22 June, 2021

The Helm Behind Wattpad’s Success: A Chat with Allen and Eva Lau

In today’s era of “content-is-king”, the importance of content creation & distribution is undeniable. We consume content daily from social media, blogs, podcasts, Youtube. In 2006, a Toronto-based startup has foreseen this futuristic vision of content-sharing. Wattpad is now a social storytelling platform with a global community of 90 million readers. Husband and wife, Allen and Eva Lau, were the helms behind Wattpad’s success from infancy – where Allen is the CEO and co-founder; and Eva was Head of Community and Content. Eva Lau, Founding Partner of Two Small Fish Ventures, is also a successful VC and female entrepreneur. Naver Corp. recently acquired Wattpad in a $600 million deal to turn the company into a “global entertainment giant”. What is the story behind their entrepreneurial and “entrepreneurs-turned-investors” success? What does it feel like being a power couple of dual entrepreneurship? In this session, TiE Ottawa will host Allen Lau (CEO and co-founder of Wattpad) and Eva Lau (Founding Partner of Two Small Fish Ventures) in a live webinar to learn from their wonderful experiences and get answers to the above and related questions on Tuesday, June 22, 2021, at 3 PM. Register now and feel free to send us your questions for Allen and Eva.

Join us on June 22 in an inspiring information-sharing session on Allen and Eva’s years of experience both as entrepreneurs and investors.

Speaker Bio

Allen Lau, CEO and Co-founder of Wattpad

Allen Lau is the CEO and co-founder of Wattpad, the global multiplatform entertainment company, where he leads the company’s vision to entertain and connect the world through stories. A leader in Canada’s technology sector and startup ecosystem, Allen is a member of the Canadian Council of Innovators, a lobby group that advances the interests of Canadian technology companies at all levels of government. He is also the co-founder of Two Small Fish Ventures, a fund that invests in Toronto and Waterloo-based early-stage internet companies with strong network effects. Prior to Wattpad, Allen co-founded FeedM8, a mobile advertising company that was later acquired. He also previously co-founded Tira Wireless, where he helped leading brands optimize content for mobile delivery. Allen received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Toronto’s Electrical Engineering program. 

Eva Lau, Founding Partner of Two Small Fish Ventures 

Eva Lau is a well-respected entrepreneur-turned-investor and one of the few women leading a venture fund in Canada. She is the Founding Partner of Two Small Fish Ventures, a venture fund that invests globally in early-stage, transformative tech companies. Before starting Two Small Fish Ventures, she worked alongside the co-founders of Wattpad since its early days. She helped nurture and scale the company from its infancy, and grew it to tens of millions of monthly users around the world. Eva is also involved in many incubators and accelerators, such as Creative Destruction Lab at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto’s Entrepreneurship Hatchery, Ryerson’s DMZ, University of Waterloo’s Velocity and Techstars. With a sharp focus on investing companies with strong network effects as their defensibility, Eva has created the ASSET framework that many entrepreneurs and accelerators have adopted in their developing business strategies. Eva is regarded as an expert in this area.In today’s era of “content-is-king”, the importance of content creation & distribution is undeniable. We consume content daily from social media, blogs, podcasts, Youtube. In 2006, a Toronto-based startup has foreseen this futuristic vision of content-sharing. Wattpad is now a social storytelling platform with a global community of 90 million readers. Husband and wife, Allen and Eva Lau, were the helms behind Wattpad’s success from infancy – where Allen is the CEO and co-founder; and Eva was Head of Community and Content. Eva Lau, Founding Partner of Two Small Fish Ventures, is also a successful VC and female entrepreneur. Naver Corp. recently acquired Wattpad in a $600 million deal to turn the company into a “global entertainment giant”. What is the story behind their entrepreneurial and “entrepreneurs-turned-investors” success? What does it feel like being a power couple of dual entrepreneurship?