Andre Charoo built Maple VC from his own network while working full-time at Hired, bootstrapping it into a fund that has invested over $50M in around 40 companies. He runs this Canada-focused seed fund from South Korea, exclusively backing Canadian founders and positioning himself as part of a global Canadian expat network rather than being based in traditional venture hubs.

• Championing Canadian founders and the tech diaspora. There is a very strong preference for backing Canadians who have moved to the US to build their companies, with frequent mentions of how Canadian universities like the University of Toronto and Waterloo are underrated despite producing founders of massive companies like Databricks.
• Identifying network effects as a critical business moat. He frequently draws on his past experience at Uber to explain how companies achieve dominance, specifically praising portfolio company Clay for building a layer of defensibility where the product becomes more valuable as usage and data liquidity increase.
• Supporting ambitious deep tech and moonshot ideas. He has shown a specific conviction in the nuclear energy sector, sharing a story about Aalo Atomics where he initially had to pass on the seed round but fought to get into the Series B because the founder met his criteria of commercializing a complex scientific insight to solve a massive problem.
• Valuing an aggressive winning mentality and operational hustle. He relates strongly to the operator mindset, often referencing the intense culture of his early days at Uber and advising friends that when choosing a startup to join, the only thing that matters is picking a company that knows how to win.