As Startup Canada continues its national search for better ways to support and celebrate entrepreneurship, its tour stops in Ontario confirmed that communities need more than a one-size-fits all action plan.

There is no one solution to creating a more entrepreneurial ecosystem. It requires a myriad of elements, individuals and circumstances. It takes time, an appetite to try new things, and, perhaps most importantly, it requires vision and leadership to pull everyone in the same direction.

Startup Canada is a grassroots, entrepreneur-led initiative to support and inspire entrepreneurship across the country. The prime idea-generators for its six-month National Tour are its Town Hall events, where entrepreneurs and supporters of the entrepreneurial community work together to identify and explore ideas for supporting entrepreneurship in general, in each city, and within the region.

Ontario Town Halls were hosted in Waterloo, Windsor, Markham, and York, facilitated by Rick Spence, a Startup Canada Advisor and former editor and publisher of PROFIT, The Magazine for Canadian Entrepreneurs.

“We ask people to think like entrepreneurs and find doable, innovative solutions to local, regional and national-level challenges,” said Spence. “In Ontario, we collected some great new business ideas, from a company that sources beta testers for tech startups to a national mentor hotline. I’m also intrigued by the suggestion of creating ‘drinkubators’ to promote social engagement and build more robust relationships between entrepreneurs.”

While Ontario entrepreneurs echoed ideas heard in previous stops of Startup Canada’s tour–such as the need for a centralized one-stop support and programming shop, youth mentorship programs, and co-working spaces–there were also some new propositions.

Examples included Windsor’s pitch to pilot an entrepreneurship-infused secondary school–with Startup Fairs as opposed to science fairs, entrepreneurial guest speakers and lecturers, and financial literacy taught in math class–and Markham’s idea to create a new support network focused on helping companies engage international markets through market intelligence services, international connections, and leveraging groups like Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT).

Town Hall participants also spoke of the power of community and the need for entrepreneurs across all backgrounds to come together at all levels to support, mentor and collaborate for mutual growth and learning.

“Successful entrepreneurs need to be comfortable with taking risks but also need to know that they can rely on the entrepreneurial community and culture for support and guidance as they move their journey forward,” said Tim Ellis, CEO of the Waterloo Accelerator Centre, the host location for Waterloo’s Town Hall. “The strength of the Waterloo Region stems from its entrepreneurs and the many support organizations in place all working in concert to help companies grow into sustainable and globally competitive firms.”

“A big piece of building an entrepreneurial community is creating an environment where entrepreneurs can interact with each other, support each other and recognize each other’s efforts and achievements,” said Yvonne Pilon, Director of Programs & Communication with WEtech Alliance. “The Startup Canada town halls have sparked conversations amongst hundreds of entrepreneurs that are vital to the community that supports them. Entrepreneurs and community stakeholders must leverage these conversations and work together to ensure that entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking is rooted into the community.”

Startup Canada also spent a day at the MaRS Discovery District, touring the facility and meeting with the entrepreneurs and leadership behind one of Ontario’s leading drivers of innovation and small business.

“Innovation does’t happen in a vacuum. At MaRS we bring together key players who can accelerate and amplify innovation to strengthen our knowledge economy," says Dr. Ilse Treurnicht, CEO of MaRS.
"Entrepreneurs are at the core of this process and matter profoundly to the future of this country.”

Jeremy Laurin, CEO of VentureLab--a non-profit innovation centre in Toronto's York Region--hosted a Town Hall in Markham.

“Startup Canada is important because it coalesces the energies, best practices and innovations of individual Canadian startup communities, enabling each community to learn from experiences of others," he says. "By bringing these best practices and experiences together, (it) has the potential to be a driving force in promoting and advancing entrepreneurship in Canada."