‘The best attract the best’: U of T Engineering alumna and venture capitalist Eva Lau on building the next generation of Canadian innovators
Oct 4, 2024
Entrepreneur-turned-investor and co-founder and managing partner of Two Small Fish Ventures Eva Lau.
Eva Lau is a respected entrepreneur-turned-investor and co-founder and managing partner of Two Small Fish Ventures. She was a founding team member of Wattpad, one of Canada’s most successful tech companies, which was co-founded by her husband and fellow U of T Engineering alumna Allen Lau. The Canadian tech power couple met while studying engineering at the University of Toronto.
Eva has a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from U of T and an MBA from York’s Schulich School of Business.
In a Q&A, she reflected on how U of T is supporting the next generation of Canadian innovators, the importance of having a space to take risks and fail, why diversity is crucial to building inclusive technology and her favourite spot for catching some shuteye on campus during her busy student days.
What inspired you to get involved in the university’s Defy Gravity campaign as a member of the Campaign Steering Committee and why do you feel this campaign is important now?
The Defy Gravity campaign is very important because it will nurture the next generation of innovators and leaders in Canada and push us to the forefront as leaders in the age of innovation.
I feel that I am one of those people who have benefited from the era of innovation and I really want to continue to support the university, to push that agenda forward, to push that inspiration forward.
I wanted to get involved because I feel that I am one of those people who have benefited from the era of innovation and I really want to continue to support the university, to push that agenda forward, to push that inspiration forward. And I would love to connect more donors and let them know how amazing U of T has been – and will continue to be – to generate the next generation of innovators and leaders in our country.
I feel that I am one of those people who have benefited from the era of innovation and I really want to continue to support the university, to push that agenda forward, to push that inspiration forward.
You give back a lot as a mentor to students, especially aspiring entrepreneurs. What have you learned from them?
What I have learned from young, budding entrepreneurs is that they need a safe space to learn and fail, so that’s why I’m highly supportive of all the accelerators within the U of T ecosystem. That’s where they get all the support from experts and professors and at the same time the opportunity to take risks. Over the years I’ve learned that it’s important that we let them learn and fail and doing it in the university environment is the best environment to start off their journey.
As an incredibly successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist who has firmly maintained your base in Toronto, how have you seen Toronto’s entrepreneurship ecosystem change and grow? What role does U of T play in the landscape?
Over the past decade or so, I’ve seen young entrepreneurs taking more and more risks, and I’m very, very inspired to see them pushing boundaries to make the world a better place. Not only do they think about startups as being a sexy thing, but they really try to solve hard world problems. So that’s why I feel that the research capacity within the university, coupled with the entrepreneurial spirit that the school is nurturing, will give us the next generation of amazing innovators and leaders and continue to help us innovate and build an innovative economy. And that’s what Canada needs to win.
How do you see the Defy Gravity campaign contributing to U of T’s growing role in that ecosystem?
The Defy Gravity campaign will help U of T in multiple ways. First of all, it’s going to help the research efforts by helping researchers find groundbreaking technologies and insight to solve hard problems. It will also help the university build the muscles and inspire more students to be entrepreneurial. Entrepreneurial doesn’t necessarily mean that they will become startup founders. Entrepreneurial spirit means take risks and shoot for high return and research also fits that domain as well.
But at the same time, because the school is so multifaceted and such a diverse community with many disciplines of study, collaborations will inspire our students to become world leaders – because they were taught in an environment that’s inclusive, diverse and continues to push the envelope to make the world a better place. So that’s why I think that the Defy Gravity campaign is very important not only for U of T but also for our country.
You’re one of few women leading a Canadian venture capital firm and you note on the Two Small Fish website that you’re a diverse team of immigrants. How do you see Two Small Fish’s diversity as a strength?
Diversity, whether it’s within Two Small Fish or not, is always a strength because it allows us to hear different opinions from people who are different from us. If we look at world class technologies, they are not built specifically for a small group of users. That’s why diversity is very important in product-building and that’s exactly how Two Small Fish plays the role of bringing that diversity lens to founders. We challenge them on different notions of how they approach a problem by asking questions like whether they’ve thought about different user personas.
U of T is such a hub for global innovators right now because of what I call a cluster effect. The best attract the best.
I think for us, being immigrants here in Canada, we bring our own different culture and upbringing and worldview. And therefore, when we invest in the next generation of entrepreneurs, we look for those who have that global mindset, that inclusivity mindset in them to build products, not only benefiting Canada, but building products for the global economy and that make the world a better place.
U of T is such a hub for global innovators right now because of what I call a cluster effect. The best attract the best.
You recently helped to host a U of T alumni innovators event in New York focused on deep tech and AI which featured you in conversation with U of T associate professor and NVIDIA Vice-President of AI Research Sanja Fidler, as well as some of U of T’s brightest AI startups. Why do you think U of T’s researchers, students and global alumni continue to be world leaders in the field?
I think U of T is such a hub for global innovators right now because of what I call a cluster effect. The best attract the best. While there are some universities that may have some research capacity and some researchers, they did not and therefore still do not have that cluster effect of world class researchers gathering together to push for groundbreaking technology to emerge from the research papers. And U of T has been great at nurturing that environment and attracting those people and that’s why we are seeing a lot of innovations right now happening just within the perimeters of U of T and I’m sure it will continue to grow and become even mightier.
You and your husband Allen met as U of T Engineering students. Do you have a favourite memory or spot on campus from your undergrad days?
Oh yes! Our favourite hangout space was the Sandford Fleming Library. We always went up to the second floor, where all the cubicles are. . . and took naps! It’s not something we’ve told our daughters! But seriously, when you work hard, play hard, party hard. . . sometimes you need to take a nap and rest in between. And that was a great spot!
