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He arrived in Toronto from Mombasa, Kenya at age seven, part of the Ismaili migration that Canada welcomed in the 1970s. Scarborough schools, McGill classrooms, then Wall Street—each step widened the map for a kid who wanted to build, not just analyze. Wikipedia
✨ A Spark Becomes a Career
After McGill (Economics) and an MBA from Harvard Business School (’96), Satchu left pure finance for company-building—co-founding and scaling multiple ventures and later creating Alignvest Management Corporation, a Toronto investment firm built for long-horizon, hands-on ownership. Wikipedia+2Harvard Business School+2
“Measure your net worth in value created, not dollars counted.”
(Theme he repeats in talks and interviews.) NetNewsLedger
Recent headline: Alignvest’s student-housing platform grew to thousands of beds and was sold in 2024 to Forum Asset Management in a ~$1.7B transaction, creating Canada’s largest student-housing platform. Wikipedia+1
❤️ Building More Than Companies
In 2010–2011, he co-founded NEXT Canada (NEXT 36 → NEXT Founders → NEXT AI → NEXT IPO): a philanthropy-backed program that gives top students and early founders elite training, mentors, and seed support—now a pipeline for dozens of Canadian startups. He remains Founding Chair. Alignvest Management Corporation+2NEXT Canada+2
At Harvard Business School, he teaches The Founder Mindset and co-leads Founder Launch, a build-your-venture course for final-term MBAs—taking the Canada-first playbook and scaling it globally. Harvard Business School+1
🧠Playbook You Can Steal
- Optimize for compounding: long time horizons, concentrated bets, operating involvement. Alignvest Management Corporation
- Teach while you build: codify lessons in programs/courses so your wins multiply through others. NEXT Canada+1
- Create rails, then ride them: programs like NEXT reduce friction for future founders—you benefit as mentor, investor, and ecosystem builder. Alignvest Management Corporation
🏅 Why His Story Inspires
- Immigrant beginnings → ecosystem architect: founder, investor, and educator shaping Canada’s startup scene. Alignvest Management Corporation
- Big exits with public impact: the student-housing platform tied private returns to tangible student supply. Wikipedia
- Recognition follows service: named a Top 25 Canadian Immigrant (2025) and active on education-access initiatives. Wikipedia
