How a millennial s $57,700 charity lunch with Bill Ackman turned into a $46.5 million IPO Julia La Roche
In 2018, entrepreneur-turned-investor Andrew Wilkinson, who runs Victoria, Canada-based tech holding company Tiny, shelled out $57,700 for a charity auction lunch with Bill Ackman, the well-known billionaire activist investor and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management.
The $57,700 lunch turned out to be an excellent investment that led to a friendship and, ultimately, a business partnership. Ackman s family office invested in one of Wilkinson s portfolio companies, WeCommerce, marking the young investor s first time accepting outside capital.
This month, WeCommerce, a holding company of software and digital service brands in the Shopify (SHOP) ecosystem such as Pixel Union, Out of the Sandbox, Yopify, SuppleApps, Rehash and Foursixty made its public debut on the TSX Venture Exchange, raising CAD$60 million in the process.