Who is
David Salerno?
Entrepreneur. Author. Board Leader.
Forbes Business Council Member.
David Salerno is a Canadian entrepreneur, author, and board leader. He is the founder and president of Solpak Inc., a Montreal-based corrugated packaging company he built into an eight-figure business, and the founder of Entrepreneur Sherpa, an advisory firm that helps founders build owner-independent companies. He serves as Vice-Chairman of the Montreal Economic Institute, Canada's leading independent public-policy think tank, and as a board member of Réseaux (Vaudreuil), a Quebec entrepreneurial mentoring network where he previously served as Chief Mentor. He is a member of the Forbes Business Council, author of Built for Freedom (2024) and La Méthode Sherpa (2021), and a contributing co-author of Ma résilience en affaires (2018). He is the creator of The Sherpa Method™, an operating framework for founder independence. He divides his time between Sarasota, Florida and Montreal, Quebec.
Career Summary
David Salerno began his entrepreneurial career at seventeen, when he became the youngest franchisee in the Student Painters network, operating a residential painting business while working his way through school. Over the following three decades he founded, built, and led ventures in industrial distribution, advisory services, and entrepreneurship education, with a recurring focus on one question: how to build a company that operates independently of its founder.
That question shaped the participatory operating model he developed at Solpak, informed his policy work at the Montreal Economic Institute, and became the organizing thesis of his books and of Entrepreneur Sherpa. The method he developed to answer it — The Sherpa Method™ — is now used by founders in Canada, the United States, and internationally.
He currently splits his time between Montreal, Quebec, where Solpak is headquartered, and Sarasota, Florida, where he advises founders and writes. He works in English and French and operates across the Canada–United States cross-border corridor.
Companies Founded
Founder & President — Solpak Inc.
(2005–present)
Salerno founded Solpak Inc. in 2005 as a corrugated packaging distribution business in Montreal, Quebec. Under his leadership the company grew to eight-figure annual revenue, sustaining compound growth in excess of 30% per year over more than fifteen years. Solpak serves industrial, institutional, and consumer-goods customers across Canada and the United States. The company is organized around a participatory operating model in which team members — referred to internally as "players" — carry substantial decision rights, supported by shared scorecards and structured coaching. Solpak consistently ranks at or near the top of its industry in Net Promoter Score for both customers and employees.
Founder & President —
Entrepreneur Sherpa
(2019–present)
Salerno founded Entrepreneur Sherpa in 2019 to translate the operating methodology he developed at Solpak into a framework accessible to other founders. The firm provides advisory engagements, group coaching, and structured diagnostics to entrepreneurs seeking to reduce their personal dependency on their businesses. It is the organizational home of The Sherpa Method™, a twenty-seven-question framework for assessing and improving owner-independence. Entrepreneur Sherpa operates from Montreal and Sarasota and serves clients across North America.
Board Positions & Institutional Roles
Vice-Chairman & Board Member — Montreal Economic Institute
(2022–present)
Salerno has served on the board of the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI / Institut économique de Montréal) since 2022 and was appointed Vice-Chairman. The MEI is an independent, non-partisan public-policy research institute founded in 1999 that publishes peer-reviewed research on taxation, regulation, public finance, labour markets, and innovation policy in Canada and internationally. Its work is regularly cited in the Canadian press and in federal and provincial policy debates. Salerno chairs the institute's human-resources committee and provides strategic counsel to the president. His policy interests include entrepreneurship, small-business competitiveness, and cross-border commerce.
Board Member and Former Chief Mentor — Réseaux (Vaudreuil)
(2020–present)
Salerno joined Réseaux (Vaudreuil) in 2020 as both a board member and Chief Mentor, serving in the Chief Mentor role through 2023; he continues as a board member and active mentor to program participants. Réseaux is a Quebec entrepreneurial mentoring network organized around regional chapters; the Vaudreuil chapter serves founders in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region west of Montreal. As Chief Mentor (2020–2023), Salerno was responsible for recruiting, training, and supervising the chapter's network of volunteer mentors, and for the methodological coherence of the mentoring program.
Publications
Books
Built for Freedom
(October 2024)
Registered with the United States Library of Congress (LoC #2024918818). A 304-page treatment of how to build a company that operates independently of its founder. Covers The Sherpa Method™, operating rhythms, team coaching, recruiting, and the transition from founder-dependent to self-sustaining operations. Published in English; available in print and ePub.
AVAILABLE HERE
La Méthode Sherpa
(August 2021)
The foundational French-language work introducing The Sherpa Method™, published in Quebec for French-speaking entrepreneurs.
AVAILABLE HERE
Ma résilience en
affaires
(October 2018)
Contributing co-author. A collective work featuring fourteen Quebec entrepreneurs reflecting on resilience in business. Published in Quebec.
AVAILABLE HERE
Articles & Bylined Contributions
Forbes Business Council
Bylined articles on entrepreneurship, founder psychology, operational excellence, and the economics of small business. First article published March 5, 2026.
AVAILABLE HERE
El Cronista (Argentina)
Invited contributor on cross-border entrepreneurship and strategy.
AVAILABLE HERE
National Bank of Canada
Featured founder in the bank's entrepreneurship content series (2022).
AVAILABLE HERE
Original contribution — The Sherpa Method™
The Sherpa Method™ is an operating framework Salerno developed over more than fifteen years at Solpak and formalized through Entrepreneur Sherpa. It organizes the work of running a business into three domains — GROW, SUSTAIN, and SERVE — and examines each domain through nine diagnostic questions, for a total of twenty-seven. The method's central claim is that most founder dependency arises not from an effort problem but from a clarity problem, and that owner-independence can be engineered deliberately through specific management practices. The method is the foundation of Built for Freedom, La Méthode Sherpa, and the Sherpa Score diagnostic.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SHERPA METHOD™
Mentoring & Advisory
Salerno has mentored founders through Réseaux (Vaudreuil) since 2020, first as the chapter's Chief Mentor through 2023 and continuing today as an active one-on-one mentor. Through Entrepreneur Sherpa, he additionally provides advisory engagements and group coaching to founders implementing The Sherpa Method™, evaluates business operations, team dynamics, financial readiness, and growth plans, and certifies independent advisors in the methodology.
LEARN MORE
Media, Speaking and Public Engagements &
Industry Panel
Salerno speaks at entrepreneurial and policy venues in Canada and the United States on topics including founder independence, cross-border business, small-business competitiveness, and economic policy. He participated in a United States Embassy roundtable on entrepreneurship in September 2025. His commentary has appeared in outlets including the National Bank of Canada, Journal de Montréal, Forbes, and El Cronista.
AVAILABLE HERE
Recognition & Memberships
Recognition
Mercuriades — Finalist, 2026 (Solpak Inc)
Mercuriades — Finalist, 2025 (Solpak Inc)
Prix Excellence — 2025 - Business Services (Solpak Inc)
Mercuriades — Finalist, 2024 (Solpak Inc)
Axents — 2023 (Solpak Inc)
Accolades — 2023 (Solpak Inc)
Innovation Canada SCA Recognition — 2023 (Solpak Inc)
Memberships
Forbes Business Council — Member (2026–present)
Strategic Coach
TEC Canada
EntreChefs PME
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