Every year, we bring together a refreshed roster of Growth Coaches – a team of specialists who help our founders and clients go further – especially when the road gets bumpy. This year’s Growth Coach lineup brings together trusted advisors with real world experience to help entrepreneurs navigate every stage of the business journey.
Picture our in-house business advisors, WEtech Alliance’s Director of Venture Services and Partnerships, Adam Castle; and Business Advisor & Manager of Startup Services, Susana Martins, as the generalists: they help diagnose challenges, identify blind spots, and get things moving. But sometimes, you need a true specialist, someone who can dive deep on a tough problem, offer the kind of advice you can only get from experience, and open doors you didn’t even know existed.
That’s exactly what our Growth Coaches do. They’re the surgeons, the deep thinkers, the “let’s roll up our sleeves and fix this” crew. Most come from right across Canada’s innovation ecosystem, though you’ll find a few from further afield. What unites them is that every single one has built incredible things and brings a genuine, give-first mentality to our community.
When a founder is stuck, Growth Coaches are the ones who help get things moving again. They tap into their own networks, sometimes across provinces, sometimes across borders, but always with the ultimate goal of giving Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent startups a launchpad into bigger ecosystems.
We don’t make these matches at random. In every program, we take our time to pair Growth Coaches and founders thoughtfully, making sure the fit is right and the relationship has a real chance to thrive. It’s all led by Susy Kusta, our Manager of Programs and Client Experience, who oversees the entire Growth Coach platform and makes sure every year’s roster reflects the best of what this community can offer – people who care deeply about helping others find their footing and take their next step, whatever that might look like.
This year’s group is no exception. We’re excited to introduce the new faces joining our Growth Coach team. They know what it means to build, to stumble, and to start again. They’re here to guide, challenge, and cheer on our founders and clients as they go after big goals and tackle real problems.
We can’t wait for you to meet them.
Carolyn Crewe
Carolyn is a pricing strategist, entrepreneur, and business coach who helps B2B founders unlock faster growth by building offers and pricing strategies that actually convert customers. With a background spanning pricing and business strategy, she brings a unique mix of expertise to help founders better understand exactly what to offer customers, how to know what it’s worth, and how to pick and validate prices. By combining buyer psychology, proven pricing frameworks, and go-to-market execution techniques Carolyn helps founders maximize customers and cash at any stage.
Kent Blomquist
With more than 36 years of experience within the IT/ Cybersecurity industry, Kent has a passion working with clients as a cybersecurity advocate. Using a risk-based approach, he helps map the business needs to the technical security requirements. He also has experience in business development with a focus on service enablement and sales growth.
Kent is driven by connecting with people and building trusted relationships, and holds the designations of CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and CISM (Certified Information Security Manager).
Brad Canario
Brad Canario is a commercial and marketing leader with 17+ years of experience across CPG, retail, tech, alcohol, and cannabis. He has held leadership roles at Uber, SNDL, Labatt, Auxly, Campbell’s, and Kraft, building brands, leading commercial strategy, scaling innovation pipelines, and driving transformational growth in highly competitive industries. Brad is known for combining Fortune 500 rigor with startup agility to unlock sustainable, profitable growth.
If you’re interested in working with the WEtech Growth Coach team, you’ll need to become a client first. You can get started by applying at www.wetech-alliance.com/client.
And if you think you’ve got the experience and energy to help this team reach new heights, we refresh our roster every year, so feel free to reach out to Susy Kusta.
Learn more about our full roster of Growth Coaches at www.wetech-alliance.com/coaches.
Susy Kustra
Manager of Programs and Client Experience,
WEtech Alliance
