Michele Romanow was born in Calgary and raised in Regina. At Queen's University she studied civil engineering, earned an MBA and co-founded the Tea Room coffee shop. She then co-founded Evandale Caviar, Buytopia.ca and SnapSaves.
Groupon acquired SnapSaves in 2014. In 2015 she joined Dragons' Den as its youngest cast member and, with Andrew D'Souza, started Clearbanc.
Clearbanc funded online sellers with cash repaid from future revenue. By August 2019 it had funded 791 businesses and raised $1 billion. It became Clearco in 2021 at a valuation of about $2 billion.
In 2022 Clearco cut about 125 staff and pulled out of four markets. In January 2023 a further cut of about 30% followed, and Romanow stepped down as CEO.