The next Entrepreneurship Bridges event will take place on April 9, 2019, featuring a guest speaker and the announcement of the 2019 Startup Garage cohort. This year's guest speaker is Corey Ellis, Co-Founder and CEO at The Growcer Inc. and alumnus of the Startup Garage. The event will take place in the evening from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in Desmarais room 12102.
Corey will discuss his experience launching The Growcer Inc. and how they have grown their company into the success that it is today.
Corey, along with his co-founder and fellow Telfer classmate, Alida Burke saw the lack of available locally-grown fresh produce in Northern Canada. They identified the need to remove the resulting high cost Northern Canadians have to pay just to be able to eat healthy food. They determined a way for Canadians to have affordable and sustainable access to fresh foods, which led them to the creation of their stand-alone growing systems.
The Growcer is a social enterprise that empowers remote Canadian regions to grow fresh produce locally using modular hydroponic systems. Growcer systems are specifically designed for Arctic regions, enabling local food production with a steady stream of affordable fresh produce grown in outdoor temperatures as cold as -52°C. They also provide ongoing services to allow local entrepreneurs to own & operate their own systems, and additional supports to enable better nutrition for communities.
The Startup Garage is an initiative of the University of Ottawa’s Entrepreneurship Hub to foster and support youth entrepreneurship in the Ottawa region. The program offers youth-led ventures the opportunity to accelerate their business by working full-time over the course of four months during the summer. Startup Garage provides each participating company with four essential tools: cash, office space, mentorship, and support. The program is delivered through the generous support of the University of Ottawa, BMO, Logan Katz LLP and Gowling WLG.
