Communitech, based in Waterloo, Ontario, is a public-private innovation hub that supports tech businesses as they start, grow, and prosper. Their accelerator program, Fierce Founders Accelerator, is intended to provide companies with tools and resources to scale up their business. One of the program’s eligibility criteria is that the company has at least one female…
Less than 16% of Canadian small and medium-sized businesses are women-owned, yet the full and equal involvement of women in the economy is essential to Canada’s competitiveness. The Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH) is an initiative funded through Budget 2018 that aims to reduce financial and knowledge barriers among women entrepreneurs. To grow women’s entrepreneurship…
Canadian women often face financial barriers as they start and expand businesses. While there are many factors that have led to women owning fewer than 16% of businesses in Canada, access to financial resources is undoubtedly one of the greatest hurdles to overcome. Although there is greater gender equality in the workforce now than ever…
Please Note: This article refers to the application intake process for WEKH. This intake has closed and successful applicants were invited to participate in late 2018. Entrepreneurship is a vital element of Canada’s economic well-being. To drive employment and innovation, Canada must find ways to help more entrepreneurs across the country, especially women entrepreneurs whose…
I love hockey. I love the intensity, the camaraderie, and the tradition. Growing up, hockey was, and still is, a centrepiece in my household. Many other sports bring my family together – baseball, football, the Olympics – but despite our love for watching sports, neither my sister nor I ever played team sports and we…
Female entrepreneurs are becoming an increasingly powerful and vocal group of influencers within Canada’s business community. A growing number of women are becoming entrepreneurs – 950,000 women were self-employed as of 2012, accounting for nearly 36% of all entrepreneurs in Canada. Still, two main challenges face women who are starting and growing their own business….