With its new Startup Visa program, Canada’s hoping to lure foreign entrepreneurs. But what do start-ups stand to gain by heading north?

Jason Kenney, Canada’s minister of citizenship, immigration, and multiculturalism, says he has the United States Congress to thank for Canada’s new start-up visa program. “There’s been a bill sitting on the order paper in Congress for several years to create a start-up visa,” Kenney says. “We thought it was a brilliant idea, and we wanted to beat the U.S. to the punch.”

Those, in case you were wondering, are fighting words.

Canada’s Startup Visa Program, which kicked off Monday, is awarding permanent residence visas to foreign entrepreneurs who are able to secure Canadian venture capital or angel funding. Now in its pilot phase, the country is freeing up 2,750 visas this year, a number that should grow once the pilot phase is over. As the U.S. Congress deliberates over the many pieces of start-up visa legislation that have been put in front of it in recent years, Canada’s program is a tempting proposition, especially for foreign-born entrepreneurs who can’t afford to let their businesses languish.

Minister Kenney, for one, is not afraid to brag about his country’s comparatively progressive approach to immigration and entrepreneurship. “The U.S. has thousands of brilliant young tech entrepreneurs, many who have fantastic start-up concepts, yet they’re in the U.S. on temporary visas running out of time,” he says. Indeed, U.S. companies are reaching the cap on their yearly allotment of skilled worker visas sooner than they have since before the recession. “We want, working with our VC industry, to invite those people to begin their promising careers in Canada.”

The question is, what do business owners stand to gain (or lose) by forgoing American entrepreneurial hubs like Silicon Valley and New York City and heading north?”

Click here to read the entire article.

Startup Canada optimistic that the federal budget takes step in right direction for recognizing and supporting a nation of entrepreneurs

Ottawa, March 22, 2013 – The Canadian government is moving in the right direction with elements of the federal budget, but more is required to create an entrepreneurial infrastructure to accelerate the success of Canadian entrepreneurs.

“We are pleased to see government supporting the startup community in Canada with the announcement of the entrepreneur awards and investment in venture capital and accelerators,” said Victoria Lennox, CEO of Startup Canada.  “These are positive steps to support entrepreneurs. As the Harper government has acknowledged, entrepreneurs and the businesses they create are the backbone of the Canadian economy, employing nearly half of the Canadian working population.”

“Still, further efforts need to target higher-impact strategic investments that go beyond the status quo and work toward building the culture, connectivity and communities necessary to fuel entrepreneur success in Canada and to bolster our competitiveness as a nation.”

Lennox asserted that high-impact investments into Canada’s entrepreneurship infrastructure requires that the Canadian government begin to work with grassroots entrepreneurial leaders who are already driving impact in communities across Canada.

“We need to invest in entrepreneur-led community building efforts like Startup Edmonton and grassroots co-working spaces like Hub Halifax and Montreal’s Notman House,” said Lennox.  “We need to enhance access to meaningful mentorship connections and provide better connectivity between entrepreneurs and the support that they need. We need to invest in efforts that will fuel a national culture of entrepreneurship to raise the ambitions of Canadian entrepreneurs, to keep our entrepreneurs at home, and to position Canada as a beacon for global high-growth startups, investors and industry partners.”

Startup Canada is cautious about the depth of support that this budget offers for building a nation of high-growth startups and the next generation of entrepreneurs. Canada is lagging behind other G8 countries in bold support for entrepreneurs and startups. While this budget has some positive signs it does not move Canada forward at the pace needed to ensure the entrepreneur community continues to flourish.

“A culture shift is required for entrepreneurship to become a part of the fabric of Canada,” says Ms. Lennox, “and while an investment in the education and training of young people is always a wise one, we need to couple investment into trades and hard skills with the leadership and entrepreneurial awareness and skills that open the door for the next generation that will take over our small businesses or start their own.”

Startup Canada looks forward to working with the Government of Canada to bring together all sectors and ensure that the items outlined in the 2013 budget are implemented to best meet the needs of Canada’s job creating entrepreneurs and the businesses that they build.

