Betting on ambitious people before day one

Northside Ventures backs founders at the earliest stages and elevates them to their highest level—the Northside level.

Mission

We exist to help support ambitious Canadian founders in turning sparks of insight into enduring companies

We're filling a gap for founders looking more than just their first cheque—the ones looking for a true thought partner and sounding board through the ideation stage.

Our goal is to provide founders guide founders toward their point of visionary inflection and moment of clarity, and provide access customers and investors to bring their vision to life.

Our Ethos

Backing visionary founders at the earliest stages

Breakthrough ideas take time to inflect and we want to be there before it happens.

We invest in founders before ideas

Exceptional ventures start with extraordinary people. We put aside traditional metrics and entrepreneurial experience to find the fearless outliers who aren’t afraid of big ideas.

There’s no such thing as too early

We build relationships with founders while the map is still being drawn. If you “aren’t raising yet,” you’re in the right place.

An extension of your founding team

We believe in you and your vision with complete conviction. We’ll hustle for you day and night with equal speed and velocity.

Clarity, transparency, and trust

We take a high-value, light-touch approach to help founders reach their highest potential and realize their vision.

Low ego, high conviction

We set the bar high. But we don’t believe in big egos, just big ideas with the potential to disrupt industries.

We invest in founders before ideas

Exceptional ventures start with extraordinary people. We put aside traditional metrics and entrepreneurial experience to find the fearless outliers who aren’t afraid of big ideas.

There’s no such thing as too early

We build relationships with founders while the map is still being drawn. If you “aren’t raising yet,” you’re in the right place.

An extension of your founding team

We believe in you and your vision with complete conviction. We’ll hustle for you day and night with equal speed and velocity.

Clarity, transparency, and trust

We take a high-value, light-touch approach to help founders reach their highest potential and realize their vision.

Low ego, high conviction

We set the bar high. But we don’t believe in big egos, just big ideas with the potential to disrupt industries.

Founded on 15+ years of operational and venture experience

Alex McIsaac – Founder & General Partner

Before founding Northside, Alex led the Canadian practice as Partner at Global Founders Capital and was Principal at BDC Capital. He also spent six years building NRStor, an energy storage-focused cleantech start-up, whose C&I business was acquired by Blackstone in 2018.

Alex’s experience as both an operator and investor is what opens the door to the trust and collaborative bonds that help founders in the Northside portfolio thrive. Alex was featured on Business Insider’s Seed 100 list of best early-stage investors for 2025.

Alex holds a BScH from Queen’s University and an HBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business.

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Where We Invest

Enduring categories at the edge of innovation

We invest in great people and great ideas. But we also invest in categories with multi-decade tailwinds and the potential to change the world.

Software

B2B SaaS and application-layer AI for massively outdated verticals where access to industry-specific data shapes deep competitive moats.

AI Infrastructure

Developer tools and infrastructure that unlocks and accelerates the adoption of AI within non-AI native SMBs and enterprises.

Frontier

Deeply technical solutions for solving massive problems at the edge of what is possible today.

WHY FOUNDERS CHOOSE NORTHSIDE

Charting the path for founders from idea to execution

We don’t just identify outliers. We equip founders with the support they need to push the limits, at the moments they need it most.

Collaborative exploration

From ideation to MVP, we act as a guiding compass that helps founders identify the vision and model that sets new standards in their industry and execute on it.

Access to early customers

We introduce founders to their first customers—the ones who can act as design partners and help iterate on an idea as it sparks into something more.

Globally-connected capital

We connect founders with our deep global network investors so they can go on to raise their next round and ascend beyond the horizon.

“Every investor says they'll help, very few actually do. Alex has lived into this through and through and has consistently been the first person I call for introductions and to help pressure test strategy or direction.”

Riley Nelko
CEO & Founder, Veritree

“Whenever we need someone to bounce ideas off, Alex is always there for us. His sage advice has been tremendously valuable to our early success.”

Raghav Midha
CEO & Co-Founder, Terminal
Andrew D'Souza, Founder of BoardyAI

“Alex has been a true partner—helping clarify our vision, hustling alongside us, and opening doors to investors and customers we wouldn’t have reached alone.”

Andrew D’Souza
CEO & Founder, Boardy.AI
Fatima Yusuf, Founder of ImagineCreate AI

“Alex was a very helpful partner during our fundraise, making thoughtful investor introductions and generously opening up his network to support our efforts during the process.”

Fatima Yusef
CEO & Founder, ImagineCreate AI

“Alex has been one of our most impactful growth partners and investors. Northside sets the bar for contribution that goes far beyond the capital.”

Riley Nelko
CEO & Co-Founder, Switch Growth

Building something wildly ambitious?

Or maybe just thinking about it? We want to meet you.