Better Community: Supporting the Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow
With Karen Greve Young of Futurpreneur
Karen Greve Young is the CEO of Futurpreneur, a nonprofit in Canada that’s been fueling the entrepreneurial passions of Canada’s young enterprises for two decades. Futurpreneur is the only nonprofit that provides financing, mentoring, and support tools to aspiring business owners from the ages of 18 to 39. Since its inception 25 years ago, Futurpreneur has helped 12,000 businesses launch across every province and territory, 43% of which identify as women-led, and provided $169 million in capital alongside one-on-one mentorship.
In Episode 2 of Scale Conscious, Karen Greve Young joins us to discuss why she’s so passionate about building support for entrepreneurs and how the pandemic has affected—and empowered—many young entrepreneurs across the country. We dive into the impact Futurpreneur has had in Canada, what recovery has looked like for entrepreneurs in a global pandemic, and how these programs create more equity and support for young and diverse entrepreneurs.
Plug into this episode if…
You’re a budding entrepreneur looking for a support network or guidance in getting started, figuring out what your goals are, and executing on them.
You’re curious about how the pandemic impacted the field of entrepreneurship, and how entrepreneurs today are moving forward.
You want to learn to champion entrepreneurs in marginalised communities and those with impact goals.
Resources
Episode highlights
How an entrepreneurial community can support young entrepreneurs through certain and uncertain times
Futurpreneur works with entrepreneurs right at the beginning of their entrepreneurship journey. As a result, their entrepreneurs are incredibly diverse and have different goals. They come from coast to coast, tiny villages to large cities, and represent all different sectors. This diversity helps strengthen the knowledge and resilience within an entrepreneurial community.
Entrepreneurial support comes in many different forms. It can include mentorship, financial support, knowledge, or even just a place to brainstorm, strategize, or commiserate among fellow entrepreneurs.
Creating equal opportunity for Black and Indigenous entrepreneurs
If you want to truly help entrepreneurs from marginalised communities, you need to have employees and leadership that have lived experiences relevant to those communities. Diversity at all levels, including your board and leadership, is vital.
Part of creating equal opportunity is realising that certain communities don’t have the same access or privilege that others do around information, resources, and education. Realise what those hurdles are and help others overcome them by bringing the information they need to them.
Futurpreneur helps Black and Indigenous entrepreneurs not only start a business, but succeed with their business. They recognize that every entrepreneur faces different barriers, and helping entrepreneurs succeed means helping tactically dismantle those barriers.
How entrepreneurs can balance people, planet, and profit
If you’re an entrepreneur, ask yourself: What is your why? What are you planning on making, and what will you do if your company is wildly successful? One of your bottom lines is, by necessity, profit — but think about what else you can do for your community and your planet.
Accountability requires measurement. If you’re looking to be sustainable or inclusive, how are you doing that, and how are you measuring it? Measuring your efforts for people and the planet will help you set milestones and continue to iterate.
With a non-diluted business loan, entrepreneurs maintain control and full ownership over their business that they likely won’t get with diluted loans. So, they can use that ownership to call the shots and make the right decisions to move their business forward, which includes striking the right balance between people, planet, and profit.
Angela Wallace: Hey there, welcome to Scale Conscious. I'm your host Ange Wallace. In my first podcast series, I'm exploring the tactics startups can take to create conscious companies and build a regenerative future for all. In this episode, I'm joined by Karen Greve Young, CEO of Futurpreneur. Futurpreneur Canada has been fueling the entrepreneurial passions of Canada's young enterprises for over two decades. I'm excited to hear from Karen to learn how Futurpreneur is helping young people build successful and sustainable businesses in every community and field imaginable, supporting the launch of close to 1000 youth-led businesses last year alone. Let's get started.
Well, Karen, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast.
Thanks for having me, Angela. It's great to be with you again. It's been a while.
Angela Wallace: I know. Well, I really appreciate having met you this past year, with my participation in the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance as a delegate for Canada; we made it to Milan, Italy, after two years of the pandemic. That was an amazing experience and I'm so grateful to the Futurpreneur team for really giving me that chance to meet not only entrepreneurs from across our country, but around the world.
Oh, it's amazing. I wasn't there myself, but I saw the pictures and heard the feedback, and it sounded like an absolutely extraordinary assembly.
