Quick answers
Did Joe Sawada co-found FreshBooks?
Yes. His University of Guelph faculty profile states that he co-founded FreshBooks, a Toronto-based tech company that employs many U of G co-ops and graduates. The same line appears on his School of Computer Science page and his College of Computational, Mathematical and Physical Sciences page (University of Guelph profile pages, checked 2026-09-21). FreshBooks itself says on its About page that the company was founded in 2003 by Mike McDerment; that page does not name any co-founders (freshbooks.com/about, checked 2026-09-21).
What does Joe Sawada do now?
He is a professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario. His School of Computer Science profile lists his rank as Professor and gives his university email and office (University of Guelph School of Computer Science profile, checked 2026-09-21). FreshBooks' own About page does not list him in any present-day operating role (freshbooks.com/about, checked 2026-09-21).
What is his academic background?
He received his PhD from the University of Victoria in 2000 and spent two years as an NSERC postdoctoral fellow visiting Charles University in the Czech Republic, the University of Sydney and the University of Toronto. He joined the University of Guelph's School of Computer Science in 2003 (University of Guelph faculty profile, checked 2026-09-21).
What does he research?
His work is in combinatorics and combinatorial algorithms, including universal cycles and Gray codes, de Bruijn sequences, graph theory, and the efficient enumeration of non-isomorphic combinatorial objects such as necklaces, free plane trees and stamp foldings. He holds an NSERC Discovery grant and has served on an NSERC Discovery Evaluation Group (University of Guelph faculty profile, checked 2026-09-21).