Courtney Dragani | Top 40 Under 40 2025

Age: 36

Occupation: Chief Growth Officer, The51 and Movement51

According to Courtney Dragani, an investor is worth more than their dollar. Their time, expertise and access to resources are just as valuable to the successful growth of an organization.

Dragani is the chief growth officer for The51, a venture firm founded in 2019 that is determined to close the gender investing gap. Dragani helps investors change the world through the investment choices they make, including by funding early stage, high-growth, women-led startups.

Under her direction, The51 now has more than 200 individual investors and has deployed more than $20 million in capital into women-led ventures across Canada.

Dragani specifically focuses on alternative assets like the arts, real estate and sports, domains in which people might not typically be able to invest in public markets, but that they are passionate about supporting.

“What we’re really trying to do is demonstrate that Calgary is an epicentre for folks to come in and invest their capital into gender-aware, but very high-performing opportunities,” says Dragani.

This alternative, community-led investment strategy is apparent in The51’s support of Wild FC, Calgary’s first women’s professional soccer team. In 2024, Dragani led The51 to invite 41 investors to support the club, raising a cool $925,000 of pooled capital investment.

With Movement51, an independent non-profit organization that works in partnership with The51, Dragani develops and delivers educational programs for new investors and entrepreneurs. Most notably, she co-created the Feminist Financial Investing Lab, a five-week program launched in 2021 in partnership with the Haskayne School of Business. To date, eight cohorts have gone through the Lab, including more than 260 emerging investors who have subsequently invested more than $13.1 million in early stage capital.

“I think Calgary has such an incredible entrepreneurial background and backbone and spirit to it,” says Dragani. “But, for people to continue to enjoy the city as consumers, they need to invest in it.”

Thank yous
“My family for their unwavering support, love, and belief in me. You make everything possible.”