Angela Wallace: It really was. And I think just exactly what I needed to hit the refresh button for myself in my own business and hopefully for so many others that participated. I imagine as we're chatting together that some people listening might actually have never heard of Futurpreneur. So to kind of get us started, I would love for you to give us that elevator pitch, that essential description. What is Futurpreneur? And what is the important work you're doing?
Oh, thanks for asking. You touched on my favorite topic. Futurpreneur is a Canadian gem. It's an organization that for the past 25 years has helped young entrepreneurs, aged 18 to 39, across Canada start and succeed. We have mentorship and loan financing for young entrepreneurs to help them start on their business journey. And then we have other programs like the G20 YEA, our growth accelerator, and other resources to help entrepreneurs succeed once they've started their business.
I think what sets us apart as an entrepreneur support organization is the fact that we are there right at the beginning with entrepreneurs helping them get started. Our entrepreneurs are incredibly diverse. One of the common age bands is 18 to 39 years old when they launch, but they come from coast to coast to coast, tiny villages, large cities, all demographics that represent Canada and all different sectors, from chocolate companies to restaurants to lingerie to fitness. All businesses, the podcasts even.
Angela Wallace: Yeah, exactly. That's incredible. And how long have you been working with Futurpreneur?
Well, actually, it's interesting the way that you asked that question. I've been working with Futurpreneur for about eight years, because I was a partner before joining. I've been part of Futurpreneur as our CEO for just over three and a half years. I joined in June 2018.
Angela Wallace: Wow. So you were not too far into your tenure, maybe about halfway, when the whole world experienced the pandemic?
Yes. I was almost two years in when everything changed quite dramatically overnight.
Angela Wallace: And I mean, you'd been working then in that capacity for a little while. What were some of the impacts that you saw for the entrepreneurs that were part of your programming at Futurpreneur? What sort of feedback or insights did you see?
Oh, well, there were so many right from the very beginning. And I think it's important to note, we have a team of 100 people working across the country to support entrepreneurs. So it's my team members who really are on the frontlines working with entrepreneurs. And all of a sudden, first of all, our own team, we all had a very human reaction to the pandemic. It impacted us as humans and our team, everyone who was able to work remotely during that time, obviously, a lot of people can't. But our team went remote and was simultaneously setting up our new processes and making sure that we could keep supporting entrepreneurs, while realizing that our entrepreneurs were facing crisis.
And I mentioned we have financing. We have a loan product and so the entrepreneurs working with us repay a low interest loan over the course of five years. And typically, business cycles happen and entrepreneurs might go into a little bit of a down period and ask to restructure their loan. Well, all of a sudden, we were taking dozens, and then hundreds, of calls a day from entrepreneurs realizing that they couldn't operate their business at all and they had no money coming in. So we really quickly put a stop payment on all of our loans. And we didn't quite know yet how we were going to do that. But we, we did that.
Then we were so fortunate because the federal government included Futurpreneur as one of its relief packages. And so we were able to offer loan repayment coverage for our entrepreneurs for six months, and then a $10,000 top-up loan, similar to the Canada emergency business account—being an interest-free loan, for a lot of our kinds of businesses that didn't qualify for CEBA in those early days. So that's part of what happened is... we support main street businesses and a ton of main street businesses, all of a sudden, couldn't operate, despite the fact that there's nothing inherently dangerous in running a restaurant or a chocolate company.
Now, I will note that some of them immediately pivoted. And we have an EdTech company called InkSmith that pivoted and created a huge arm called Canadian Shield that employed 300 people very quickly and became the lead supplier of face shields. We had others that were textile companies or apparel companies like Knix Wear that were distributing PPE, right? Some of them found a way to be part of the solution. But realistically, a lot of our entrepreneurs were just trying to figure out how to survive.
And I'd say mentors are an important part of our community, too, and they also were trying to figure out how to survive. So we typically help anywhere from 75 to 100 businesses get started every month. We help about 1000 new businesses launch a year. And those first two months, that just ground almost to a halt. There was so much uncertainty. What was interesting is that then just a couple months after the pandemic started, we saw entrepreneurs do what entrepreneurs do. They see a crisis and they see opportunity in it, they see a gap, they try to figure out how to fill it. And all of a sudden, we were inundated with applications, from aspiring entrepreneurs seeing the pandemic as an opportunity.