Startup Canada Connect will be a highly social online space for entrepreneurs to plug into their local and national network and take their startup to the next level. Startup Canada Connect will be free, dynamic, comprehensive, personalized, underpinned by living startup communities on the ground and built by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. 

This will be THE FIRST PLACE THAT CANADIAN ENTREPRENEURS GO ONLINE TO START THEIR VENTURES and is tied into our Canadian Startup Ecosystem Roadmap based on building and supporting vibrant and connected STARTUP COMMUNITIES.

As a 100% volunteer run organization,  we have launched a crowd funding campaign to help to bring this to life. The crowd funding effort is just as much about putting together the team to build the platform as it is about raising the capital. We have a proven track record of working lean, on a shoestring, achieving results and making an impact through our collaborative approach.

Investors will form the working group that will inform what the platform will do, how it will look,  and will ensure that the platform adds value to entrepreneurs, startups, enterprise support organizations and the overall startup ecosystem in Canada.

All funds will be put toward building, populating, testing and refining Startup Connect. We will work in partnership with a young Canadian startup to design and build the website based on the specifications of the investors in the project and what we heard from Canadians on the tour.

All investors (at every level) will receive progress updates and full disclosure about how all funds are being used, as they are part of the project team.

Here are some of our Investors so far who will be helping to build the project:

Individual Benefactors & Heritage Supporters ($250 – $500): For Individual Benefactors, investing in Startup Connect is an investment in the future of Canadian entrepreneurship – building the new railway for economic and social progress in Canada through entrepreneurship.

• Scott Annan
• Davender Gupta
• Adam Jacques
• Joel C Adams
• Dwight Follick
• Elisabeth Preston
• Debbie Weinstein
• Yi Ning Wu

Community Collaborators ($1,000): For Community Collaborators, investing in Startup Connect positions their organizations as key nodes of the Startup Canada network nationwide, ensuring that Startup Connect adds value to them in becoming a key component of their marketing and outreach strategy, and ensuring that entrepreneurs know about and can easily access the support that they provide.

• Viatec – Victoria, British Columbia
• Accelerator Centre – Waterloo, Ontario
• Innovation Park – Kingston, Ontario
• Springboard Atlantic – Throughout Atlantic Canada
• Canadian Youth Business Foundation – Across Canada
• Quebec International – Quebec City, Quebec
• PEI BioAlliance – Charlottetown, PE

Startup Collaborators ($2,500): For Startup Collaborators, investing in Startup Connect is a strategic business decision, ensuring that their startup will be at the forefront of the small business community in Canada and known by entrepreneurs and those who support them nationwide.

• Fundica (Montreal)
• Seccuris (Winnipeg)
• YOUi Labs (Ottawa)

With more than 100 investors so far, we are 22% toward our fundraising and partnership goals for this project. Any amount will make a difference and will get you onto the Startup Connect Team. It is just as much about your engagement as your investment. Our Deadline is January

This is what entrepreneurs told us across Canada: 

At a fundamental level, starting a business, sole proprietorship, non-profit or social enterprise requires much of the same knowledge, skills and understanding. However, Canadian entrepreneurs continue to struggle with navigating the ecosystem and finding the support they need. Canada needs a one-stop shop for enterprise inspiration, support, learning and connectivity – one that is free, online, dynamic, easy-to-use, comprehensive, personalized and user friendly. This online dashboard needs to:

• Provide a meeting place and voice for entrepreneurs;
• Aggregate resources and support available to entrepreneurs based on their location, demographic profile, stage of firm development and industry;
• Connect them to online and in-person networks, communities and associations of relevance to them;
• Inform them of events and opportunities to learn and connect with others in the community;
• Provide them with access to existing learning resources (tutorials, templates, case studies) and live support;
• Support them along the continuum of enterprise growth from start to ramp-up to acceleration;
• Provide a marketplace for entrepreneurs to find co-founders, exchange services and post jobs; and
• Feature inspiring articles, multimedia and case studies to encourage Canadian entrepreneurs to think bigger, think globally, be sustainable, and leverage innovation and technology to grow.

While entrepreneurship is messy contact sport, ensuring that the one-stop shop provides an organic, bottom-up and entrepreneur-led solution with an eye to the entrepreneur’s user experience can retain the creativity and competition present in the ecosystem. This one-stop shop should be highly social, aim to speed access to support, and become a vital tool in every entrepreneur’s toolkit.

