Francois Lafortune
Co-Founder CEO at nesto
Westmount, Quebec, Canada
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolFrancois Lafortune is a seasoned entrepreneur and investor who has spent over 15 years building venture-backed technology companies and shaping fintech and insurtech ecosystems. As co-founder and CEO of Diagram Ventures, he leads a venture-builder platform that has raised over $205M and launched 14 companies across North America, combining capital, hands-on support, and an expansive partner network. He also serves on Sagard's Management Committee as Managing Partner, and brings governance experience as a board member or chair at multiple organizations, including Nesto, Hydro-Québec, Dialogue, and Breathe Life. A McGill engineer with an MBA from Stanford, Francois blends technical rigor with strategic, scalable business execution and has been recognized among Canada's Top 40 Under 40. His early entrepreneurial streak—starting with assembling and selling PCs at 13—reflects a lifelong drive to turn ideas into impactful, market-ready ventures. Based in Westmount, Quebec, he operates at the intersection of capital, talent, and technology to accelerate global company-building.
15 years of coding experience
16 years of employment as a software developer
Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Business Administration and Management, General, Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Business Administration and Management, General at Stanford University Graduate School of BusinessCollège Jean-EudesEngineer’s Degree, Mechanical Engineering, Great Distinction, Honour's program, Engineer’s Degree, Mechanical Engineering, Great Distinction, Honour's program at McGill University
French, English
Github Skills (15)
foursquare7
storm5
api4
twitter3
javascript-client3
inject3
jquery3
javascript3
isolate3
javascript-api3
trending3
jquery-plugin3
nodejs3
computation3
realtime2
Github contributions (5)
praized/marelle
Jan 2011 - Mar 2011
Contributions:75 commits in 2 months
apijavascript-clientfoursquarejavascriptfoursquare-api
quickredfox/jQuery-Quarantine
Aug 2010 - Apr 2013
Contributions:10 commits in 2 years 8 months
isolatejqueryjavascriptjquery-plugininject
Find and Hire Top DevelopersWe’ve analyzed the programming source code of over 60 million software developers on GitHub and scored them by 50,000 skills. Sign-up on Prog,AI to search for software developers.