The Innovation Hub was excited to partner with the to bring back the Female Founders Street Market on March 25th, 2024 from 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm, right on campus in the Richcraft Atrium. Female founders filled the atrium with their homemade and handcrafted products such as jewelry, haircare, clothing, baked goods, art, and more. The event featured over 20 women-owned businesses, henna artists providing free henna, live music performers, a keynote address from MP Anita Vandenbeld, Rodney the Raven taking pictures, and a giveaway! It was fulfilling to see so many people come by to support their local female founders and women entrepreneurs. Through collaboration and support, events like the Female Founder Street Market pave the way for a future where gender equality and entrepreneurship go hand in hand.

Member of Parliament discussed some of the barriers that women entrepreneurs face:

The is a welcoming space dedicated to providing support, education, and resources for individuals who identify as women, as well as anyone interested in gender-based issues. It is the only women’s-only space on campus, where all women are invited to use this peaceful sanctuary for studying, resting, prayer, breastfeeding, and self-care. The Innovation Hub plays a crucial role in supporting entrepreneurship on campus by providing programs at no-cost to student founders and aspiring entrepreneurs interested in starting or growing a new business venture or social innovation. The Hub connects its program participants with resources, mentors, and investors in the Ottawa entrepreneurship ecosystem that can help them to design, launch and scale their own businesses.

The Female Founders Street Market was made successful once again as a result of the CUSA Women’s Centre, the Innovation Hub, all of the talented vendors, and the members from the ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ community who came out to show their support. The Female Founders Street Market is empowering because it provides a platform for women to showcase their talents and skills, while making connections with others in the Ottawa area. Attendees were about to have meaningful conversations to get to know the vendors and their businesses on a more personal level. When we put our money towards local and women-owned businesses, we’re directly supporting individuals in our community and encouraging them to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Female Founders Street Market, we hope to see you again next year!

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On Tuesday, March 12 at 12:00pm to 1:00pm the Innovation Hub held a Women Founder Roundtable, the second in a series of roundtables where ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ student founders and entrepreneurs from equity seeking groups, underrepresented populations and racialized communities, can talk about their experience as entrepreneurs, explore resources available to them in the community and contribute to the development of new programs in the Hub. Staff members Taylor and Alecs facilitated the discussion with a small group of women founders and started the conversation by asking questions about how smaller businesses can be supported by the Hub.

In this roundtable session we had the opportunity to hear directly from women founders who voiced their experience, roadblocks, and advice for overcoming obstacles. Some founders mentioned the challenge of having to navigate the new venture creation process while not having  family members or mentors that already have a business to look up to, and others expressed interest in having the Hub help fellow student founders to build their confidence and develop specific skills as they continue their start up journey.

, the Executive Director for , shared that franchising or buying an existing business is also a good option for people who don’t want to start something from scratch. While this is not necessarily for students, franchising allows founders to get investments and financing more easily because it’s easier to receive investment when you have something more established. She also spoke about BEKH’s Black entrepreneurship ecosystem map, which was made to map connections electronically. She left the women founders with some advice, saying, “In order to build and grow your business you need connections… if you have no connections you have no way of showing your capabilities”.

One of the founders offered insight about how some students who want to start their own business may struggle with creativity and being innovative. She suggested that students could view starting a business in a different way, “Frame it as skill building [and gaining experience] instead of pressure to start a new business”. Another founder chimed in, saying “It’s about knowing where to start and how to start it… a lot of people lack confidence in [my program] biotechnology, and they lack the business skills”. She suggested that the Hub continues to make this space a place where students think “this is somewhere I can grow my idea” because it will open the door for women in STEM to feel more comfortable and want to start a science-related business.

Director of the Innovation Hub, John Nelson shared that there are three coaches in the Hub that focus on leadership and women in business, and encouraged attendees to look into the , which is available for women-led businesses even if the founders don’t bank with Scotiabank. Nelson closed the Women Founder Roundtable with encouraging more women founders to join one of the programs at the Innovation Hub. He said, “We’d like to support anyone on campus that’s looking to start or scale a business, if we’re missing key things for you or your friends to come out please let us know”.