Let’s get it done Canada!

January – March – Supporting HRSDC in their work on developing a social innovation strategy for Canada
February – Launching Startupcan.ca
March - Piloting the National Tour in Halifax, Truro, Antigonish, Yarmouth and Sydney, Nova Scotia
March - Speaking at the NATI Solutions Summit in St. John’s NL
April - Chairing 3rd Annual ICUE Global Summit in London, UK held at IBM bringing together the leaders of national youth entrepreneurship organizations across the world featuring Sir Paul Judge, Lord Bilimoria and Minister Mark Prisk
April - Speaking at the 4rd Annual NACUE Leaders Training Conference in London, UK at which I presented the inaugural Founders’ Award to the 2012 President of the Year
May 2nd – Launching Startup Canada Officially in Ottawa featuring Minister Baird and Sir Terry Matthews
May – Touring PEI, Ontario and New Brunswick on Tour with Startup Canada
June – Touring Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan on Tour with Startup Canada
June – Securing IRAP support for iMotion Technologies
July – Touring Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador on Tour with Startup Canada
August – Speaking at the Institute for Public Administration of Canada Annual Conference in St. John’s, NL on narrowing Canada’s Innovation Gap alongside Tom Jenkins
September – Speaking at the CIVICUS World Assembly on Social Entrepreneurship in Montreal, QC
September – Completing the Startup Canada National Tour in Ontario and British Columbia
October - Speaking at the Atlantic Dreams Festival (Halifax), the New Brunswick Entrepreneurs Summit (Fredericton) and as the special keynote for the BMO Lecture Series at Acadia University in Wolfville, NS
October - Appointing the New Board and Advisors for Startup Canada
October - Moving into our first office thanks to McMillan LLP
November - Mentoring more than 10,000 Canadian entrepreneurs through the Canadian Mentorship Challenge
November – Coordinating Ottawa’s Global Entrepreneurship Week with +50 events, +20 partners, making Ottawa the most active city in Canada and 3rd in the world
November – Launching StartupBlueprints.ca during 6 PopUp Press Conferences in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver featuring Minister Clement, Minister Berneier and Minister Duguid
November – Hosting the Startup Nations Summit in Ottawa featuring Jonathan Ortmans and Alan Barrell bringing together the leaders of national entrepreneurship organizations and movements from across the world
November – Speaking at events throughout Global Entrepreneurship Week
December – Launching a crowd funding campaign for Startup Connect in Waterloo at the Accelerator with the support of Mayor Brenda Halloran
Partnering with phenomenal corporate partners – Gowlings, Microsoft, Ernst & Young, BDC, EDC, Best Western Hotels and Intuit
Partnering with passionate small business partners – Shopify, Clarity.fm, StartupPlays, Artik Promotions, KA Media, PubliAir, VideoBooth, Switch Video, Blab Media, Paper.li, Hootsuite, Fundica, RGA, the Hinton Group
Partnering with supportive government partners – CICP, DFAIT, British High Commission, American Embassy
Partnering with more than 200 organizations on 200 events throughout the national tour across 40 communities engaging 20,000 Canadians in person and 50,000 Canadians online
Working with passionate and committed volunteers across Canada
Awards – Our Chairman Adam Chowaniec receiving the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal
Media Coverage across Canada and the world, including: The Next Web, TechCrunch, TechVibes, National Post, Globe & Mail, The Star, ITWorld Business and dozens of online and print publication

Leaders from 9 international entrepreneurship campaigns gathered for the Summit on Nov 29 – 30 to share best practices, exchange knowledge, and develop collaborative approaches to advancing entrepreneurship locally, regionally, and globally. Hosted by Startup Canada, the Summit participants included representatives from entrepreneurship campaigns in Britain, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Lithuania and the United States.

