Tagged under: kitchener-waterloo business, local business, resources, small business canada, small business tools, startup
Kitchener-Waterloo has become somewhat of a high tech startup hotbed, and for us long-time residents it is no surprise. With a number of exceptional schools for both the humanities, technology, science and business, the KW area was bound to reap the benefits eventually.
With both local post-secondary talent and external entrepreneurs; the local scene is full of epic startups and business influencers. Which, consequently, has lead to the emergence of local support organizations aiming to help all aspiring business dreams. If you're one of those dreamers, below are some fantastic resources you can tap into to help increase your startup's chances to become a long-tenured, thriving organization:
Accelerator Centre
The (AC) Accelerator Centre is your one-stop shop for all things growth with respect to launching a startup. From attracting funding to growing your customer base; you can find a program that is perfect for any stage of your startup in virtually any industry. The AC provides in-house mentors that can provide crucial guidance at the right times.
Miovision, Clearpath Robotics, Kik and Axonify are just some of the examples of successful organizations that tapped into AC's resources.
Communitech
Communitech originated back in 1997 in an attempt to raise the region's profile with high tech companies. Boy, did they succeed! Today Communitech can help tech companies attract talent, acquire customers, provide a workspace among many other services.
Plus being located the Tannery building at the heart of Kitchener downtown startup core, it is a great place to get started and run into fellow techies along the way!
Waterloo Region Small Business Centre
With three locations (Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge), the Waterloo region Small Business Centre is a great place for all small businesses to get started. From the basics to mentors providing the right guidance your startup.
There are plenty of learning modules/classes available for all sorts of functions (who doesn't like coding, am I right?!) as well.
Velocity (University of Waterloo)
Velocity is located in UofW and has a number of programs that help entrepreneurs in various aspects of getting started:
- Velocity Residence: a dorm for University of Waterloo students who wish to learn more about building a startup or work on their current companies.
- Velocity Alpha: a series of workshops, panels and sessions that runs each term to help educate people about building a successful business.
- Velocity Science: a partnership with the Faculty of Science to provide a discovery lab, mentoring and coaching for any student with a life or materials science startup.
- Velocity Fund: created to provide seed funding and pitch experience to companies.
- Velocity Garage: a 7,000 square feet of free workspace and a peer community for more than 30 software startups.
- Velocity Foundry: a 11,000 feet of free workspace and a peer community for more than 30 hardware startups
Innovation + Entrepreneurship (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Laurier's Innovation + Entrepreneurship program provides courses, classes, mentorship and other resources to help great business ideas take off. As a WLU graduate myself I recall being thrown into the ring of entrepreneurship during my first year of studies; there were mandatory entrepreneurship competitions for all Business & Economics students.
The innovation + Entrepreneurship program partners with the Accelerator Centre and Communitech organizations in order to provide free workspaces and events to it's members. A neat thing about this is that school Alumni are used as mentors of exemplary entrepreneurship. It is no surprise since some of them have founded well-recognized companies of today: Steam Whistle Brewery, Challenger, Auvik Networks and Plasticity Labs.
Centre for Entrepreneurship (Conestoga College)
Similar to the above mentioned universities, Conestoga College provides similar resources to it's students looking to build on their entrepreneurial dreams. Start-up funding, mentorship and a number of useful resources are all available through this program.
The Centre for Entrepreneurship partenrs with RBC, BMO, Scotiabank and Great West Life to provide external resources of information to ensure a comprehensive offering to any aspiring entrepreneur!
There you have it! I hope this list can help you narrow down the right resources right for your business. As always let me know if there is something I missed. The more resources we can provide to each other the more likely a startup is to make it long-term.
Tagged under: idea influencer, kitchener-waterloo business, marketing influencer, small business month canada
In celebration of small business month in Canada I thought it would be great to highlight some of the local influencers making a difference within the Kitchener-Waterloo region. All small businesses, startups or entrepreneurs need some sort of mentor to guide them in the right direction, and where better to find inspiration than within our own local community!
Please note that the images were mostly gathered from Twitter (and other online sources) and that these are brief overviews of each individual. I am sure they are involved in much more and have in-depth descriptions on their own web pages or social media profiles. I am aware of the fact that there may be more influencers around the area which were not mentioned. If you do have any suggestions perhaps I can add them in for next year's small business month (just contact me directly or share your mentor in the comment section below).
Anyhow, check out these local business influencers and make sure that at the very least you follow each one on Twitter (if you have not already done so) as they share awesome ideas:
Alan Quarry
Focus: Entrepreneurship Mentor, Branding Guru, University Professor, Chief Enthusiasm Officer at Quarry Integrated Communications
Twitter: @aquarry
Brief Overview:
I was fortunate enough to have Alan as one of my final year professors at Wilfrid Laurier University. The way he got us engaged on early Friday mornings (a tough feat to get students to focus that early prior to a weekend!) during his Integrated Marketing Communications seminar was astonishing. I myself have been directly influenced by his "shift happens" and look beyond the norm approach to branding. As a matter of fact, NR Digital Branding was partially a result of his inspirational lectures and ideas.
