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 Carleton 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.
Andrea Pierce, the Executive Director for BEKH, 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 Scotiabank women in business initiative, 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”.
