Foodic.us CEO and co-founder Myles Foster created his company at last year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week in a matter of days. Entreprenuers at this year’s event will try to mimic Foster’s success.
Little Italy’s Invest Ottawa has provided a springboard for Centretown start-ups SageTea and Foodic.us and will soon reach hundreds more through Global Entrepreneurship Week.
GEW organizers in 125 different countries will reach out to the public until Nov. 18 and promote what they see as the biggest job creator in the world: entrepreneurship.
Invest Ottawa, a city-funded economic development organization, is leading GEW Ottawa.
GEW Ottawa is expanding for its second year to hold 50 events across the city, up from last year’s 30. The events include networking nights, seminars and the Ottawa Entrepreneurship Awards.
StartUp Weekend is kicking off GEW today with a competition at Shopify’s office in the Byward Market to launch a business over the course of one weekend. This will be the second-ever StartUp Weekend in Ottawa. Myles Foster’s business was created from the first.
Foster came up with the idea for Foodic.us in one of his Carleton University business classes: an online platform where consumers can order fast food and choose when they want to pick it up, skipping long lines in the process.
The idea won a class competition and when Foster heard about StartUp Weekend in April, he set his sights on conquering that as well.
“We worked the entire weekend on (Foodic.us) and it came about that I presented it and we won second place, which was awesome,” Foster says.
Among Foodic.us’ prizes was three months of free office space at Invest Ottawa, where it continues to work today. Foster also got his own unexpected prize. He is now one of the co-organizers of StartUp Weekend Ottawa.
It is through GEW events like this that Bruce Lazenby, president and CEO of Invest Ottawa, hopes to promote his message:
“Creating a job is as good or better than getting a job,” Lazenby says.
From its offices at 80 Aberdeen St., Invest Ottawa supports 400 companies that are either starting up in Ottawa or based elsewhere and expanding to the Ottawa market. This support can take the form of mentoring, financial support or, as is the case with Foodic.us, office space rental.
“Our job is to make sure that Ottawa is the best place in Canada to start and grow a knowledge-based business,” Lazenby says.
David Long, CEO of SageTea, says he believes that Ottawa was an excellent location to start his software business, especially with the help of Invest Ottawa, who supported its development and fundraising.
“There’s a great knowledge base here, and groups like Invest Ottawa, they can help you get plugged in,” Long says.
SageTea sells a method of automating software development, eliminating much of the work involved in the process. It opened up shop on Laurier Avenue West earlier this year and already has 15 employees.
Having been a CEO for some months now, Long also agrees with another of Lazenby’s points: he loves being his own boss.
“Now that I’ve been successful at doing it, there’s no way I’d ever go back and work for someone else. It’s just too much fun,” Long says.