Co-Founder & CEO
Startup Canada is a grassroots, entrepreneur-led, volunteer-run, non-profit network that launched in May 2012 to bring together and give a voice to the Canadian entrepreneurship community and to promote a vibrant entrepreneurial culture.
Tour & Campaign - Since launching, Startup Canada embarked on a six-month cross-country tour as a national community-building exercise, to kick-start a conversation about how we can better support Canadian entrepreneurs and cultivate an entrepreneurial culture. The Tour brought together more than 20,000 Canadians and 300 partners through 200 events fuelled by hundreds of volunteers.
In addition to town hall meetings, expert discussions and more than 500 video interviews with some of Canada’s leading entrepreneurs, Startup Canada brought the conversation and celebration online through social media and online campaigns, daily and weekly updates, #startupchats on Twitter, event live feeds and public input via videos and online forums.
The Tour provided a platform for the Canadian entrepreneurship community to come together, share ideas, identify gaps and opportunities, and commit to community-level action. Collectively, participants gave life to more than a dozen community-led projects – from co-working spaces and entrepreneur-led accelerators to communications campaigns and community asset-mapping exercises. For the first time, the Canadian entrepreneurship community connected in a common activity and conversation.
Startup Canada will build on its grassroots entrepreneurial agenda to create a stronger, more competitive and more prosperous Canada through:
- Facilitating a national network of strong startup communities;
- Connecting entrepreneurs into these communities to accelerate their growth; and,
- Celebrating and promoting entrepreneurship as something to aspire to and key to Canada’s prosperity.
As a volunteer-run organization, Startup Canada’s Way Forward will require us pulling together in the same direction. Take action today by supporting the Startup Canada movement.
