the people who discovered it. I also know how hard it is to raise money for deep tech. The ideas look too strange, the timelines too long, and most investors don't have the technical background to tell what's real. So founders working on important things spend their time convincing people instead of building.
We try to fix a small part of that with a fast, technically informed first yes. Since 2012 we've been investing our own money in founders working on hard, unproven ideas. If you're working on something like that, I'd love to learn more.
Background
General Partner. A family office writing first cheques into deep-tech founders. 40+ investments across Canada and the US.
Shopify's first VP Product. Built the merchant platform and the product organisation during hypergrowth, as Shopify grew from startup to a commerce platform used by millions.
Co-founded a mobile product company. Shopify acquired it, which led to the VP Product role.
Software engineer working at the intersection of cryptography, signals analysis, and national security.
Software engineer building systems to detect and disrupt financial crime at national scale.
The foundation for everything since: reading papers, evaluating deep tech, and knowing what's actually hard.