Real Ventures
Managing Partner
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Canada
John Stokes, originally from the UK and a proud Montréal resident since 2007, is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Real Ventures, a key player in Canada's startup ecosystem. In 2011, he launched FounderFuel, Canada’s top startup accelerator, and has been named one of Quebec’s most influential people by L’actualité and one of the "24 Quebecers we love" by the Montreal Gazette. John’s passion for fostering entrepreneurship also led him to co-found the OSMO Foundation, transforming Notman House and St Margaret’s Hospital into thriving hubs for innovation. In 2023, he was recognized as the Montreal startup ecosystem’s Community Champion of the Decade.
A lifelong advocate for entrepreneurship, John has served on the boards of major Canadian venture capital associations and earned his Institute of Corporate Directors designation in 2019. Prior to venture capital, he launched and scaled numerous technology businesses across Africa and Asia Pacific and also found time to play semi-professional soccer. Now a citizen of the UK, New Zealand, and Canada, John lives in Montréal with his wife and teenage daughter, always inspired by the vision of a regenerative world.
Offer
My focus is on entrepreneurial impact. I build investment platforms and nurturing ecosystems that connect and guide entrepreneurs who are driven to make large-scale, positive change in the world. I believe that the success of ideas and teams is a direct reflection of the consciousness of their creators and leaders. This is why founders must invest in the development of their own consciousness even before they develop their products and companies. My work, therefore, revolves around helping entrepreneurs expand their awareness and vision as they strive to create companies that are deeply impactful.
NEED
The biggest challenge I face is raising aligned capital. Too often, investors—whether managing their own capital or that of others—are conditioned to view their role solely through the lens of generating financial returns. They often see legal, ethical, or impact considerations as someone else’s responsibility, either upstream or downstream from their work. The challenge is to shift the mindset of investors, helping them realize the importance of embedding a planetary and societal benefit filter at the forefront of their decision-making, before financial returns are considered. It’s this shift in consciousness that is crucial to aligning capital with the transformative change we seek to foster.
Call-to-Action
To truly transform the role of capital, entrepreneurship, and technology in fostering social cohesion and addressing planetary degradation, we need a committed group of aligned investors. I invite the Earth One Community to help us bring together this core group of investors who are prepared to support the development of entrepreneurial leaders with a new level of consciousness. This begins with the creation of a human development school, where emerging founders will experience a consciousness shift—a reorientation of their thinking towards holistic, systemic impact—before they go on to build transformational companies. Our immediate need is the financial backing to establish this entrepreneurial development school, followed by investment capital to fund the catalyzing ventures these graduates will create. This will set the foundation for a new era of entrepreneurship, one that aligns capital with deep societal and planetary impact.
