A new non-profit organization in Canmore hopes to connect local entrepreneurs wanting to grow their business with mentors and financiers, who are also Canmore residents.
Rocky Mountain Ventures founder Eric Schmadtke said many of the financiers and business mentors are part-time residents of Canmore, but they have the ability to offer local business owners what they need to expand and especially businesses in the knowledge sector.
Schmadtke said the goal of Rocky Mountain Ventures is to bring together local entrepreneurs looking for mentorship or capital with those people who can offer that to them.
“It is all a question of bringing these people together and letting them speak, communicate and network and see where we might be able to take it,” he said. “We want to help incubate young businesses in the knowledge economy and we want to accelerate exciting businesses.”
The idea for the non-profit organization, which is focused entirely on Canmore, came from Schmadtke and his wife’s passion for business. He said knowing many successful business people who live in the community like him and his family, he wanted to bring that business experience to the local economy and help Canmore’s entrepreneurs see more success as a result.
The knowledge economy, he said, can crate a lot of value locally and help people build their business and keep their families here.
“We have all of this in our ecosystem and they are not necessarily speaking to one other – this is the first opportunity we have to do so,” he said.
Le Chocolatier owner John Spear was at the first Rocky Mountain Venture networking event last Wednesday (June 18). One of five local food ventures featured, he said his company is looking for mentorship to bring his business to the next level.
“We have a really good product – we are in 29 Save-On-Foods supermarkets – we have been for about a year now and we have done phenomenally,” Spear said. “Now I want to take that further … I’m not after money I’m after knowledge I’m after someone to set goals for me so then I can achieve that (next level).
“I don’t want people to do the work for me and I think a group like this would work. There are some people here who could help us and there are some people here who just don’t really have that experience, which is fine, but I think we can set up a role model for food industry here in Canmore.”
With four other food focused small businesses at the networking event, he said any help to achieve new goals can help all of them.
“From one chocolate business you are potentially helping five food businesses in town,” Spear said.
It is exactly what Schmadtke wants to see happen.
But even Rocky Mountain Ventures needs to evolve to the next level, he said.
“We have been doing this out of the goodness of our own hearts so far and at some point we will need to get some money either from town council, Community Futures West, or whoever will support it, but I think it is a worth while initiative that needs to push forward,” Schmadtke said.
Go to www.rmventures.ca for more information.
