Starting your first business can be intimidating and is not the easiest thing that you will ever do! However, it very well may be one of the most rewarding things that you do. As an entrepreneur, you have the power to disrupt, innovate, and shape a better world! Your inspiration will likely come to you least expect it! For the founders of Batch 3.0 of Foundations, this was finding a way to reduce loneliness and companionship during COVID-19, discovering the power of being present while enjoying a cookie that you baked, or seeing the damage one-use coffee cups have on the world’s environment. These are just some of the fantastic stories that came out of Foundations Batch 3.0. Often the most challenging part of starting a business is frankly deciding to “just start.” The thought of starting a business can be overwhelming and daunting, and that is why the League of Innovators (LOI) is here to help!
If you have not heard of LOI before, we are a national charity that fuels the fire of young entrepreneurs through various programs at all stages of their business! Foundations came to fruition to make entrepreneurship less intimidating and more attainable. We do this through expert guidance on starting a business and connecting youth with a community of like-minded people! Foundation is a 6-week program that provides knowledge, resources, tools, and mentorship to help take their ideas to action. It truly takes a village to launch and scale a business. The League of Innovators is here to support and make connections!
That is enough about us! Let’s start to dig into some of the fantastic founders we had the honour of working with within Batch 3 of Foundations. Batch 3 of Foundations consisted of 38 Ventures and 58 Entrepreneurs under 25 years old. These ventures came together from 8 different provinces from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Victoria, BC. Our founders came to Foundations with various business ideas, from selling unique crafts at farmers’ markets to apps, service-based businesses, and more! To help show you what is possible in just three short months, I want to share three founders’ stories from Batch 3.0 of Foundations.
The first story we would like to share is Serge Livingston, the founder of Treaźe. Treaźe is a fun family adventure company based out of Kelowna, BC, that run treasure hunts. So how does it work? Easy, you buy a map from Treaze.co, and on the hunt day, you hit the streets of Kelowna and search for clues (locks with QR Codes), the first to solve the riddle wins a prize. It is a safe and fun way to social distance and bond with friends and family. So how did Serge come up with this idea?
When Serge was a child, his father used to plan Treasure hunts for him and his siblings; it was simply a buried chest with pop and popcorn. Jump forward ten years, and COVID-19 hit, and times are tough! Serge decided to start running Treasure hunts for his friends and family for fun. Then he had the idea, “ why don’t I do this for the public as a business.” Serge joined Foundations in October 2020. Throughout the program, Serge worked diligently to get Treaźe off the ground. By the end of Foundations, he won our Founders Pitch Competition and was a week away from his first treasure hunt. Jump ahead three months; Serge is continuing to crush it, having run two treasure hunts with over 500 participants; he has two full-time employees and four interns! He is continuing to improve his hunt by working on an interactive app for the hunts. His next treasure hunt is on February 15th, so if you are in Kelowna, BC, buy your map now!
Next up is Tanya Griffiths, the founder of Being Baked Cookies. Being Baked Cookies bakes and sells gourmet cookies with a unique handwritten message to promote being present. In the summer of 2020, Tanya decided to leap into entrepreneurship. She did not feel confident in her experience and knowledge of launching a business. That is when she was referred to LOI by a friend. In her time in the program, Tanya was challenged and kept accountable continuously, making her more confident and supported while digging into problems that she can solve and what she wants to achieve as an individual and a business. By the end of Foundations, Tanya has sold over 200 cookies in the Greater Vancouver Area and continues to grow. You will soon find Tanya at Farmers Markets across Vancouver and working closely with local non-profit organizations that provide mental health and mental health illness resources.
The third story we would like to share is Pricilla Lam and Angelica TSO, the BYO founders. BYO was started to reduce the waste from single-use coffee cups, eliminating waste from landfills. They plan on tackling this problem by creating a mobile-based incentive program that rewards patrons for using reusable coffee cups when ordering at cafes. COVID-19 added some obvious struggles into their business development as most coffee shops temporarily do not allow reusable coffee cups. However, that did not stop the duo!
Through the Foundations program, Angelica and Pricilla tested and validated their idea through customer research and interviews with both users and coffee shops. Through this experience, they have made the most out of the situation and now have a very clear gameplan moving forward to build and launch their minimum viable product. Today the BYO team is looking to expand as they gear up to develop and launch their MVP. Hopefully, as COVID-19 restrictions start to subside, you will see BYO in coffee shops near you!
We are incredibly proud of all the hard work that every member of our 58 founders of Batch 3.0 has put in this past fall! We are even more excited to be continuing to work with all Batch 3.0 ventures as they launch and scale their businesses in the months to come!
Are you feeling inspired? Do you, too, want to start your own business? Don't wait! Check out out the Foundations page to learn more on how LOI can help you get started and apply for Foundations Batch 4 🙂
