August 25, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
An interesting piece of news drifted in over the news wire. The Burlington Economic Development Corporation wants to be one of the top five cities in Canada for start-ups and innovation.
Now there is something that is bold, direct and the results of the effort are measureable.
The Burlington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) has entered into a partnership with Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) to support Ontario start-ups through their career accelerator, FreshInsights Consulting.
That seems like several layers of bureaucracy but Frank McKeown, BEDC’s Executive Director explains that the partnership is rooted in OCE’s SmartStart Seed Fund, a program that offers young entrepreneurs in Ontario the opportunity to access seed funding and skills training to grow their companies. In addition to the grant, successful SmartStart applicants are awarded $5,000 to spend on training or consulting services.
The BEDC will be involved in that training – which they will deliver through FreshInsights Consulting, a corporation formed by the city – the early thinking apparently came out of the office of the Mayor – and has been housed within BEDC.
The $5000 grant emerging entrepreneurs will be given will get spent with FreshInsights – meaning that organization has some revenue –that gives that win-win-win phrase a whole new dimension, doesn’t it?
Most people know there are clusters of young people out there with what on the surface look like great ideas. Most of them need a good dose of number crunching to determine if the ideas have some sustainability to them.
As one of OCE’s official training partners, FreshInsights Consulting has become one of the most sought after training partners. During the most recent application approval process, more than ten SmartStart companies opted to spend their grant dollars on consulting services with FreshInsights – that ten worked out to 40% of the applications – not bad when seen in terms of market share.
FreshInsights will be working through the balance of 2015 to provide these start-ups with market research and business plan development.
“The opportunity to work with more start-ups through SmartStart is a fantastic opportunity for FreshInsights,” said Claire Morrison, Program Director at FreshInsights Consulting. “We are working with such a diverse range of companies, including retail, food and beverage, software and technology industries. Not only does the partnership allow us to support even more recent graduates through our unique consulting model, we also get to support so many talented entrepreneurs who are choosing to grow their business in Ontario.”
What no one is saying is that by being involved in these emerging corporations Burlington is in a position to help them make the city home – we get first dibs at these young people.
McKeown added that, “The partnership between OCE and the BEDC operated career accelerator, FreshInsights, is only going to help Burlington get closer to achieving its goal of becoming one of the top five cities in Canada for startups and innovation. It is a step in the right direction for creating an innovation space that fosters collaboration, mentorship, and business growth right here in Burlington.”
Developed under the BEDC in 2011, FreshInsights Consulting was established as a way to retain top talent working in Burlington, while providing professional, cost-effective consulting services in market research, strategic marketing, and business planning to local companies. The program has seen more than 25 recent graduates through the program, and they plan to continue expanding their client base across Southern Ontario.
Learn more about FreshInsights Consulting at www.freshinsightsconsulting.ca and BEDC at www.bedc.ca. You can also follow them on Twitter @FreshInsigtsCo and @BurlingtonEcDev.
This is a good news story – let’s see where they are in a year.