Catalyst Commons, a 60,000 square foot co-working space located in Kitchener, Ontario, and the Accelerator Centre (AC), Canada’s top ranked private business accelerator with three locations in Waterloo Region, have today announced the launch of a strategic partnership to deliver world-class mentorship to start-up, scale-up and innovation-focused enterprises across the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor.
Business accelerator services, which provide supports to help grow start-ups to global companies, will be offered in three tiers with Catalyst Commons’ Mentorship Services Program, powered by the Accelerator Centre. Each tier provides a different range of support services and hours of remote, one-to-one professional mentorship from a team of experts across distinct corporate areas. Mentors act as an experienced and dedicated management team for clients and provide custom advice in the areas of product management, finance, sales, marketing and public relations, lead generation and growth, design strategy, customer experience, leadership and human resources, intellectual property strategy, and more.
“Having gone through the Accelerator Centre’s programming myself, I see tremendous value in this partnership,” says Kurtis McBride, CEO of Kitchener-based Miovision Technologies, an AC graduate company, and general partner in Catalyst Commons. “I’m optimistic that the joint initiative will expand access to the best accelerator programming in Canada to start-ups in the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor, the largest tech cluster in North America outside of Silicon Valley.”
The Corridor contains 15,000 tech companies with an additional 5,000 plus start-ups, employing 300,000 people. Waterloo EDC states that, with eight per cent of the total workforce employed in tech, the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor has a similar talent density to Silicon Valley and a much greater density than New York, Boston or Seattle.
“The Catalyst Commons project is the perfect opportunity to blend the AC’s award-winning programming with Catalyst Commons’ vision to provide a space that inspires news ideas and brings them to reality. We’ve seen the incredible community at Catalyst137, and we’re excited to work together to help launch the next generation of great Canadian start-ups,” says Dr. Paul Salvini, Accelerator Centre CEO. “Our mission is to support entrepreneurs from start-up to scale-up; enhancing the strength of the entrepreneurship community. Kurtis McBride and Miovision are an outstanding example of how accelerator programming and mentorship can make a difference to entrepreneurs. The opportunity to partner with a graduate like Kurtis will enable us to make an even bigger impact. We are proud that he wants to share the same high-quality programming experience with his Catalyst Commons community. We’re happy to expand our operations into Catalyst Commons and to offer our services to its growing community of innovators.”
Access to business accelerator services will be available to all Catalyst Commons’ members, including virtual members. Catalyst Commons is scheduled to open in the last quarter of 2020. Details on both programming and construction updates can be found at catalyst-commons.com.
About Catalyst Commons
Catalyst Commons is the largest co-working space in Waterloo Region, at 60,000 square feet. It is located inside Catalyst 137, the world’s largest technology campus focused on makers, at nearly 500,000 square feet. Catalyst Commons was designed and built by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs and is scheduled to open in Q4 of 2020.
About the Accelerator Centre
The Accelerator Centre is an award-winning start-up accelerator dedicated to building and scaling sustainable, globally competitive companies and giving start-ups the highest probability of long-term success. It is currently ranked as Canada’s #1 private business accelerator and a Top Five accelerator in the world due to, in part, a reputation for meaningful, one-to-one mentorship and helping entrepreneurs go from the idea stage to high-growth enterprises.