Q: Tell us about your background and journey into venture capital.

Charles: My path into VC was somewhat roundabout. I grew up in a small mining town in Northern Canada and initially planned to work at a plant back home. After graduating in mechanical engineering during the financial crisis, my job offer was pulled due to the global hiring freeze at the time. This unexpected turn led me to McKinsey & Company, where I worked in strategy and operations, mostly in mining during a commodities super cycle. After McKinsey, I attended Harvard Business School and then went into private equity, again focusing on mining and oil and gas.

When oil prices crashed dramatically in 2016, I did some soul-searching recognizing that commodities weren't going to provide the type of growth-oriented opportunities I was looking for long-term. This period prompted me to rethink my path and make the shift into VC. Initially, I explored various sectors while holding an investment strategist-type of role at an entity resembling a sovereign wealth fund.

About four years ago, I had the opportunity to launch a deep tech fund, starting my journey into early-stage deep tech investing.

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Q: Was there something that drew you to early-stage deep tech?

Charles: In Canada, the VC landscape is still dominated by traditional B2B SaaS, e-commerce, and social media platforms—great businesses, but I struggled to get excited about them because they didn't seem to meaningfully move the needle in terms of human progress.

Deep tech, especially areas like machine learning and quantum computing, fascinated me because these technologies were reaching an inflection point—moving from pure science to actionable technology. The founders within deep tech dedicate their lives to very specific, challenging problems. They're not interested in failing fast and pivoting. They want to create genuine breakthroughs and that passion resonated deeply with me.

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Q: What led you to join the Celesta team?

Charles: I first connected with Celesta about two years ago when we co-invested in Stathera, a Montreal-based silicon timing company. The Canadian deep tech ecosystem is promising but relatively immature—it has talented researchers, innovative ideas, but lacks the network, commercialization skills, and repeat founder experience. To borrow a term from Celesta GP Nic Brathwaite, there's a deficit of “intellectual capital” here.

When I began working with Celesta, I realized what it meant to operate on an entirely different level. It was like being the best player in the minors, then stepping onto a major-league field. Celesta’s team has experience building enormous companies and accelerating growth dramatically. Venture is partly about picking winners, but also about actively supporting your investments to influence the outcome as much as possible. Celesta clearly excelled at both, and that inspired me to join.

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Founding teams are pouring their heart and soul into this, they’re taking massive risks. The least I can do is try to ensure that I’m mindful of their time, and that anyone who I meet with has gained something of value from our interaction.

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Q: Given your unique vantage point, what do you see as Canada's opportunity within deep tech VC?

Charles: Canada has historically punched above its weight in research. Our universities consistently rank among the world’s best, producing around 5% of the world's most-cited research despite comprising less than 1% of the global population. Public funding enables researchers to explore ambitious, blue-sky ideas without immediate commercial pressure.

The flip side of that is we've struggled to commercialize this research due to our smaller domestic market and limited local customer base. Startups here must internationalize immediately, which is difficult for talented scientists without business experience or the right networks.

Smart capital, with established connections and trusted international relationships, is critical for bridging this gap. I believe Celesta can be a big part of building that bridge, enabling Canada's ecosystem to unlock its full commercial potential.

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Q: Deep tech investing is becoming increasingly in demand within venture. Do you think there are specialized skills or knowledge necessary to succeed in this sector?

Charles: The interesting thing about deep tech is there's a lot more that is knowable upfront about whether a technology can deliver on its promises. With sufficient technical and market knowledge, you can understand if the technology can actually be built, whether it is likely to deliver the promised performance, and, if so, if that performance will be impactful enough that customers will actually buy it.  

Compare this to something like a dating app, where you are making bets on market trends and user preferences that can change very quickly and be difficult to gauge. Even then, your cost to acquire the customer will tend to go up through time as you saturate your market, and your economics will marginally get worse.

So deep tech is interesting because you can meaningfully de-risk investments at an early stage. But the catch is you need the right technical acumen to be able to evaluate complex technologies that exist within commercial ecosystems that are often very specialized.

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Q: Are there specific deep tech sectors or sub-sectors you're especially excited about?

Charles: One area I’m intrigued by is metals and mining technology. There are interesting applications emerging that focus on areas like enhanced recovery, improved modeling, sensor fusion, and recycling.

Quantum computing is certainly top-of-mind. We are getting closer to being able to solve previously unsolvable problems using this unprecedented computational power. I see big potential in compound semiconductors, such as gallium nitride (GaN) and gallium arsenide (GaAs) as we explore applications where silicon isn’t optimal. I’m also quite bullish on photonics in general as I like the networking space today given the nature of bottlenecks in AI datacenters.

I'm also optimistic about AI's intersection with biotech, particularly in early diagnosis and preventive medicine. Given current global healthcare trends and rising costs, innovative technologies in preventative and early-stage diagnosis will play a critical role in the future.

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Q: What criteria are you looking for in startups when evaluating potential new investments?

Charles: There are a few things I am always looking for. Is the problem significant enough to demand a real solution, and does the market structure allow capturing meaningful profits from solving it? Does the founding team have unique expertise that's hard to replicate? Are they uniquely suited to build and commercialize the technology?

I also pay attention to gross margins. If the product can't generate at least 70% gross margins, it likely isn't solving a critical enough pain point. Strong margins signal real customer value that is being delivered.

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Q: How do you approach building a successful partnership with founders?

Charles: Fundamentally, the most important factor is building a trusted relationship with the CEO where they understand we are on the same team, creating an environment where we are both comfortable sharing openly.

Once you have that partnership, investors can add tremendous value by virtue of their experience working with such a high volume of startups. We can help create a lot of clarity for founding teams and help them avoid the pitfalls of the “unknown unknowns” for a startup over time. These are lessons that can help accelerate their path to success dramatically.

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Q: Beyond generating strong returns, do you have a personal goal that guides your investing approach?

Charles: Ultimately, returns are paramount in venture capital of course. However, beyond financial performance, I strive to leave every company better off than before we met. If I can help founders improve their business model or pitch or make an introduction—even if I pass on investing—that interaction is meaningful.

Founding teams are pouring their heart and soul into this, they’re taking massive risks. The least I can do is try to ensure that I’m mindful of their time, and that anyone who I meet with has gained something of value from our interaction.

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Q: Is there anything you’re reading or listening to for fun these days?

Charles: I'm a huge sci-fi fan, and my favorite author is Neal Stephenson. I'm currently halfway through his novel Cryptonomicon. I highly recommend it!