General Startup Resources

• Alberta Innovates - a provincially funded corporation with a mandate to deliver 21st-century solutions for the most compelling challenges facing Albertans. 

• Alberta Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) - a not-for-profit organization dedicated to enabling women to build successful businesses. AWE provides unique programs and services to women at all stages of business through advising, financing, mentoring, and network development.

• BLG Business Venture Clinic - a unique program that partners local entrepreneurs with law students who provide free legal information to support their entrepreneurial efforts.

• BioAlberta -  supports Alberta's life sciences by promoting awareness of the industry and the products and services of member companies.

• Business Link - a non-profit organization that helps Alberta entrepreneurs start their businesses by providing funding, free startup advice, training, market research, and the necessary knowledge and tools to plan and grow your business.

• Canadian Entrepreneurs in Life Science - a resource community for Canadian life science entrepreneurs. 

• Calgary Innovation Coalition (CIC) - a group of organizations in the Calgary region that support innovation-driven entrepreneurs, startups, and enterprises.

• CoDesign Factory - a place where local businesses and students can collaborate on tech projects in Calgary.

• Creative Destruction Lab - a seed-stage program for massively scalable, science and technology-based companies. The program employs an objectives-based mentoring process to maximize equity-value creation.

• Chic Geek - a Calgary-based non-profit building a welcoming, supportive community for women at the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship.

• Futurpreneur Canada - a national non-profit organization that provides financing, mentoring and support tools to aspiring business owners aged 18-39. 

• Innovate Calgary - the innovation transfer and business incubator centre for the University of Calgary. From ideation to commercialization, Innovate Calgary has successfully supported the innovation-driven research community for over 30 years.

• Mitacs - a national not-for-profit that helps industry and non-profit partners solve strategic challenges by leveraging Canada’s world-class post-secondary talent and a global network of industry, academic, and government partnerships. Through these collaborations, Mitacs helps business and community partners succeed, improves students’ job skills development, and strengthens Canada’s world-class innovation ecosystem. 

• Paymo -  helps your team work better by getting everyone on the same page. Planning, scheduling, task management & time tracking seamlessly integrated.

• Platform Calgary - offers mentorship, advice or space to work on your startup. Their efforts are focused on providing you with the right guidance that is aligned with where you are in your startup journey. 

• Rainforest Alberta - an informal organization of people working together to improve Alberta's innovation ecosystem. 

• Startup Calgary - helps your ideas become a reality and creates exciting opportunities for entrepreneurs and startups to connect and collide. 

• Western Economic Diversification Canada - for more than 30 years, Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) has been working to diversify the western economy while improving the quality of life of western Canadians through showcasing Canadian entrepreneurial resources.  

• Alberta Small Business Funding Resources - explore several different options that could be available to help fund your business venture, including financial services, loans, grants and credits.

• Connectica - Alberta's portal for connecting innovators to funding, facilities, and services.

• Futurpreneur - offers financing and expertise to get your start-up off the ground for entrepreneurs from 18-39. 

• Innovation Canada - find funding programs and services that could help grow your idea into reality. 

• Start Alberta - a directory of resources to support Alberta's start-up organizations.  

• Strategic Timelines Innovation Funding Guideline - provincial and national overview of innovation funding sources for technology-driven companies. 

• ** NEW ** Ventures for Canada Internship Program - VCF is excited to welcome universities, colleges, and polytechnics into our program as employers! VFC has always focused on promoting students in entrepreneurial and innovative jobs.

• Canada-Alberta Job Grant - eligible employers can get government funding to help employees access training opportunities.

• Career Launcher - employers, get up to $15,000 to hire skilled grads to strengthen your business. Grads, find a paid internship and launch your career with exciting work experience.

• CoDesign Factory - a place where local businesses and students can collaborate on tech projects in Calgary.

• Digital Skills for Youth (DS4Y) - connects underemployed recent post-secondary graduates with small businesses and not-for-profit organizations where they can gain meaningful work experience to help them transition to career-oriented employment.

• Mitacs - grants for graduate and postgraduate students.

• The National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) - Canada's leading innovation assistance program for small and medium-sized businesses.

• ATB Entrepreneurs' Guide - one-stop place where you can find all of the resources and advice you may need. 

• BDC - whether you are a young entrepreneur starting your first venture, or a seasoned veteran with an established business, BDC's guides and business templates are designed to help you set your business on the right path and increase your chances of success.

• BDC Entrepreneurs' Toolkit - offers several free resources including eBooks, webinars and business templates that will be useful whether your business is just starting out or is already well established.

• Canada Business - Your marketing plan is an essential part of your overall business plan. Bankers and lenders will want to see how you plan on making money. Use this template to help develop your marketing plan. 

• CDBC - you can use this fillable business planning tool to prepare your business plan.

• Futurepreneur Cash Flow Template - The Futurpreneur Canada Cash Flow Template is here to help you outline your start up costs, financing, sales forecasts and complete a month-by-month cash flow for two years.

• Futurpreneur Canada Business Plan Writer - you can use this online tool to develop, write, and download your business plan.

• The University of Calgary Intellectual Property Policy 

Need entrepreneurial advice to build your ideas to reality?

Whether you are interested in building a side hustle, business or social enterprise — we are here to help you. 

Connect with our team by emailing [email protected] with a brief description of your request. Once someone from the team receives the email, our team will contact you to set up a time and date to chat.