“The world is a smaller place and the global entrepreneurship community is mobilizing in new collaborative and innovative ways – we saw that at the Summit when we had experts using Skype to join our panels from multiple locations overseas,” said Rivers Corbett, Chair of the 2012 Startup Nations Summit and an Advisor to Startup Canada. “In Canada, Startup Canada’s launch of its Startup Blueprints last week was perfect timing to show the world that our startup community is ready to step up to the plate to create change within our national ecosystem to put Canada on the map as a thriving startup nation.”

Keyonte speaker Jonathan Ortmans, President of Global Entrepreneurship Week and Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, commented on the need for increased support worldwide for entrepreneurs.

“GEW Global is proud of our partnership with Startup Canada and the other grassroots efforts around the world that strengthen public support for startups,” said Ortmans. “The world needs more entrepreneurs and we all must work together to encourage more citizens to unleash their ideas.”

The two days of panel discussions, breakout groups, and learning sessions were housed at Microsoft Canada offices, with an evening reception hosted at local Ottawa startup Shopify and sponsored by Intuit Canada.

“Startup Nations is a fantastic model for how industry, government, and the not-for-profit sector can work together to foster start-up success – both here at home and around the world,” said Jeff Cates, managing director of Intuit Canada. “At Intuit, we work every day to give entrepreneurs the tools and resources they need to build businesses, create jobs, and contribute to a growing economy. The Startup Nations Summit enabled us to connect, share, and partner with other organizations so that we can work together towards our shared objectives.”

Plans have already begun for the 2013 Startup Nations Summit.

“Startup Malaysia is delighted to gather the lead organizers of Startup Nation programs worldwide in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2013,” saidRebecca Hwang from Startup Malaysia. “We are looking forward to productive discussions, collaboration opportunities and to making new life long friends.”

For more information on the Startup Nations Summit, please visitwww.startupnations.org.

Sponsors of the 2012 Summit included the United States Embassy, Intuit Canada, UK Trade & Investment, Invest Ottawa, Shopify, the British High Commission, Microsoft BizSpark, Ernst & Young, Gowlings, and the International Startup Festival.

Click here to see photos on Facebook for the daytime and eveningprogrammes.

OTTAWA – November 27, 2012 – Startup Canada(www.startupcan.ca), a grassroots non-profit network committed to promoting a vibrant entrepreneurial culture, today unveiled a three-part national Action Plan to drive economic development, job creation and innovation from coast to coast.

The plan is intended to make Canada one of the world’s top entrepreneurial economies, in which job creation and economic growth spring from innovative entrepreneurs powered by supportive local communities and financial networks.

The new action plan grew out of Startup Canada’s 2012 national tour, the most extensive consultation process ever carried out with Canada’s entrepreneurial community. The tour revealed a number of common challenges that must be addressed to create a more dynamic and successful startup environment across the country:

• Canada needs to re-discover its entrepreneurial roots and embrace entrepreneurship as central to its national culture.

• Canada needs to cultivate savvier and more visionary early-stage startups to produce more high-growth companies with global reach.

• Canadian entrepreneurship must be fuelled from the bottom up through development of vibrant local entrepreneurial communities, led by entrepreneurs (not by bureaucrats or not-for-profits, as is often the case today), as the basis of a national entrepreneurship network.

“We need to act with urgency,” said Adam Chowaniec, Chairman of Startup Canada. “These problems and some solutions have been discussed for decades, but we are running out of time. The world is changing and competition is growing. We must take decisive action now to effect a substantial culture shift in how we regard and support new ventures in this country, ventures that can grow into global players.”

“Entrepreneurs are critical drivers of Canada’s future prosperity,” said Ilse Treurnicht, CEO of Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District. “Startup Canada’s engagement and celebration of entrepreneurs over the past year has highlighted the incredible momentum and capacity of this movement across the country. The work ahead is to build a new generation of Canadian businesses that can scale and succeed in increasingly competitive global markets. This needs to be a national team effort!”

Startup Canada’s Action Plan comprises three national initiatives that will be financed through sponsorship dollars and a crowd-funding campaign targeting entrepreneurial Canadians from coast to coast:

Startup Canada Connect: A free, highly social online meeting place that will connect and support Canadian entrepreneurs with the tools and resources needed to build more successful businesses.

