CFO Advisory and Finance Services for Growth Technology Companies

The BrightIron team is made up of seasoned CFOs, finance executives, controllers, accountants and bookkeepers who have real life experience building, operating and growing successful technology companies. We deliver a full range of world-class financial services tailored to your business, as well as financial leadership, oversight and coaching to meet the needs of any growing company.

Wilson Lee

Extensive financial, operational, capital markets and M&A experience with high technology companies in Canada and US

Wilson has more than 20 years of experience in finance, operations, M&A and capital markets, having worked as an investment banker, venture capitalist, and senior executive during his career.

His varied background includes work as a president, COO and CFO, building, growing and managing high-growth technology companies such as Fortiva (acquired by Proofpoint [Nasdaq: PFPT]), Borderware Technologies (acquired by Watchguard), ActivPlant (acquired by CDC Software), and FloNetwork (acquired by DoubleClick [Nasdaq: DCLK]), and raising over $100 million in venture capital investments for various firms. Wilson was also an entrepreneur in residence at Ventures West, a $700 million venture capital fund.

Most recently, as founding partner of BrightIron, Wilson has worked and advised companies such as Joist, Cirba, Nudge, Nexonia, Format, JibeStream, Chango (acquired by Rubicon Project), Surf Easy (acquired by Opera Software), ClearFit, Influitive, UberFlip, LiveClips (acquired by DIRECTV), Mazooma, and Mtrex Networks.

Wilson graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and obtained his Chartered Account designation while working at Arthur Andersen.

Martha Ainsley

Chartered Accountant with over 20 years experience as a Finance professional within small to medium-sized technology companies

Martha combines a mix of strong financial and operational experience to deliver practical advice to the Companies she works with while providing financial transparency to allow management to make data driven decisions.

Prior to joining Brightiron, Martha led the finance departments at FloNetwork (acquired by DoubleClick) and Telmetrics. During her time with Brightiron, Martha has worked with many exciting growth tech companies such as Joist, Clearfit, Swift Medical and Flixel.

Martha obtained her CA designation while working at Arthur Anderson. Martha graduated from Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Commerce.

Lawrence Ho

Lawrence, a 20+ year veteran in the accounting field, has a knack for and enjoys the challenge of developing complex scenario-based financial models to help startup businesses.

During his tenure with JWT Canada as the Finance Manager, he led and successfully implemented the SOX compliance and certification process for the office. He was also the finance lead overseeing the budget control processes to keep advertising spending in line for major clients like Tim Hortons, Walmart, and HSBC.

Mandeep Saini

Seasoned finance and operations executive for small and medium businesses within the technology sector

Mandeep brings over 15 years of progressive financial and operational experience primarily working with small to medium businesses in the tech sector.

Prior to joining the team, Mandeep served as the CFO at Virgin Gaming during which time the company raised over $50M in financing, grew from 10 to 60 employees, and signed landmark deals with industry giants such as Microsoft, Electronic Arts, and Take 2 Entertainment. Mandeep has also served as the CFO at Hostopia where he was responsible for restructuring the company’s Finance operations and contributing to the acquisition and integration of numerous entities, ultimately resulting in the company doubling its revenue over a 2 year period. Mandeep has also held management positions at Genesis Microchip and Ernst & Young during his career.

At BrightIron, Mandeep has worked with and advised companies such as Nymi, Swift Medical, OMX, Pressley (acquired by Vision Critical), eScribe, Sky Guys, and World Gaming (acquired by Cineplex) with everything from capital raises, go-to-market strategy, RTO’s, and overseeing the company’s overall finance function.

Jana Al-Turk

Chartered Accountant with a passion for building scalable processes to help early stage tech companies grow.

Prior to joining BrightIron, Jana worked at Nymi where she led the finance function. Jana particularly enjoyed integrating finance with business operations and turning numbers into useful data for decision-making.

Harshesh Patel

Over a decade of online bookkeeping experience with a focus in streamlining processes and workflows

Harshesh has been assisting companies and clients with all their Bookkeeping needs for over 13 years. This includes setting up systems, processes and also managing the day to day needs of clients.

