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 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.
Michael Hyer is a graduate of the University of Toronto, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in History and English Literature. While volunteering at an independent radio station, hammering out jokes at a small comedy newspaper, and reviewing movies for a Toronto media website, Michael learned a valuable lesson — he really likes writing.
Throughout the next nine years, he continued writing, crafting stories, and devouring movies. But to that list of passions Michael added another — finance. The seed was planted when he got his first job in the industry for one of Canada’s big five banks. It blossomed as Michael’s career progressed from that first bank to a second, with time spent at a fintech startup along the way.
Now, at the Average Joe, Michael has the opportunity to mix his passions together. He can’t wait to show you what’s next.
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.
