Josh Garellek

I started in psychology at Concordia before transferring to Yeshiva University in New York to study marketing. To pay my way through NYC I worked as a bartender, waiter, and maître d' — jobs that taught me more about people, sales, and pressure than any classroom ever could.

After school came the corporate detour: a biotech company in the green cleaning space, a small e‑commerce business of my own, and an internet marketing agency. Then I bet on myself and founded Arctic Empire, a small independent game studio. What began as a simple idea for a social game became something much bigger — in 2017 I joined forces with my business partner Jon Coy, and Arctic Empire evolved into Arctic Leaf: a full-service design and development agency with a 70+ person team across North America, serving multimillion- and multibillion-dollar brands.

Along the way I co-founded PartnerPortal.io — born from a real need inside Arctic Leaf to track partner referrals — raised a round, grew it into a modern partner-enablement platform, and saw it through to its acquisition by Relevize. After cannabis legalization in Canada, I invested in and advised early-stage cannabis startups, and co-founded Just Add Cannabis.

Off the clock: I mentor founders, sit on boards, chase hard things like 75 Hard, and I'm currently writing my first book.