By Noah Redler (@NoahRed), Entrepreneur and Startup Canada Quebec Chair (Montreal, Quebec) 

 

I’ve often been told that Quebecer’s are less entrepreneurial than other Canadians, and if you look at the stats over the past 20 years, that appears to be true, we have consecutively had the lowest rate of independently employed people in the entire country; but someone forgot to mention that to the 200 plus active and aspiring entrepreneurs that attended StartUp Canada events in Quebec this July, who came out to connect, learn and most importantly share their ideas with people just like themselves.

 

The first thing I learned was that there are numerous business professionals were willing to get involved as volunteers and give their time to promote the growth of new business. Let’s be honest, when we think of traditional business stereotypes we think of businesses slugging it out and crushing their competition, going to war to maintain or increase their market share; but here in Quebec, I saw the opposite, a genuine desire to create strong partnerships and work collaboratively in order to create a true business community, the underlying message being that if you want to be an entrepreneur, you are alone.

 

From the companies and organizations that got involved like the Regroupement des Jeunes Chambres de Commerce, The City of Montreal, Quebec International, CEDEC, the Montreal International StartUp Festival, the Notman House, BioTech Annecto, Absolunet, Jack Communications and new entrepreneurs like myself (not to mention all the national sponsors) all worked together to make the StartUp Canada events in Quebec a success; not because of how it could benefit us directly, we just all believe that promoting and inspiring an entrepreneurial culture will benefit the country as a whole, and that’s good for business.

 

However the most important thing that I learned was that the existing view of entrepreneurship is changing rapidly, and that the next Quebec Inc. won’t be far away. The people I spoke with and heard from all had ambitions and aspirations to create something new and innovative, they want to create greater links across the country instead of solely across the province and have a greater to desire to be surrounded by people like them that can act as motivational partners offering support and advice. We want mentors, we want access to funding, we want better information and we want to build Quebec’s future today.  

 

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