Angela Wallace: Yes, a chance to build something to help build back better—what we all started talking about, right? What does recovery look like? How can we create resilience in our communities and thriving? Yes.
Well, I think sometimes there are people where... they might have thought about starting a business, but they're able to be really meaningfully employed in an alternative to starting their own business.
And all of a sudden, there were sectors that had previously seemed like a reliable paycheck, that weren't very reliable. I think that was also part of it, that people may have procrastinated in the past launching their own business, because it felt high-risk, and all of a sudden, everything seems high-risk. So in comparison, launching your business felt like, maybe this is the time.
Angela Wallace: Yeah, the perception of risk shifted.
Exactly.
Angela Wallace: Yeah, absolutely. And so, I love to hear that, because I think so much of what we experienced collectively over the last couple of years has been so emotionally difficult and hard to deal with. But to hear that young people across the country were excited to start to build, to begin... I think there's a bit of beauty in that. So I appreciate you sharing that.
I wanted to ask a little bit about: I know you work closely to create more equity in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, specifically to support black entrepreneurs and indigenous entrepreneurs. And I wanted to be sure to ask: tell me a little bit about how those programs have been supporting entrepreneurs in our communities.
Yes, absolutely. I love this question. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are key values and priorities of Futurpreneur. And I'm going to answer it in two different parts. On our side, there's the who, and then there's the what. And so who, obviously, who are the entrepreneurs we're supporting the success of. A lot of the entrepreneurs we work with are newcomers who—much higher than the general population percentage—identify as either indigenous or as black entrepreneurs.
And I think part of that is the who on our side; we have leaders who share lived experience with the entrepreneur looking for support. We have team members on the ground, we have an indigenous team supporting indigenous entrepreneurs. It was composed of indigenous identifying business development managers and client relationship managers.
For our black entrepreneurs, we have our Black Entrepreneur Startup Program Team, our black members and leaders in our organization supporting that success. And also regionally, I should mention, that's another place where I think the lived experience and identity is really important, because that is a lot of what entrepreneurs, again, entrepreneurs are people. And people have an affinity for people who have shared experience. So that's part of it. And I think that building our team to have diversity at all levels, on our board, on our leadership, that's been really important.
And then I think the other side is recognizing that these—I love that you use the term underestimated founders—a lot of underestimated founders face disproportionate barriers by no reason other than the aspect of their identity that leads people to underestimate them. One of those barriers is credit. So one of the things that we have always done is have a more inclusive credit matrix; we've made that even more inclusive for black founders and indigenous founders.
We've introduced a credit information resource that's available to all of our founders, that just helps them understand, again, if they haven't had opportunities to build credit, and have experienced paying back a loan, then we want them to understand the importance of having strong credit, which will stay with them throughout their business life. So that's another thing.
And then I think the final thing I'd share, which is again, part of the "what," is we don't presume that the entrepreneurs who come to us have business experience. They're really good at what they want to found their business in, let's say it's construction, or they want to have a food truck because they know that they make the best chicken sandwich in the world. But that doesn't mean that they know how to write a business plan or create and manage a cash flow projection.
And so we have team members, again, with lived experience working hand-in-hand with the entrepreneur, so that when we are helping them launch, they are really ready to not only start their business, but succeed. We make sure that they have that robust plan, that their cashflow projections are realistic, so that we're not setting them up to fail. We're setting them up to succeed. And we do that for all entrepreneurs, but I think it's important to recognize that entrepreneurs and communities facing barriers, are less accustomed, frankly, to having supportive resources available to them.
I guess the other thing I do want to mention, because they're such an important part of our community, are the partners we work with across the country. We aren't an organization led by a person of color or a black or indigenous leader. I'm white.
Angela Wallace: Yes, same.
So we have leaders on our team without lived experience, and then we partner with organizations that are led by members of the communities we're serving. Those partnerships are really important. I often say that entrepreneurship support is a team sport, so we find partners who are part of our ritual team helping entrepreneurs succeed across the country.
