Canadian investor Aaron Wolfe has lifted an array of small and medium-sized businesses to success, with strategic guidance, proven processes, and effective solutions.
His fields of expertise are investing, business plan execution, financial guidance, business growth, and board and executive coaching, but his real talent is helping entrepreneurs reach for their dreams.
After spending his early career at Mercer and Macquarie Capital Markets Canada, Aaron Wolfe co-founded Toronto-based SagePoint Capital Partners. Today, he works with both public and private companies, advising Boards of Directors and senior management teams of high-growth companies.
In the course of his career, Aaron Wolfe has, on multiple occasions, grown a business from founding investment through to enterprise value exceeding one billion dollars.
Q: As a successful investor, which economic sectors are you keeping a close eye on, in the short-term as well as farther down the road?
Aaron Wolfe: I’m especially aware of the importance of two industries to the health of Canada’s economy, and indeed our standard of living: energy and mining. Canada has been blessed with tremendous resources, most of which still require their value to be unlocked. Sometimes these are viewed as legacy industries, throwbacks to earlier times and earlier technological revolutions, but the truth is many of the businesses in these sectors are critical to the development of a vigorous 21st-century economy.
Q: You have certainly played a central role in these industries. Has your involvement in these crucial sectors gone beyond Canada?
Aaron Wolfe:
Natural resources, be them mining or energy, exist across the globe, but regardless of whether the assets are in Canada, Mexico, South America, Africa, or elsewhere, Canada plays a very influential role. When it comes to mining, by example, the TSX and TSX-Venture Exchanges are home to more mining companies than any other market in the world. These Exchanges provide the programs and liquidity that mine developers need to raise capital to fund exploration, development, and production needs.
I have been fortunate enough to evaluate and participate in projects around the globe while representing Canada and the TSX to strategic investors in foreign markets.
Q: Sometimes the risk in an investment is not simply a financial risk. In search of mining opportunities, you’ve had to navigate unforeseen situations on an international scale. Can you tell us about that?
Aaron Wolfe: About a decade ago, I was involved in the exploration and development of iron ore assets in Ukraine. The ore body was fantastic, exploration work proved successful, and the economic studies were robust. The project scored high on all the attributes of significance to an iron ore investor. The project was of such interest that the company was able to secure a joint venture partner for its development, an investment that would exceed US$1 billion dollars. Unfortunately, there was more risk involved than we ever anticipated, given geopolitical developments in the country. Development restarted and interest returned when tensions subsided, but stalled again with the latest Russian activity. Someday, hopefully, soon, peace and stability will return and those assets will get developed.
Q: A great deal of your consultancy work seems to be focused on discovering emerging companies and advising them from the startup phase to listings on major stock exchanges. Are these exclusively energy/mining companies?
Aaron Wolfe: Not exclusively, not at all. High-growth businesses often need to access significant amounts of capital to execute on their plans. This need of capital often leads them to the public markets; either to access the capital directly or to provide liquidity to those that funded the growth. I have helped resource businesses go public, but have also worked with consumer, cannabis, healthcare, and technologies businesses.
The success and transition of a private business to a public entity is always a very rewarding and memorable transaction to be a part of. When you can participate in the growth of a small startup and see it evolve all the way to a major stock exchange — well, there’s no better definition of corporate success than that.