The objective is to streamline processes and make the workflow efficient. Harshesh has also worked with QuickBooks for over 10 years and is also a Certified Xero user. In addition, he has experience managing the books of a diverse group of companies, from large to small in various stages of their lifecycle. In addition to the day to day Bookkeeping, he can also setup and manage budgets and manage all their payroll needs using services such as Wagepoint, Ceridian, ADP and Payweb.

David Warshafsky

David is a finance professional who enjoys working with financial and operational data to help companies drive key strategic business decisions.

Prior to joining BrightIron, David has experience as the first-finance hire at two different SaaS startups. Most recently David worked at Askuity, where he helped the company through its acquisition and then integration into The Home Depot.

Tom Lieu

Performance-oriented financial and operational leader with progressive experience within the tech sector

Tom brings over 15 years of progressive financial and operational experience primarily within small to medium public companies within the tech sector.

Prior to joining the team, Tom served as the CFO of Crowdspark Limited. Tom was responsible for the financial reporting and operational management of the Company. Tom’s experience includes building and growing other tech companies including Route1 Inc, Engineering.com and OpenText. Tom is a performance oriented leader who has served in a variety of capacity including regulatory report, management reporting, technology implementation, capital raising and investor management.

Tom is a graduate of the Honours Bachelor of Business Administration program at Wilfrid Laurier University; a graduate of the Master of Business Administration at St. Mary’s University and holds a Certified Professional Accountant and Certified Management Accountant designation.

Celina Budhoo

Celina brings a great amount of accounting experience from a variety of industries. She has a passion for efficiency and is extremely interested in new technologies.

Celina enjoys working with start-ups to help them achieve exponential growth. She has a strong background in implementations and process creations/improvements. During her time with BrightIron Celina has worked with many exciting tech companies including Acto technologies, Inovex, Authentic Web and DragonTail Systems.

Ryan Seeds

Chartered Accountant with extensive experience assisting companies with business strategy, accounting and tax compliance

Ryan has the unique ability to see the big picture opportunities and strategies, assess their strengths and turn them into real tactical actions. He has robust business and financial experience but can think in the abstract and make practical connections.

He has over 18 years of experience working with small to medium sized private businesses in a diverse number of different industries. He was instrumental in the sale of a tech Company by preparing the financial information and analysis for prospective buyers and handling all the due diligence requests. He recently assisted a Company in the aerospace industry to obtain aircraft financing, grow market share and subsequently sell the business. He was involved in the $4 million acquisition of a renewable energy Company and corresponding financing as well as a merger with a major competitor. Ryan also helped negotiate and execute the complex sale of a construction Company for $11 million to a national competitor. In the past he helped a $180 million Company in the financial industry merge and go public due to pressure from OSC regulations.

Ryan has also owned and managed an accounting Firm for over 8 years and is well versed in external reporting, taxation and financial compliance. He has volunteered on various boards over the years mostly for NFPs focused on helping small businesses.

Wilson Lee

Extensive financial, operational, capital markets and M&A experience with high technology companies in Canada and US

Wilson has more than 20 years of experience in finance, operations, M&A and capital markets, having worked as an investment banker, venture capitalist, and senior executive during his career.

Wilson graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and obtained his Chartered Account designation while working at Arthur Andersen.

Mandeep Saini

Seasoned finance and operations executive for small and medium businesses within the technology sector

Mandeep brings over 15 years of progressive financial and operational experience primarily working with small to medium businesses in the tech sector.

Tom Lieu

Performance-oriented financial and operational leader with progressive experience within the tech sector

Tom brings over 15 years of progressive financial and operational experience primarily within small to medium public companies within the tech sector.

Martha Ainsley

Chartered Accountant with over 20 years experience as a Finance professional within small to medium-sized technology companies

Martha obtained her CA designation while working at Arthur Anderson. Martha graduated from Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Commerce.

Travis Phung

Chartered Accountant with extensive financial and operational experience assisting growth technology companies scale

Travis is a finance professional with a deep curiosity for new technologies. Before joining the team at BrightIron, Travis served as the Director of Finance and Administration at Exact Imaging, a Toronto-based medical technology start-up.