That might be co-lending, so we work very closely with the BBC, the Business Development Bank of Canada provides additional funding for our loans. We offer up to $20,000 and they offer an additional $40,000. But then we'll work with BBI, the Black Business Initiative, in Halifax. We'll work with cryptoassets Hall sets in Montreal, we work with NACCA, the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association. We work with different partners who have those direct connections as well.
Angela Wallace: Incredible. Well, it's amazing to hear and I think of all of the incredible ideas, the goods and services that you are helping to support in our communities that might not have been birthed and would not have been started if you didn't make those connections and create those supports. So it's exciting to hear and I'm really proud. I want to hear you talking about it. I'm grateful that we have an organization that's working on those outcomes. It's a really good thing.
Oh, thank you. Actually, if I may, I want to share... the way that you just said that... we actually do measure. We ask our entrepreneurs in our in an annual survey what our impact has been and we track how many of them either wouldn't have started, or would have started slower, or would have grown smaller, but not without Futurpreneur. 87% of the entrepreneurs who responded to our last survey, which was over 600 entrepreneurs, shared that without Futurpreneur, they would have had less success.
The reason that matters is, I think, is because we are all across the country. And so a lot of communities that wouldn't have accessed these entrepreneurship resources without us are able to have these vibrant, youth-driven businesses launched because they get this kind of support. And that's really due to our partners, our government and corporate partners, that make our program possible.
Angela Wallace: Amazing. Well, that's a that's a pretty good outcome, I'd say that's a good measure. It's a positive survey result, which is amazing.
So just looking at thinking through actually, how many entrepreneurs you've worked with, just the sheer sort of volume you have, as an organization with entrepreneurs. I'm curious to hear from you. Because this podcast is really focusing on not just how to succeed, but how to succeed in a way that creates that triple bottom line, you know. How do we support people and planet as well as profit? We all want to be a cash-positive businesses. So in your experience, working with so many entrepreneurs across so many industries, what are some of the tactics that you think startup leaders can take to create conscious companies and really contribute in those additional ways that go beyond profit, bringing that purpose into their companies and into their communities?
Well, I love that this is such an important focus that is getting so much attention, because it matters so very much. I think the first thing is, in the words you used, the key is conscious. So I think all entrepreneurs when they launch should ask, "What is my why? Why am I doing this?" Entrepreneurship is hard. "I just want to be my own boss" ... That is not the reason.
Angela Wallace: Yeah, that's not enough.
You have to have a why. What are you trying to make? What are you hoping will happen if your company is wildly successful? What does that look like? So that's the first thing, you have to have your why. And it is important that one of the bottom lines is profit, or at least if it's nonprofit, at least funding. Because if there isn't funding, it's not sustainable.
But I think, you know, people are what they measure. And organizations are what they measure. So starting off knowing your why and measuring in some way—a lot of social impacts are really hard to quantify—but finding some way to measure the traction that you're achieving on the different aspects of your why.
So obviously, there's the financial aspect, but on the people side, are you trying to be an inclusive employer? Okay, so what does that look like? Are you trying to provide a different level of training or experience for your employees? How are you doing that? Are you inherently zero waste? Or are you actually offering zero waste alternatives for other organizations? How are you measuring that? Whatever it is, finding some way to track your success, so that if something isn't going as you hoped it would, you can pause and revisit it, and then try to find a better path.
I think one of the things about Futurpreneur's model and our partners' models, all of a sudden loan financing, that's important is that it's non-dilutive financing. You know, and I think what I mean by that for people who don't know, it's not like a venture investment, or even an angel investment where you get money and take money from an investor, where you're giving them a share of your company. Non-diluted means you get money, you need to pay back that money with a modest interest level which you do through the revenues that your company starts making. And, you keep ownership of the company. I think that actually, for purpose-driven companies, that can be a really important thing because investors typically like to be paid back.
Angela Wallace: Yes, they do.
You know, and social impact funds, we've got some fantastic ones in Canada, like Amplify Capital... but even with those they are looking for that financial return. And so our entrepreneurs want to succeed. But I think by by continuing to own the whole business, and therefore calling the shots and making the decisions, they get to balance how they're prioritizing resources for each of their three objectives: people, planet, and profit.
Angela Wallace: Yeah, and there's something powerful about retaining some of that autonomy early on, when you may have to pivot a bit to find your best customer or your greatest purpose in the business. And I think that that's a really great thing to sort of safeguard if you can with that non-dilutive funding.
