ChangeMaker Program Inspires Entrepreneurs And Innovators To Test New Ideas and Launch High-Impact Businesses
FREDERICTON – The ChangeMaker Funding Program of the Pond-Deshpande Centre (PDC) aims to inspire and empower opportunity creation, the innovation mindset, and development of solutions for Atlantic Canada’s most urgent challenges.
Heather Boyd-Kinnie, the PDC’s Funding Manager, says the ChangeMaker program was initially established in 2012 to address a funding gap in the ecosystem for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs as well as to inspire students to test new ideas. The program was designed to provide the right support at the right time to enable recipients to develop a business model and launch their venture.
This early-stage funding is unique in the ecosystem because it often is the first money that the entrepreneurs or ventures receive. It helps give them credibility, the ability to leverage the funds to access additional funding sources or investment, and introduces them to the process of working with a funder, which better prepares them for future opportunities.
“While the funding is important, the ChangeMaker program is not just about the money, it’s about learning,” says Boyd-Kinnie.
Innovators learn about the importance of being open, curious, receptive to feedback from users, and willing to change their ideas if needed. Importantly, they make connections and develop lasting relationships in the ecosystem which is key to success.
“The program is also about the on-going support and coaching they receive from us that provides encouragement to persist through the highs and lows of their entrepreneurial journey. Our change makers have shared with us that this helped to build their confidence and resilience,” she says.
Without this initial seed funding and this supportive program, many of these ideas would not get off the ground.
Since the program began, the PDC has awarded a total of $880,000 to 220 different ventures and entrepreneurs through Catalyst and Ignition funding. These companies have raised $31-million in additional funds, generated $12-million in revenue and created over 250 jobs.
Innovators which received their initial funding and support from the ChangeMaker Program include star New Brunswick startups such as Resson Inc., with offices in Fredericton and San José, California, now an international company and a recognized world leader in providing predictive analytics for agricultural optimization; SomaDetect, with offices in Fredericton and Buffalo, New York, a dairy industry leader, providing unique agricultural technology and analytics to assist farmers to produce the best possible milk for consumers; and WEnTech Solutions, a Fredericton-based company which is modernizing the biogas industry.
These companies are not only very innovative, but they are making a huge impact in their sectors as well as providing employment for highly skilled workers, including newcomers.
Another high-impact company is Momentum Canada, a business that wants to help Atlantic Canadian companies scale up, was born in 2017, with the help of the Pond-Deshpande Centre’s (PDC) Change Maker Funding Program. CEO Joanna Killen says this program provided grants and valuable support when she and her team were building their social venture.
“[This program] allowed us to validate our business and really identify the customers that we needed to find…Where a lot of businesses had to go out and start pushing and selling, we were able to try to understand what our value really was,” said Killen.
Since then, their company is working with other ventures to identify sales leads and better understand their markets. Through the ChangeMaker Program, this company was referred to PDC’s B4C Social Venture Accelerator, which Killen also credits as instrumental in their success. So far, Momentum Canada has worked with over 30 companies, closed over $500,000 in client business, and built $9.1-million in sales pipeline and is a training ground for recent graduates.
As with all of our programs, the PDC makes continual changes in response to identified new needs. For example, over a year ago, we piloted and launched NouLAB Prototype Funding. This enables us to provide innovative support to the work of emerging teams within this social innovation lab which brings together people from all sectors to work on Atlantic Canada’s complex social challenges.
Boyd-Kinnie says that in the coming months the PDC will be transforming the ChangeMaker program as they continue to look toward the future through the lens of social innovation and social policy and become even more service driven.
The story is part of a series sponsored by the Pond-Deshpande Centre.
Other stories in the series:
- UNB Program Inspires Students To Be ‘Change-Makers’
- Accelerator Program Helps Businesses Make Money And Make A Community Impact Too