News
Startup Canada supporting entrepreneurship

Nov. 29, 2012, Ottawa — A grassroots non-profit network committed to promoting a vibrant entrepreneurial culture has unveiled its three-part national action plan to drive economic development, job creation and innovation from coast to coast.

The plan, developed by Startup Canada, is intended to make the
country 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,
featuring extensive consultations 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), 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 Victoria
Lennox, Startup Canada’s CEO. “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 visit www.startupblueprints.ca .