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On Friday, March 1st, 2024 the Innovation Hub hosted a Lunch and Learn with , the Executive Vice President – North America, at . Shannon Ryan is an entrepreneur with almost 25 years in the world of digital and has experience both starting and selling companies.

Students across all faculties were invited to bring their lunch, a laptop or notebook, and any questions they wanted to ask our guest speaker. Shannon led an informative talk centered around the topic of buying and selling a business, receiving funding for early stage businesses, and digitization.

He advised the students to work in a partnership when finding business partners, and ensure their business partners have trust, are not obsessed with money, want to build a more inclusive team, and find long-term alignment.

Still curious about entrepreneurship? Be sure to check out our Events & Community Networking page for more events and learning opportunities!

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On Wednesday, February 28, 2024 the Innovation Hub hosted a Black Business Roundtable, the first in a series of roundtables where ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ student founders and entrepreneurs from equity seeking groups, underrepresented populations and racialized communities, can talk about their experience as entrepreneurs, explore resources available to them in the community and contribute to the development of new programs in the Hub. These important conversations are being facilitated by the Hub with the purpose of asking the ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ community “What do you need from us?” and “How can we better serve you?”. The Black Business Roundtable began with a brief networking period where attendees mingled and enjoyed refreshments before gathering to introduce themselves by answering the question “what makes you, you?”. The room was filled with Innovation Hub staff and mentors, student founders and entrepreneurs, and members from the ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ community and Ottawa’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Director of the Innovation Hub, John Nelson, started the event by sharing some of the opportunities that the Hub has to offer students and asked everyone to think about their ‘why’ as entrepreneurs. “You need to figure out what problems you want to solve and what value you’ll be bringing to the community”. He then opened the floor to attendees to join in on a powerful discussion about how the Hub can improve the way it supports Black entrepreneurs and Business-owners on campus. Many people at the roundtable were actively engaged in conversation and asked thought-provoking questions throughout the discussion. Some of the Hub’s dedicated mentors were able to answer business-related questions with their expert advice.

Mentor Olasupo Fagbemiro provided some of his business advice to founders in the early stages, saying “When getting started, think about what services you have to offer and what skills can you sell? […] what makes you unique that people can exchange value for?”. From his experience being a Black entrepreneur, Ola mentioned some of the challenges that he had: “People often diminished my capacity because of my background… so I needed to be creative”. He decided to forge his own unique path when he first started by providing his services for free to build a base.

Mentor  emphasized the importance of talking to others, and encouraged everyone to network and form connections in order to be successful in their endeavors. “You have to be willing to connect with people, and not just online […] a level of connection is required [when doing business]”. He brought up the opportunities available in the Ottawa ecosystem such as the Innovation Hub, “You have community here, mentors and centers where you can bring your ideas forward”. At the same time, Jeffrey reminded the group that entrepreneurs don’t have to limit themselves to the Ottawa area, “In this age of digital marketing and digital media, it’s very conceivable [to work with people around the world]”.

Nelson encouraged everyone to get comfortable with selling themselves, and shift to thinking about their businesses through the lens of what they need to win in the space that they are operating in.  He urged students from underrepresented populations to come into the Hub to give feedback and make suggestions about how the Hub can help them in the future. The roundtable concluded with an open invitation for attendees to return, and a special invitation for the women entrepreneurs present to join the Hub’s Women Founder Roundtable, which will take place on March 12, 2024 at 12:00pm to 1:00pm in the Innovation Hub.

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On Tuesday, February 27, 2024 the Innovation Hub held two exciting events to engage students in making smart financial choices for their businesses. Over noon, the Hub hosted a Lunch and Learn on fundraising and in the evening, Scotiabank advisors gave advice to business founders.

The interactive Lunch and Learn session was with , the Founder & Lead Consultant at . Rohit has been active in the non-profit sector for 18 years, and in his career, he has assessed over 300 grant applications and distributed over $60 Million in funding to community-based non-profits, charities, and grassroots groups.

The Lunch and Learn was geared towards helping new student founders and entrepreneurs find creative ways to locate funding and fundraising options that best suit their business needs. Students across all faculties were invited to bring their lunch and take part in a vital session that explored new ways to raise money and capitalize on the resources available through grants and other government programs.

