Peter Carrescia and Kirk Simpson have a long history together, starting in 2011 when Peter led the seed round at Kirk’s startup Wave Accounting (later known as Wave Financial) while managing director at OMERS Ventures. Peter later joined Wave and worked closely with Kirk through the successful sale of the company to H&R Block in 2019 for $537 million.
In early 2022, while casually discussing whether to invest in a startup, the idea for portable identity emerged, which led to the launch of Qui Identity in August with Kirk and Peter at the helm and initial seed funding of $8.5 million. In this talk, Peter will share details of how Qui raised funding for their initial idea and built a strong core team to help bring it to life. He will share how, through continuous market research and rapid prototype iterations, the company has moved closer toward product-market fit. Finally, Peter will share where Qui stands today, and the challenges and opportunities ahead as the company begins to scale.