Cobblestone designs, develops and executes technology-based marketing services for the North American marketplace. Building on the cornerstones of strategy, enabling technology, and business process management, Cobblestone empowers integrated marketing services that deliver impactful content, harness valuable market intelligence, and drive results. We also provide consulting services in the areas of sales and marketing strategy, customer relationship management, and IT systems architecture.

Principal – Cobblestone Value Chain Management

The goal of The Next 36 is to help launch the careers of Canada’s most promising and innovative undergraduates. The program will identify these students through a rigorous selection process, and give them the academic foundation, practical skills, role models and networks to become Canada’s next generation of entrepreneurial leaders. Students learn from high-profile business leaders, entrepreneurs and academics while wrestling with the challenge of building a new venture from idea to market.

Entrepreneurship Mentor – The Next 36

JOLT is a technology accelerator dedicated to building high-growth web and mobile companies that promise to transform the way consumers and enterprises interact with technologies. At JOLT, our goal is to dramatically improve your startup’s execution and time-to-market. We work closely with entrepreneurs from initial product launch through the next stage of company development and fundraising. We embrace constraints. Design experiences. And build companies.

Advisor – JOLT Accelerator

MaRS is where science, technology and social entrepreneurs get the help they need. Where all kinds of people meet to spark new ideas. And where a global reputation for innovation is being earned, one success story at a time. MaRS provides resources — people, programs, physical facilities, funding and networks — to ensure that critical innovation happens. We stimulate, identify and harness great ideas, nurture their development and guide the transformation of those ideas into reality.

Senior Advisor: IT, Communications & Entertainment Practice – MaRS Discovery District

Ryan is a Sr. Advisor at the MaRS Discovery District where he helps startup and early-stage technology companies design business models, connect with investors and build for scale. He brings 12+ years of leadership experience with growth oriented, technology-focused organizations in the areas of strategy, business development, marketing, M&A, customer support and product management.  

Most recently, he was Vice President of Marketing and Business Development leading the post-acquisition turnaround of Customer1, an enterprise software company in the CRM space. 

Prior to joining Customer1, Ryan worked as a management consultant with clients in the packaged goods, not-for-profit, healthcare, automotive and enterprise software verticals. Previously, he established the Canadian operations for eStara/ATG (purchased by Oracle), a SaaS-based Click to Call/Click to Chat provider, growing their customer base and country revenue. 

Ryan’s experience includes speaking on Multi-Channel Customer Engagement; co-founding and leading Cobblestone Value Chain Management, a marketing technologies start-up; guiding Matthew Scott Data Marketing, a marketing services provider, through a period of rapid growth while developing a new technology platform; and, channel marketing management at Amex Bank of Canada. 

He was part of the leadership team that built the Framework Foundation, a national non-profit that promotes volunteerism and community involvement through its Timeraiser and Civic Footprint programs, and has served on its board for the past 5 years. 

Ryan is a graduate of the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, and lives in Toronto with his wife and son.

Entrepreneurship

Ecommerce

Wireless Technologies

Marketing and Business Development

Getting in: Four keys to writing a solid accelerator application

Company Website

Jolt Accelerator

MaRS Discovery District

Social Media for B2B Technology Companies

Distribution for Start-ups

This lecture offers a strategic perspective of the distribution channel options available to start-ups. It emphasizes the development of the right criteria for choosing and managing channels. Learn about the pros and cons of different channels such as inside sales, direct sales, distribution, e-commerce, franchises and integrators. Integrating sales across multiple channels is often a challenge for technology companies. A case study illustrates these points. 

Senior Advisor: IT, Communications & Entertainment Practice

Environics Communications hosted a panel discussion on B2B social media in November. In this first video, the panelists (Ryan Poissant, MaRS; Samantha Morris, Backup Heroes; Rob Maurin, Wave Accounting; and Amrita Chandra, Sequentia Environics) discuss social media channels.

The B2B Social World

Ryan Poissant, Advisor, ICE, MaRS Discovery District, explains the direct and indirect "flavours" of distribution as well as the three key elements for efficiency: delivery, sales and service. MaRS -- Building Canada's next generation of global technology companies. www.marsdd.com

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