In the evening, the Innovation Hub invited a team of Scotiabank advisors to teach students about what they need to do to ensure they have the right financial tools to make their small business successful, the advisors included: Steve Hardy, Small Business Advisor at the ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ Place Branch, Evelyn Crawford, Small Business Advisor at the Bank and Gloucester Branch, and JP Young, Branch Manager at the Bank and Gloucester Branch.

This insightful session was useful to founders about to set up new businesses as well as those preparing to expand or scale. The team of advisors revealed common mistakes founders have made in the past and informed students on the choices they can make and the tools they can use to increase their probability of success.

Missed out on these sessions? Visit our Events & Community Networking page to learn about more events and opportunities like this!

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Check out the Lunch & Learn with CEO and Co-Founder of Noibu, Robert Boukine

On February 16, 2024 the Innovation Hub hosted an exciting Lunch and Learn with , CEO and Co-Founder of Noibu, an eCommerce error monitoring platform powering the world’s best eCommerce experiences. Last year, Noibu had a 954% growth rate according to Ottawa Business Journal and placed #8 out of 425 companies on the list of Canada’s Top Growing Companies by The Globe and Mail. Having tremendous growth and success, the Hub was eager to give ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ students the opportunity to hear from Robert himself about his experience of being a CEO for the past 6 years and ’s journey of charting new territory while continuing to grow rapidly. 

The Lunch and Learn session took place inside the Innovation Hub and the discussion was facilitated by the Hub’s very own Launch program facilitator Julie Cho. The session was filled with valuable insights and the two major themes were problem solving and resiliency. 

Regarding problem-solving, Robert shared his discovery to check the legitimacy of a problem before coming up with a solution. He realized that customers didn’t have a process to find bugs on their website, so he built a product to do that work. Noibu alerts people when there is a bug on their e-commerce site and sends them a weekly report with the steps to reproduce it. Noibu transformed from a service to an automated software and is now a product that works for everyone. 

In case you missed it, some key takeaways from Robert Boukine are: 

• Personal determination from him and his cofounders made their company workĚý
• He recognizes the risk and privilege of bootstrapping and is glad he began his company that way. Noibu received no outside investments until they had consistent revenue.ĚýĚý
• Robert emphasizes that you must “pick who you’re going to sell to”Ěý
• His advice for positions of leadership is to hold your team accountable to deliver things. He does this through consistent meetings and clear deliverables.ĚýĚý

On the theme of resiliency, Robert talked about the challenges he had between each step of scaling his company. In sales, he struggled with how to best reach out to potential clients and get them in meetings. His tried-and-true advice is to build a sales funnel and track numbers at each stage to determine the most effective messaging. 

If you don’t want to miss out on another Lunch and Learn, make sure you check out our Events & Community Networking page and follow us on Instagram to stay up-to-date on everything happening at the Hub! 

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Check out the recap of our fall 2023 pitch nights!

On December 5th, 6th, and 7^th the Innovation Hub welcomed our hard-working student founders in the Hatch, Changemaker, and Launch incubator programs to pitch their brilliant business ideas. After weekly workshops with their program facilitators and spending hours refining all areas of their businesses, participants took to the stage to share their ideas with a panel of judges and an audience full of members from the ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ and Ottawa community. Listening to everyone’s pitches was inspiring and ideas ranged from utilizing AI and virtual reality, to embracing ecologically conscious solutions, to the creation of their own web platforms and mobile apps, and much more!

We’d like to thank the various judges who took time out of their busy schedules to listen to our students’ pitches, ask thought-provoking questions, and offer crucial feedback that will help them on their path towards success. A huge thank you to the Hatch judges, Justin Urquhart, Alberto Aguillar, Sean Joe-Ezigbo, and Taylor Fess, the Changemaker judges Calvin Tong and Emilia De Jesus Peixoto, and the Launch judges Calvin Tong, Aaron English, and Roozer Samuvel Natterjee. Additionally, the pitch nights couldn’t have run smoothly without our MCs Mitchell Collins and Dredan Quenneville, and behind the scenes planning from Director of the Innovation Hub John Nelson and Operations Coordinator Jonah Eng.