Startup Canada Communities: A national entrepreneurial strategy must be founded on vibrant local communities led by existing entrepreneurial champions. Building on the network created through its 40-city national tour, Startup Canada will encourage development of strong local networks that will create the conditions for entrepreneurial growth and success locally and nationally.

Startup Canada Campaign: Entrepreneurs across the country have told Startup Canada they need more role models – more access to stories of successful Canadian innovators and entrepreneurs. Startup Canada will lever mainstream media, social media and key national institutions to tell and celebrate the stories of Canadian entrepreneurs, providing authentic case studies to inspire and motivate new generations of startups.

“Startup Canada’s planning phase has received unprecedented support from entrepreneurs, sponsors and business-development organizations across the country,” said CEO Victoria Lennox. “We intend to sustain this momentum and create a stronger entrepreneurial economy, to create better jobs and increased prosperity for all Canadians.”

To learn more about Startup Canada’s Action Plan, please visitwww.startupblueprints.ca.

Key Resources:

• National Tour Video
• Official Blueprints Photos
• Link to Official Media Area
• Official Blueprint Videos
• Startup Canada Tour Info-graphic

Today, as Startup Canada names British Columbia’s Women’s Enterprise Centre as its 2012 Canadian Mentorship Challenge winner for overall reach, impact and inspiration, Laurel Douglas hopes this is just the start of something big for BC entrepreneurs.

“One of the takeaways I got from this is that we’re going to have to host more events,” said Douglas, CEO of Women’s Enterprise Centre, from the organization’s head office in Kelowna. “There’s a pent up demand for mentoring.”

She noted that within BC, 36% of the province’s small business owners are women, yet studies have shown female entrepreneurs have a harder time accessing capital and growing their ventures. From November 13 – 16, more than 4,500 entrepreneurs across BC were engaged in activities hosted by Women’s Enterprise Centre, including a speed mentoring activity, a mentor panel discussion, one-to-one mentoring sessions, two Twitter chats, a Facebook ‘Ask the Expert’ event, a phone-in mentor advisory forum, plus several blog posts and an eNews issue focused on mentoring.

“When we heard about this contest, we wanted to profile and acknowledge our dedicated volunteers who are really invested in helping each other,” said Douglas, adding the timing is critical as WEC is waiting on news of its provincial funding for this year.

With offices in Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria, Women’s Enterprise Centre offers skills development, business loans, and other resource services to more than 137,000 women business owners in BC. Women’s Enterprise Centre also hosts a network of more than 150 mentors across the province.

“Our mentor program is so well-established and so strong. We’ve been told by people that when they get approved to enter our mentoring program, it’s like winning the lottery – that’s how much they value our program,” Douglas said.

The mentees aren’t the only ones who win.

“I like being a mentor in the program because it’s all about giving and receiving,” said Trisha Miltimore, one of the mentors at the speed mentoring event in Kelowna last week. “Also, I get to spend time with some fabulous women who inspire me as much as I hopefully inspire them.”

For Victoria-based entrepreneur Robyn Quinn, she discovered a new resource base through her Women’s Enterprise Centre peer mentoring group.

“It was a wonderful experience because it was essentially a de facto Board of Directors for those of us who were working on our own and often dealing with fairly complex issues and challenges in the business, and didn’t really have anyone we could trust to go to,” said Quinn, a communications consultant.

Anecdotes like Miltimore’s and Quinn’s were echoed across the country during the Canadian Mentorship Challenge. Co-hosted by Startup Canada,CATAAlliance and the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, the campaign saw hundreds of community groups from coast to coast step up to engage thousands of Canadians, from aspiring entrepreneurs looking for advice to serial startup founders with stories from the trenches.

“Last week went above and beyond our expectations,” said Victoria Lennox,Co-Founder of Startup Canada. “Canada’s entrepreneur community really embraced it and I think that speaks to the impact and value mentorship has for everyone involved.”

The timing of the Challenge with Global Entrepreneurship Week was an excellent fit, noted Tessa Mintz, VP, Volunteers and Programs, Canadian Youth Business Foundation.

“Combined with the discussions and sharing on social media, this truly demonstrates that Canadians who support entrepreneurship are living the philosophy that we’re all in this together,” said Mintz. “The Canadian Youth Business Foundation looks forward to working with Startup Canada and our partners across Canada towards Global Entrepreneurship Week 2013.”

