The League of Innovators’ (LOI) hosted their third celebratory Founders Showcase event virtually on Tuesday, May  4th. Young entrepreneurs from British Columbia to Nova Scotia. and everywhere in between gathered on Zoom to highlight the milestones and impact their startups made over the last twelve weeks.

Labs is the LOI’s 12-week virtual accelerator program supporting youth-led startups across Canada to grow and scale. Labs is a barrier-free, sector-agnostic program fostering innovation, diversity and collaboration. 35 youth-led startups were selected through a competitive application process to dive into Labs 3 key learning pillars: Founder First, Get Your House in Order and Building Connections through leading workshops, Ask me Anything Sessions, coaching, peer support and access to resources. 

This cohort of 60 founders, have collectively raised $875,000, hired over a dozen paid employees to their teams, and been featured in the Fast Company, the New Yorker, and the Globe and Mail to name a few. This is evidence that diverse and supportive teams and peer communities of young entrepreneurs across Canada can drive incredible impact. This Labs cohort, in particular, comprises 41% female entrepreneurs, 10% LGBTQ+, 7% with a disability, 65% BIPOC, and 25% who speak English as their second language.

Much Deserved Thank Yous 

We would like to thank all the panellists who joined us at the Founders Showcase and helped make the event chocked full of value for the young entrepreneurs in the program. We appreciate your time, expertise, connections and insights from your lived experience.

Amielle Lake, Chief Commercial Officer at CarboNet 

Claire Lelièvre, Founder of Hearandknow and Advisor at Platform Calgary

Cindy Fagen, Managing Director at SAP Labs Canada

Faye Almeshaan, Head of Operations at Acceleprise VC

Joshua Zaporzan, Founder of Audax Ventures and Venture Coach at Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship

Justin Massar, Community Engagement Specialist at Hunter Hub 

Kathleen Eva, Venture Capital Investments at StandUp Ventures

Kjeld Mizpah, Policy Advocate & Operations Manager at Spring Garden Area Business Association

Lori Oliver, Partner at Women’s Equity Lab and Tax at DMCL LLP

Ludovic Siouffi, Portfolio Manager at Canaccord Genuity

Michael Grantmyre, Senior Associate, Osler LLP Emerging and High Growth Companies group

Montgomery Ngan, Co-Founder of Ascend

Nicholas Hyldelund, Investor at Rhino ventures

Nicola Jones-Crossley, Business Development Manager at Futurpreneur Canada and Executive Director of Women in Tech World
Paul Brassard, Managing Partner and Lead Advisor at Volition

Shea Sinnot, Senior Programs Manager at Centre for Social Innovation, Climate Ventures & Earth Tech

Tawfiq Najjar, Business Development and Growth Lead, Clearbanc Ventures

Here are some of the LOI team’s favourite key takeaways from the panellists’ pitch feedback:

1. Never underestimate the value of sharing your personal story that drives the vision of your company and why you care so deeply about the problem you are trying to solve. 
2. Be clear about the stakeholders in your startup and how you have and continue to engage them in driving customer discovery and impact creation.
3. Clearly outline your team, traction and milestones to date. There’s often an “undersell” of the work that you have been doing, tell us about it!
4. For people who are less familiar with the industry than you are, be sure to communicate your value proposition and competitive advantage. Why you? Why now? Why this solution?
5. Give us enough information in the pitch that we are emotionally invested, eager to have a second conversation and clearly understand what your ask is.

And, last but definitely not least, a huge huge thank you to our community of amazing young entrepreneurs in Labs Batch 6 who have demonstrated a commitment to learning, community, and doing the work.  You can learn more about the next generation of Canadian entrepreneurs who participated in this cohort in this blog post. 

They all deserve immense congratulations for their work building their startups, pursuing an entrepreneurial career amidst heightened uncertainty,  and completing the League of Innovators Labs accelerator program! The League of Innovators team is excited to have them join our diverse and expanding alumni community of over 400 young entrepreneurs across Canada building tomorrow’s businesses today and look forward to continuing to support them on their entrepreneurial journey. Check out the LOI’s impact to date in our most recent Impact Report. 

Last but not least, a massive thank you to our partners that make League of Innovators possible! In particular, thank you to our friends at RBC, Hootsuite, Osler, SAP, Western Diversification Fund, New Avenue Capital, Volition, Microsoft and the Vancouver Foundation.

If you are an aspiring or current entrepreneur, this could be you we are writing and raving about. Check out the different free and virtual resources and programs LOI has to offer. Are you a young entrepreneur in Canada ready to accelerate? Applications for Labs accelerator are also open until July 5, 2021. To learn more feel free to get in touch or say hi reach out to Annika Lui (she/they), Acceleration Programs Director at the League of Innovators at Annika@theleagueofinnovators.com