By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: July 19, 2014
Entrepreneur Colleen Myers won $2000 to launch a local food Co-op in town. She won the money as a part of a StartUp Capital at a Social Enterprise Launch event held at the Squamish Adventure Centre on June 24.
Six start-ups launched their ventures at the Social Enterprise Showdown and Launch Party to an audience of one hundred people from Squamish and the Sea-to-Sky corridor. Entrepreneurs were competing for crowd-funded start-up capital in a public Dragon’s Den style competition.
Each entrepreneur tried to persuade the audience to vote for them in the Start-up Showdown. [manual_related_posts]
The entrepreneurs, all from the Sea-to-Sky corridor, spent the past three months developing their business models in Squamish’s first business accelerator.
“I really appreciate the support that all entrepreneurs have received from the community,” said Colleen Myers.
“Squamish has all the ingredients to build innovative new businesses, and I am grateful to be part of the StartUp Community.”
The accelerator is a ten week program, presented by Community Futures, and collaboratively delivered by Simon Fraser University and StartUp Squamish. It’s designed so that entrepreneurs can validate their business ideas to create a successful, profitable, scalable enterprise.
“The first accelerator focused on Social Enterprise entrepreneurs,” said Jeff Dawson of Community Futures Howe Sound.
“Social Enterprises are companies that use a business model, rather than a funding model, to deliver social impact. From recycling to ride-share, entrepreneurs are solving many of society’s greatest challenges.”