Canadian Women in Technology (CanWIT), a division of CATAAlliance, saw an increase in sign-ups for its eMentorship program during the Challenge.

“CanWIT was so pleased to partner with Startup Canada on this significant initiative,” said Emily Boucher, Executive Director, CanWIT. “In the spirit of the Great Canadian Mentorship Challenge and the recognition that mentorship matters, we hope the number of both mentors and mentees continues to increase. We look forward to participating again next year!”

While Women’s Enterprise Centre claimed the winner’s title, other front-runner events in the Canadian Mentorship Challenge were:

• MentorCity’s Shark’s Pond (Toronto, ON) – Seneca College hosted nearly 500 attendees for a Dragon’s Den-like event. Hatem Jabshan, the CEO of Steeped Tea and a recent Dragon’s Den success story, gave a keynote talk and student entrepreneurs pitched their business ideas to the “Sharks”, many of whom were Seneca graduates.
• Startup Weekend Québec City (Québec City, QC) – This event brought together 74 participants and 22 mentors to form teams and launch startups in just 54 hours. The final pitches were live-streamed to nearly 200 people and many of the Startup Weekend participants have enrolled in the “NEXT Quebec” program to launch the business ideas created at the event.
• Invest Ottawa Mentor Madness (Ottawa, ON) – Invest Ottawa kicked off Global Entrepreneurship Week in the nation’s capital with Mentor Madness which saw 40 entrepreneurs and 40 Mentors participate in a speed mentoring event. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with mentors identifying 82 follow-up requests.

Startup Canada also gave honourary mentions to the York Region Small Business Club’s #YRSBizMC #MentorsCAN Tweetup event in Richmond Hill, ON for its strong social media reach; and to the Colchester Regional Development Association (CoRDA) for hosting its inaugural Mentoring Breakfast event in Truro, NS to match local entrepreneurs with mentors.

Other notable events in the Challenge were the entries from the New Brunswick Business Council (Meals with Moguls), TiE Vancouver (Storming the Beach: Finding Product Market Fit), the University of Alberta Nanotechnology Group (ACS Building Blocks Mixer), Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan (Mentor or Be Mentored: Either Way You’re A Winner),Ethos Mentorship 2.0, and MaRS Discovery District (‘Meet the Entrepreneurs’ – Entrepreneurship 101).

“Having such a diverse collection of communities participate in the Challenge has demonstrated how broad of a spectrum there is for mentorship opportunities across the country,” said Irenia Roussel, one of the Mentorship Challenge Directors. “Each community has different and unique challenges and given this was a pilot project, we have identified a number of areas where we can enhance this Challenge for an even larger audience next year.”

Moaz Mohammed, another Mentorship Challenge Director, has been on both sides of a mentor relationship – first as a mentee early in his career, and now as a mentor to others.

“From that experience, I saw that mentoring has a deep impact on where a person takes their career and their life and it’s really important to have a strong mentor in your life,” said Mohammed. “I think one of the greatest impacts of the Challenge was that it allowed a lot of the participating organizations to come together on one platform and see what everyone else is doing and really showcase how important mentoring is for businesses and individuals.”

Startup Canada also used the Canadian Mentorship Challenge to recognize Canada’s Top 10 Mentor Rock Stars, nominated for their contributions of volunteer work and leadership development in their communities. Startup Kitchen, an entrepreneur-led TV show on Bell Aliant Community One TV, joined in the Challenge by profiling the Mentor Rock Stars through a series of short video interviews.

Clarity brought an international spin to the Challenge by partnering with Startup Canada to connect Canadian entrepreneurs with its global network of experts via a customized Startup Canada page. Startup Canada’s national partners, Microsoft Bizspark, Business Development Bank of Canada,Gowlings, and Ernst & Young, also hosted mentorship-themed events last week during the Challenge.

For more information on all the events and individuals showcased during the Canadian Mentorship Challenge last week, you can visitwww.mentorshipchallenge.ca or www.startupcan.ca

Ottawa, ON (Tuesday, October 30, 2012) – Key members of Canada’s business and enterprise sectors have joined Startup Canada’s leadership team as it prepares to launch its national strategy to support entrepreneurship in Canada.

