We're on a mission to make investing simple and accessible to everyone
Bite-sized financial news and trends
The Average Joe is a (twice) weekly newsletter that provides a dose of investment related news, trends, and financial concepts in a bite-sized format. We educate our audience with a conversational tone that makes finance easy to digest.
Meet the team
We are a team with collective experiences in sales & trading, private debt, venture capital, entrepreneurship and corporate finance
Victor Lei
Founder, Content and Strategy
Maggie Li, CPA, CA
Growth and Partnerships
Kevin Roche
Analyst
Victor Lei is an investor and advisor to multiple early stage start-ups in the fintech and e-commerce sector. He first discovered his passion for investing when he risked his student tuition trading options and equities. He started his career at an early stage venture fund where he learned about the world of start-up investing and entrepreneurship.
Using the profits from his trading days, he immersed himself into the private markets by making personal investments into early stage technology businesses (i.e. Pinch Financial, Local Line, and Loyalty Markets).
In 2018, he joined a high growth, multi-million-dollar business as the Head of Operations. There, he grew their revenue 4x within 2 years where he remains an investor today.
After years of providing investing advice to friends and family, he realized that finance and investing was not accessible or fun to the average person. In 2020, his insight, entrepreneurial itch, and passion for investing led to the birth of The Average Joe.
Maggie Li, CPA, CA is an Accountant turned Business Partner with her ability to adapt to different environments and challenges across consulting and strategic finance roles. Curious about the world of mergers and acquisitions, Maggie transferred from Deloitte’s Assurance practice into the M&A transaction services group. She assisted with financial and operational due diligence for multi-million dollar transactions in various industries including pharmaceuticals, waste management, and retail.
She is currently working within the Corporate Finance function at Nelson Education where she wears multiple hats – leading the financial planning and analysis function and assisting with strategic finance initiatives including M&A activity and raising capital.
Maggie has always found the entrepreneurial path to be one of significant interest and challenge. Combining her experience in the corporate world, she crossed paths with her partners and joined as the head of growth and partnerships of The Average Joe newsletter. Outside of her professional aspirations, she is passionate about fashion and sports including ultimate frisbee, badminton, and snowboarding.
Kevin Roche is a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a specialization in research. During his undergrad, he served as the Executive Vice President of the Laurier Economics Club. The club did not implode under his guidance, an accomplishment of which he is still proud.
He later went on to earn a master’s degree in economic policy from McMaster University. Kevin now works as an economist at Statistics Canada, where he happily spends his days conducting research and building out models of the economy.
Kevin has always loved writing, and even spent some time working in communications at Manulife to hone his craft. Searching for an opportunity to combine his passion for writing with his analytical skillset, he found a home as an analyst and writer at The Average Joe. Kevin is an avid basketball fan, and is convinced he could’ve made the NBA if only he were born with even a shred of athleticism. He spends his spare time woodworking, cheering for the Raptors, and relaxing with friends.