As Exact Imaging’s first finance hire, Travis was part of the executive management team that commercialized the world’s first and only high-frequency micro-ultrasound system used in the detection and diagnosis of prostate cancer. At Exact Imaging, Travis helped raise over $40M in financing and expanded the team beyond Canadian borders into Europe and the United States. Prior to Exact Imaging, Travis was a Senior Associate in KPMG’s Enterprise practice where he provided audit and advisory services to small and medium sized private businesses.

Travis graduated from the University of Western Ontario where he was awarded the program’s gold medal and is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at the BioMedical Zone, a Toronto-based accelerator focused on the development of technology-focused early-stage companies that deliver solutions to real world health problems.

Puneet Arora

Finance and Operations specialist, with a passion for involvement with technology firms and startups

Puneet loves drawing analytical insights from financial data and being an impactful finance partner to businesses. He brings over 10 years of experience helping tech companies in varied finance and operations roles, including senior contributions at a couple of unicorn tech startups in India.

Prior to his association with BrightIron, Puneet headed the Finance & Ops function at Influitive, a marketing & community focused SaaS business based in Toronto. He was born and raised in India, and moved to Toronto in 2016 after contributing to multiple unicorn startups in their hyper-growth phase. Puneet was VP Finance at Zomato, a restaurant discovery platform which later acquired Urbanspoon to enter North America; and served as the Head of Strategic Initiatives at Ola Cabs, India’s market-leading ride-sharing platform. He also played a key role in travel company MakeMyTrip’s IPO on Nasdaq back in 2010.

Puneet earned an MBA from IIM Calcutta, one of India’s top 3 business schools; and Bachelor of Commerce degree from SRCC, India’s top-ranked under-graduate program. He started his career at Ernst & Young, before discovering his passion for technology businesses. When he is not at work, he loves being outdoors or playing racquet sports like table tennis or badminton.

Ryan Seeds

Chartered Accountant with extensive experience assisting companies with business strategy, accounting and tax compliance

Divya Kamath

Chartered Professional Accountant with operational expertise and deep expertise in external financial reporting

Divya brings a fresh outlook to the BrightIron team through her wealth of experience wearing different hats at small and medium sized businesses.

Divya has a passion in helping her clients understand their business better as they grow. She enjoys working with companies to create efficient processes designed to provide an accurate view of their current and forecasted financials. In addition to her operational experience, Divya has deep expertise in external financial reporting criteria, including the financial reporting requirements associated with RTO transactions. During her time with BrightIron Divya has worked with many exciting, high-growth tech companies including Borrowell, CryptoGlobal (acquired by Hyperblock), The Sky Guys, OMX, and Curasion.

Prior to joining BrightIron, Divya received her CPA while working at Ernst & Young as a Manager within their Assurance Services group. In her free time, she volunteers with social enterprises and sole proprietors, helping them sort out their financial needs.

Caroline Klein

Over 20 years experience in accounting, bookkeeping and operations for small to mid-size businesses

Caroline brings over 20 years of bookkeeping, accounting, and operational experience from a variety of sectors. She has a strong background in small to mid-sized businesses in tech, manufacturing, distribution, customer service and film.

Harshesh Patel

Over a decade of online bookkeeping experience with a focus in streamlining processes and workflows

Harshesh has been assisting companies and clients with all their Bookkeeping needs for over 13 years. This includes setting up systems, processes and also managing the day to day needs of clients.

We are a team of seasoned Finance Professionals who are helping growth technology companies to maximize enterprise value

Why work with BrightIron?

We Understand Business

While we love accounting and are great at what we do, our team takes the time to learn your business and what makes it thrive. As a result, you get more insight and value than what your typical accountant or bookkeeper provides. Whether you’re focused on maximizing operational efficiencies or improving your bookkeeping process, BrightIron can help you identify existing shortcomings and implement more effective solutions.

Technology and Software Driven Approach

We implement the latest technology and cloud software to modernize your accounting and back office processes. This gives you access to industry-leading tools and solutions built around the capabilities you need most. When combined with our talented team of bookkeepers, controllers, and CFOs, the result is a world-class finance function, tailored to your business’ individual needs.

Trusted in the Industry

Our clients love working with us! And over the years we have developed great relationships with customers, venture capitalists and industry professionals. We have been fortunate to grow our business by client referrals.