A new Management Board and two new committees – a National Advisory Council and a Government, Industry and Academic Advisory Board – will strengthen the voice of entrepreneurs at the heart of the organization and engage additional stakeholders from Canada’s economic ecosystem.

Startup Canada’s blueprint for kick-starting entrepreneurship in Canada will be unveiled at the end of November and will contain key findings and action items from its National Tour.

“As a volunteer-run organization, Startup Canada is fuelled by the guidance and support of its board and advisors,” said Adam Chowaniec, Founding Chairman of Startup Canada and a member of the new Management Board. “Accordingly, we have augmented the founding board with key individuals who can provide strategic direction for Startup Canada as it enters the next phase of its evolution.”

The new National Advisory Council will be composed entirely of entrepreneurs, hailing from a range of geographic regions and industry sectors.

“I’m excited to be part of Startup Canada’s National Advisory Council and to lend a voice to the need and importance of helping develop, fund, and celebrate Canada’s strong entrepreneurial community,” said Dani Reiss, President and CEO, Canada Goose.

The Government, Industry and Academic Advisory Board will broaden Startup Canada’s expertise in areas such as policy, education, training, and innovation.

“When we look at the three pillars of innovation and entrepreneurship – government, academia and industry – and the desired outcome of creating more successful Canadian companies, collaboration and alignment of desired outcome amongst the three pillars are crucial,” said incoming board memberSophia Leong, Director, Executive MBA Program, Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa. “I hope our initiatives will bring forward ‘action-oriented collaborations’ with a sense of urgency to ensure that we are systematically achieving our desired outcome to strengthen our competitive position in the global market and to maintain a strong economy for all Canadians.”

Additional members will be added to the National Advisory Council and the Government, Industry and Academic Advisory Board in 2013.

Earlier this year, Startup Canada visited 10 provinces during a six-month National Tour to celebrate entrepreneurship across Canada. More than 20,000 Canadians participated in Town Halls and Fringe Events that brainstormed solutions to the top challenges facing entrepreneurs on local, regional and national scales.

Startup Canada sponsors include Microsoft, Gowlings, Ernst & Young, Best Western Hotels, the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program, Export Development Canada, The VideoBooth Company, Artik, Kick Ass Media, PubliAir, the Ottawa Technology Transfer Network, the Association of University Research Parks Canada, Blab Media, the Canadian Association of Business Incubation, the Evidence Network, Francis Moran & Associates, FreshBooks, Global Advantage Consulting Group, MSBi Valorisation, Podio, Backbone Magazine, HootSuite, ITWorld Canada, NextMTL, Paper.li, Sprouter, and Techvibes.

Biographies and photos for all members of the Management Board, National Advisory Council, and the Government, Industry and Academic Advisory Board can be found on the Startup Canada website.

Startup Canada Management Board

• Lanis Anthony, Entrepreneur and Angel Investor
• Adam Chowaniec, Founding Chairman, Startup Canada
• Sorin Cohn, President, BD Cohnsulting
• Andrea Mandel-Campbell, Journalist, Author, Communications Consultant
• Emanuel Montenegrino, Partner, McMillan
• Elisabeth Preston, Managing Partner Ottawa, McMillan LLP
• Debbie Weinstein, Co-Founder and Partner, LaBarge Weinstein
• Lori O’Neill, CA, CPA, ICD.D
• Cam Cameron, Associate, Gowlings Lafleur Henderson LLP

Startup Canada National Advisory Council

• Chris Albinson, Managing Director and Co-founder, Founders Circle Capital
• Paul Cataford, President & CEO, Zephyr Sleep Technologies
• Rivers Corbett, CEO and Founder, Corbett Ventures
• Mike Edwards, Executive Director, GrowLab
• Jeremy Gutsche, Founder and CEO, Trend Hunter
• Michael Legary, Chief Strategy Officer, Seccuris
• David Levi, President & CEO, Matrix Asset Management
• Gerry Pond, Chairman, Mariner
• Yona Shtern, CEO, Beyond the Rack
• Robert Sherkin, CEO & President, Dynamic Tire Corp.
• Tonya Surman, Executive Director, Centre for Social Innovation
• Nicole Stefenelli, Founder and CEO, Urban Impact Recycling
• Dani Reiss, President and CEO, Canada Goose