Starting, running, or scaling your business as a student entrepreneur takes time and effort and having a support system makes it easier to take the next step in the right direction. The Innovation Hub serves as a dedicated space on campus to foster innovation and entrepreneurship among students, connecting them to like-minded individuals as well as key players in the Ottawa ecosystem. We can’t wait to welcome a new cohort of student founders to each of our incubator programs in the upcoming winter term!

Interested in joining one of the Hub’s programs? Registration for Winter 2024 programs is open on our website, we encourage curious students to check out our programs and register today!

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With support from the Innovation Hub, ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ successfully hosted this year’s Crunch hackathon in the Nicol Building. The Crunch is a three-day event where students from Algonquin College, University of Ottawa, and ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ compete and collaborate to pitch a business idea for a chance to win a cash prize. Individuals can join on their own or in a group to address challenges within any industry, including categories such as health innovation, social impact, and emerging technologies.

Groups spent the weekend working on their pitches and prototypes, getting valuable advice from mentors and workshops. At the end of the weekend, the participants presented their ideas and business plans to a panel of judges. Pitches covered ideas in a wide range of industries, addressing gaps in various markets. The winning group pitched a smart garbage sorting system that uses artificial intelligence to separate waste for recycling.

The Crunch this year drew in students with diverse interests from business to engineering and the arts. Participants gained new skills from the weekend and had the chance for some valuable networking. Ansh, a ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ student, said he was glad to participate in the Crunch because, “it’s a great experience to work as a team and gain new ideas to innovate.”

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The Hub attended the TiE Summit to network with a diverse community of professionals and learn about this year’s topic: AI driving business growth!

The TiE Entrepreneurship Summit 2023 built on a decade of Canada’s success, and this year’s theme was “AI Revolution: Redefining Startup Success”. This event invited startups, entrepreneurs, SMEs, industry leaders, investors, and the dynamic Canadian business community to an inspiring afternoon at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University’s Richcraft Hall Atrium.

Members of the Innovation Hub and others in attendance gained fresh perspectives on how AI is revolutionizing entrepreneurship and driving business growth, and learned more about how the world of AI is shaping the future with groundbreaking technologies and innovative solutions. We also witnessed many accomplished recipients receive immigrant entrepreneurship awards.

The Innovation Hub’s communications team attended the event to . We spoke with Sam Roozer, an Internal Incubator Coach at the Innovation Hub who shared his experience attending this year’s TiE Entrepreneurship Summit: “There’s immigrant entrepreneurship awards given to 4 immigrants and that’s big. Me being an immigrant and studying here at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´, and also working at the Innovation Hub… I can see that this is the future I want to be in. It’s as they say, if you want to get somewhere, make sure that you are surrounded in the space where you want to be, where you can learn from each other. Me being here, it’s teaching me each and every day and that is the reason i’m at TiE”

We also spoke to the Innovation Hub’s Hatch program facilitator, Mehrnaz Taghavishavazi, and a Hatch program participant, Madison Davis who were in attendance at TiE Summit 2023. Mehrnaz said, “i’m here to meet some investors for the students in the Hatch program”. Madison was eager to reap the networking benefits of the event, she said, “I’m always looking for opportunities to network and get involved, so when I heard about TiE, I thought it was great opportunity to come and connect with people”.

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A recap on the Innovation Hub’s Halloween Party!

Thank you to everyone who dropped by the Hub for our Halloween party! Innovation Hub staff, program participants, and community members came by dressed in costumes to network, enjoy refreshments, and engage in fun activities. The Hub was decorated for the occasion creating the perfect spooky environment with plenty of candy to go around. Folks attending Halloween in the Hub had an exciting evening playing corn hole, guessing the number of candies in a jar, and participating in a spooky case crack competition.

Attendees got into teams to brainstorm and pitch creative solutions to help “Farmer John” run a successful business despite rumours that his pumpkin patch became haunted. The winning team was decided by a panel of judges, and 1st place was awarded to our own events and communications staff, Monika, Taylor, and Cara. Monika said, “the fun and inviting atmosphere of the Innovation Hub inspired me and my coworkers to participate in the case crack activity and gave us the confidence to win”.

Be sure to check out our Events & Community Networking page to stay up-to-date on everything happening here at the Hub and in the Ottawa community!

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