Aside from growing Quarry Integrated Communications into an amazing agency, Alan is also involved with Communitech and other local organizations that help monitor up and coming startups. He was also part of AQ's Blog & Grill where he interviews industry leaders such as Guy Kawasaki & Ann Handley (just to name a couple) about best practices, tips, etc. If you're looking for groundbreaking marketing ideas or entrepreneurship motivation make sure you follow Alan!
Ginny Dybenko
Focus: Business Educator, Diversity Advocate, Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women, Executive Director - University of Waterloo Stratford Campus
Twitter: @dybenko
Brief Description:
Ginny has done a fantastic job of leading the two local universities (Laurier & Waterloo) in becoming one of the leaders in the field of Business, Economics and Digital media. She has held a number of executive positions over her career in the high tech startup environment. Similar to Alan Quarry, Ginny is a huge advocate of entrepreneurship and shares fantastic ideas on how tech startups can take their organizations to the next level!
Ginny is also social services advocate. She supports gender equality and is part of a number of councils and boards which aim to standardize diversity in corporate culture. She is currently the Executive Director at the new Centre of Digital Media in the Stratford Campus of the University of Waterloo (previously Dean at the School of Business & Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University). Worth a follow for any entrepreneur looking for inspiration!
Jennifer Moss
Focus: Employee Engagement, Writer, International Female Entrepreneur Award, Co-Founder of Plasticity Labs
Twitter: @JenLeighMoss
Brief Description:
Jennifer is the co-founder and CMO of Plasticity Labs, a local company focusing on workplace happiness and engagement! Leading the way in the "love where you work" mentality - Plasticity is a revolutionary system for determining what makes employees tick or happy at work. Helping organizations bring the best out of their employees while maintaining productive teams.
Aside from Plasticity Labs, Jennifer is a regular contributor of ideas to the Harvard Business Review and Huffington Post Canada publications. Sharing her ideas on what makes people happy, how to create awesome tech startup cultures and much more. Make sure you give her a follow if you're interested in building a better, happier workforce!
John Stix
Focus: Workplace Engagement, Business Culture Speaker, Founder of Fibernetics
Twitter: @John_Stix
Brief Description:
John is a true entrepreneur at heart: starting a telecommunications company in what was already considered a saturated market. I had the pleasure of being interview by John for a marketing position at Fibernetics, unfortunately for me I was fresh out of university and was not fully prepared for what Fibernetics needed at the time.
In addition to starting Fibernetics John Stix is a big "Workplace Culture Warrior" and regularly works with companies of all sorts to help them build a better, more engaged workforce. His passion to workplace culture engagement is unbelievable. Anyone looking to get tips on workplace culture, marketing or startups needs to be following him!
Michael Litt
Focus: Video Marketing, Startup Culture, Founder of Vidyard
Twitter: @michaellitt
Brief Description:
Michael Litt founded Vidyard, a video marketing company, while he was finalizing his studies at the University of Waterloo. Vidyard now employs over 50 people and has some revolutionary features that tradition video marketing platforms do not (as they relate to business purposes). Michael was able to muster up big funding investments with his vision in order to turn Vidyard into the company it is today.
The culture present at Vidyard speaks for itself: free lunches, gaming, career development and much more. A great entrepreneur giving back to the community that helped him get to where he is now. If you're looking for awesome marketing tips, video best practices or just tech startup information make sure you give him a follow!
Mike Lazaridis
Focus: Educator, High Tech Business Advocate, Founder of BlackBerry (Formerly Research in Motion)
Twitter: N/A
Brief Description:
Unfortunately for majority of us, Mike Lazaridis does NOT have any official social media profiles. Seen as an inspiration to everyone in the region; Mike was one of the first pioneers in the smart phone industry as a co-founder of Research in Motion (RIM) now known as BlackBerry. BlackBerry introduced emailing into mobile devices and the rest is history!
Outside of BlackBerry Mike spends a lot of time being involved and donating into the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (a big physics think-tank which he himself was involved in creating), founded Institute for Quantum Computing (ICQ) at the University of Waterloo and most recently made a large donation to the new Lazaridis School of Business & Economics building at Wilfrid Laurier University. Serving as an inspiration to both the corporate and scientific community.
There you have it! A list of local influencers that could potentially help with mentoring your business as it evolves from a small startup into a long-term organization. And the best thing is that they are all local to Waterloo Region.
Happy Small Business Month Kitchener-Waterloo!!