Startup Canada Government, Industry and Academic Advisory Board

• Helen Braiter, Director, Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program, Office of Small and Medium Enterprises and Strategic Engagement, Public Works & Government Services Canada
• Pierre Bilodeau, Vice President (Operations), ISTPCanada
• Barry Bisson, President, Shad Valley
• Davender Gupta, Venture Catalyst & Leadership Coach, Startup-Académie
• Shahab Khan, IT Strategy Consultant, Innovapost Inc, & Advisory Committee Member, Canadian Cloud Council
• Paul Ledwell, Executive Vice-President, Public Policy Forum
• Sophia Leong, Director, Executive MBA Program, Telfer School of Management
• Francis Moran, Founder, Francis Moran & Associates
• Laura O’Blenis, Founder & CEO, Stiletto Consulting
• Senia Rapisarda, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and Investments, Business Development Bank of Canada
• Rick Spence, National Entrepreneurship Columnist, Financial Post
• Carol Stewart, President, Association of University Research Parks; Manager, David Johnston Research + Technology Park, University of Waterloo
• Dave Watters, President, Global Advantage Consulting Group Inc.

On September 18, 2012, during a special event hosted byInstituteB, Urban Impact and BCIC, social entrepreneurs and innovators across Vancouver came together in Richmond, BC to network with top social innovators Darrell Kopke of InstituteB, Nicole Stefenelli of Urban Impact and Christopher Ng, CEO of Alterrus (vertical farming system manufacturer) – entrepreneurs who are using their companies as tools for positive societal change by delivering both positive societal impact and profit to shareholders.

Hosted at the New West materials processing facility, young entrepreneurs had the opportunity to tour the facility and participate in group workshops led by Nicole and Christopher. “We were excited to have Startup Canada join us at our state-of-the-art New West processing plant and have the opportunity to discuss a topic that is very dear to my heart,” said Urban Impact CEO.

Nicole started Urban Impact in 1990 as a commercial recycling company with the belief that she could make a difference as social entrepreneur. It all started in 1989 when Nicole returned from a trip to Europe. “It was a major turning point for me,” she recalls, “seeing how many light years ahead those countries were in terms of recycling.” One year later, Urban Impact was born as a university project aimed at proving that commercial businesses could reduce their waste disposal costs and carbon footprint by recycling.

Nicole started with a client roster of four restaurants. Today Urban Impact picks up waste and recyclable material from 5,000 locations across the Lower Mainland and Alberta, with a staff of 100 and a fleet of 32 vehicles.

Nicole believes that keeping waste out of local landfills is a critical way to conserve natural resources. Passionate about recycling. Nicole saw the value in waste and viewed paper, cardboard and soft plastics as a valuable resource long before it became mainstream.

Forward-thinking, Nicole is a pioneering spirit in the environmental sustainability movement.   She epitomizes imagination, energy and passion. Nicole took a risk  and created a recycling business when the industry was in its infancy and built it into a cutting-edge company that sets standards for others in its field.  Nicole clearly has the instinct of an entrepreneur.  She’s very focused and has an understanding of her key customers.  She’s created a family-run business on the simple core values of treating our customers as her number one priority. Nicole also enjoys living recycling, teaching it and promoting it.

“We embraced sustainability over 20 years ago. Urban Impact was one of the first paper and cardboard recycling companies in Vancouver and has grown into a major recycling player in Metro Vancouver.

Sharing her Recycling Passion through our School Tour Program

Nicole is passionate about getting kids excited about the planet and recycling.  ”There’s a lot to know and the more people know, the better recyclers they are”. Under Nicole’s leadership, Urban Impact has been sponsoring Grade 4/5 School Tours of our Richmond processing plant  for nearly four years.

Overall, this fantastic event gave new social entrepreneurs an on-the-ground perspective of impact entrepreneurship and the vision, perseverance and passion it takes to do right and deliver profit.