Jesse Rodgers Director at Creative Destruction Lab at Rotman

I sit on the advisory board for TribeHR. I had been coaching Jesse in his role as co-CEO and more recently more focused with the product development at TribeHR. Jesse brings a unique view of both the customer and the user to the product development at TribeHR. He has insight in both around how the service offering should be priced (i.e., the economic decision of the purchaser) and around the usage scenario for everyday users. He builds great software that people want to use.

Jesse Rogers curated the community responsible for fanning a passion I will carry with me for the rest of my life. He is a bottom-up doer and a wild dreamer with the rare capacity to bridge the two. Well done my friend, well done.

Jesse's awesome! After meeting Jesse, I quickly learned that he is very intelligent and humour-loving. He is a big-picture thinker, adept at identifying finer details and easy-to-miss steps that are required to bring big-picture ideas, into being. He knows when brainstorming is valuable and when execution is critical. As a co-founder of TribeHR Jesse works alongside the team and is always challenging members to ask smart questions, be better and never settle - he's an invaluable driving member of TribeHR and I am happy to recommend him!

I served as a Director on the UW Staff Association while Jesse was President and Past President of the Staff Association. Jesse was passionate and professional in both these roles. He encouraged me as a Director to take a more active role and was supportive. While he took on several activities and projects himself, he was good at delegating and initiating involvement from all members of the Executive. Jesse was instrumental in proposing and following through on several high profile, important issue projects at UW and helped turn around the function and reputation of the Staff Association in his terms as President and Past President.

Jesse was an amazing resource for myself and Pierre at Bookneto. The breadth of his connections and his passion for the Startup Scene in Waterloo is inspiring.

Dedicated - thats what comes to mind when I think of Jesse. The man is a force of nature when it comes to getting things done. Whether it be getting students to show up for events or raising money for a Venture Fund, he knows how!

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention his helpful and teacher like attitude. His advice was always custom-fitted to my needs, always reflective of a man in the know.

Jesse "gets it". His job demanded creative, big-picture thinking combined with entrepreneurialism and passion. This is where Jesse is a star. He made things happen and impressed everyone around him with the success that followed from the direct result of his actions.

Jesse deeply understands what excites and motivates talented students, and how to support them. The success of UW Velocity is in large part due to his vision and efforts. He has made a significant contribution to the future successes of the Waterloo startup ecosystem.

I've participated in the Velocity program since its inception in 2008, including when Jesse became Director in 2010. I think a lot of credit is due to Jesse and his team for continuing to keep Velocity thriving after the initial flurry of buzz wore off in 2008. Since his arrival, I've seen a steady increase in student participation and endorsements from other entrepreneurs and important figures within the entrepreneurial community. While keeping the overall program structure thriving, he also gave each student the freedom to define their experience; he listened to their ideas and feedback - which was absolutely the right leadership style for this sort of environment. I highly recommend Jesse!

Jesse is a great advisor and friend that helped me develop my idea and provided me with much need support in hard times. He's attitude is that of a visionary as he has become an essential pillar in the startup community in Waterloo. As many know, without him, UW's Velocity would not be where it is today - one the best startup incubators in the world.