Absolutely. And you still... that gives you the flexibility to bring in the advisors who will really support you. And I should say, your investors for companies that do dilutive financing, those investors are important resources, it's just that they do come with their own demands, which is different.
Angela Wallace: Yes, definitely. Always trade offs of some kind, to some extent. I'd love, Karen, for you to tell me a little bit about the vision for young entrepreneurs in Canada. I'm sure you've got strategic planning happening behind closed doors, you and your team all across the country have some amazing ideas. What do you hope to see, as we look to the future for young entrepreneurs?
I think of it in terms of both what happens for the young entrepreneurs and also what happens in Canada as a result, I think for young entrepreneurs launching businesses, I just want more of them to have the opportunity to launch businesses—or acquire businesses, because sometimes people want to be a business owner and acquiring existing businesses is something else we support—which is important. Whether you're acquiring or creating a business, defining success and then succeeding on the terms that are what you're looking for is amazing.
Some of the entrepreneurs who succeed will succeed in a huge way that attracts news and attention with hundreds if not more employees. For some entrepreneurs, success is being a pillar of their community and having the coffee shop that is where everyone wants to convene at the beginning of their work day or at the end of their work day. And it's having that beacon within the community, and it doesn't have to be large to be meaningful.
I think that that's where you get to what Canada needs. If we're going to have inclusive prosperity—inclusive, sustainable prosperity going forward—entrepreneurship is the path to make sure that fewer people are left out. So whether it's helping these vibrant businesses in communities that have low employment, or whether it's engaging and supporting entrepreneurs or business owners who wouldn't have had a shot otherwise... helping them create the businesses where they feel heard and seen, and help others feel heard and seen. I think that that is such a huge opportunity. There are a lot of signals out there that indicate that there are people who feel left behind. Entrepreneurship is a way to not leave people behind, but rather include more people in not only their own personal success, but success for Canada.
Angela Wallace: Yes, I love that. It's an open door, big shining light, let's go together! That's really powerful. Well, I know we are going to close our conversation soon, so I wanted to really hold one last moment with you, one last sort of inspiring space. And I'm thinking of that young person who might be listening to this episode, and hearing you speak about these incredible services, these amazing entrepreneurs. What parting words of inspiration would you share with them if they're curious about getting started? What piece of advice would you share?
Entrepreneurship is inherently... an entrepreneur often launches on their own. It can be a lonely time, and you can feel like you're out on your own. I don't think it has to be that way. I think whether it's Futurpreneur, or another partner, finding an organization and individuals to support you on your journey is why mentorship is such an important part of the Futurpreneur program. It's not just about the money. It's about the mentor who will hold your hand and ask you some tough questions to make sure that you're thinking about the aspects of the business that might not have occurred to you yet. So I think that entrepreneurship doesn't have to be a lonely exercise. Find that mentor, that support, that resource, fellow entrepreneurs, who will be with you on your journey. I think it's important for mental health for entrepreneurs, it's important for successful entrepreneurs, to find that human support.
Angela Wallace: I love that. It might be tough going, but you don't have to go alone.
Exactly. Well and succinctly said, yeah.
Angela Wallace: Totally. Well, Karen, I want to just thank you on a personal level with gratitude for my participation this past year, together with the Futurpreneur team for G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance, and just for taking the time to speak with us and to share with us. I hope this conversation will galvanize some listeners to reach out and learn more about you and your team, what's available to them, and get started on their journey.
Oh, thank you so much, Angela. I've really enjoyed this. I'm so glad you're part of the Futurpreneur family and I really appreciate you putting a spotlight on purpose-driven entrepreneurship.
Angela Wallace: Thank you.
Thanks for listening to Scale Conscious. I'm Ange. This show's produced by Lead Podcasting. Special thanks to team members Kendall and Alisha. Discover more about our work with CPG startups at scaleconscious.com. If you liked what you heard, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and we'll see you here next time.
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Scale Conscious is a podcast that explores the tactics startups can take to create conscious companies and build a regenerative future for all. Join host Ange Wallace as she explores building purpose-driven businesses and scaling consciously with some of today’s bravest and most impactful leaders.