Use the link below to 
Register for Founder Friday events.

What is Founder Friday?

Facilitated by Brandy Old and Craig Elias, Founder Fridays are typically held on the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month, Founder Fridays are free virtual events that are based on the success of a fireside chat. In November 2020, Ian Hathaway (Techstars founder Brad Feld’s co-author on their latest book) had 650 registrants and gave away 100 copies of The Startup Community Way to attendees from across Alberta.

Founder Fridays are designed to support Alberta’s entrepreneurs, mentors, ecosystem builders and service providers by:

  • Upskilling entrepreneurs, mentors, ecosystem builders and service providers across the province
  • Growing entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship support in and around Alberta’s post-secondary institutions
  • Increasing the volume of startups and the velocity at which they progress through the Startup Commons stages
  • Helping startups grow faster and developing the expertise and traction required to attract capital from angel investors and Venture Capitalists.
  • Working with existing entrepreneurship support organizations across Alberta to expand and upskill their mentor network

Our Goals

The Alberta government recently announced a goal of 20,000 new jobs and $5 Billion in additional revenues from Alberta’s high-tech sector within the next 10 years, which strongly aligns with the goals of the Butterfly project.

If we are to reach that lofty and attainable goal, Alberta entrepreneurs require access to an army of highly skilled mentors that reduce the likelihood of failure and increase the likelihood of scaling and being funded.

Current partners include 150 Startups, Bow Valley College, Futurpreneur, Rainforest AB, and the VMSA.

The goal is that 100+ Alberta Entrepreneurs, mentors, ecosystem builders and service providers will participate each month, with many receiving a free copy of the author’s book. Over the duration of the program, our goal is to ship over 1,000 books to participants across the province.

The province’s benefit will be more startups growing faster by being better informed with access to new and upskilled mentors and greater cross-province collaborations.

What We Do

The intent is to create highly skilled mentors while at the same time upskilling tech entrepreneurs in Alberta by introducing them to global thought leaders, providing free copies of relevant books they can read and share, and connecting them with like-minded people across the province so they can brainstorm ways to apply the content from each authors session and book to Alberta’s startup community.

Founder Fridays started in April 2021 and are scheduled to continue until June 2023 – we take a break during July and August – where we have a virtual fireside chat with an author of a recently released book that shares ideas that can help grow Alberta’s tech ecosystem.

After each session, we would ship books to as many participants as funding allows and have participants return on the 3rd Friday of the month (sometimes with, sometimes without the author) to discuss how we can apply the book’s content to Alberta’s tech sector.

In between the two sessions, we would attempt to pair people from different locations across the province and ask them to connect over a 30-minute call or zoom meeting to share projects/challenges and resources. Hence, we build personal connections between people in different sectors and locations across the province.

Those who permit us will also have a mentor profile added to a publicly available list of startup mentors that can be filtered by location, training, expertise and industry. The intent is to create something similar to what can be found on the member’s page of the A100 website – https://thea100.org/members/.

Target participants include current mentors of Futurpreneur, VMSA, Intergen, Rotary Club Members across the province, leaders of the 100+ ethnic groups in Alberta and those who have registered for past fireside chats, mentor training, Innovation Rodeos, MVP Mondays, Tech Sales Tuesdays, WannaB Wednesdays, Techathon Thursdays

Past Sessions

Recordings from sessions are linked to the words FIRESIDE CHAT listed in the past session information below.

  • April 9: Fireside chat with the author of Sales Playbooks: The Builders Toolkit, Cory Bray
  • April 23: Roundtable discussion with Joseph Fung on how to apply the learnings from Cory’s fireside chat and book
  • May 7: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of The Three Box Solution, Vijay Govindarajan
  • May 21: Roundtable discussion with Wally Thorson on how to apply the learnings from Vijay’s fireside chat and his book
  • June 4: Fireside chat with the author of Remote Work Revolution: How to Work From Anywhere, Tsedal Neeley
  • June 18: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the content of Tsedal Neeley’s book Remote Work Revolution to Alberta’s startup community and tech ecosystem
  • Sept. 10: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Magnetic Stories, Gabrielle Dolan, who joins us from Melbourne, Australia.
  • Sept. 24: Roundtable discussion with Colleen Stewart, author of The Story Compass, on how to craft powerful stories
  • Oct. 1: Fireside chat with the author of Demand Side Sales, Bob Moesta
  • Oct. 15: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Bob’s fireside chat and his book
  • Nov. 5: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Effective Sales Enablement, Pam Didner
  • Nov. 19: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Pam’s fireside chat and her book – especially chapter 4 and page 87.
  • Dec. 3: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Permission to Screw Up, Kristen Hadeed
  • Dec. 17: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Tristen’s fireside chat and her book
  • Jan. 7: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Naked at Work, Danessa Knaupp
  • Jan. 21: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Danessa’s fireside chat and her book
  • Feb. 4: FIRESIDE CHAT with the Creator of the Growth Hacking Box that contains 100 ways to hack growth, Tiffany daSilva
  • Feb. 18: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Tiffany’s fireside chat and growth hacking box
  • March 4: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of The 7 Essential Stories Charismatic Leaders Tell, Kurian Mathew Tharakan
  • March 18: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Kurian’s fireside chat and his book.
  • April 1: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Stop Hustling: Start Scaling, Scott Sambucci
  • April 15: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Scott’s fireside chat and his book.
  • May 6: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Startup Program Design: A Practical Guide for Creating Accelerators and Incubators at Any Organization, Adam Berk
  • May 20: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Adam’s fireside chat and his book.
  • June 3: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Founded: The No B.S. Guide for Student Entrepreneurs, Mike Raab, Executive Director of The Garage at Northwestern University.
  • June 17: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Mike’s fireside chat and his book.
  • Sept. 9: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Levers: The Framework for Building Repeatability into Your Business, Amos Schwartzfarb
  • Sept. 23: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Amos’ fireside chat and his book.
  • Oct. 7: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business, Jenny Blake
  • Oct. 21: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Jenny’s fireside chat and their book.
  • Nov. 4: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Fix This Next: Make the Vital Change That Will Level Up Your Business, Mike Michalowicz
  • Nov. 18: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Mike’s fireside chat and their book.
  • Dec. 2: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides, Geoffrey Cohen
  • Dec. 16: Roundtable discussions led by Wendy Muise, Wunmi Adekanmbi and Jennifer Jensen on how to apply the learnings from Geoffrey’s fireside chat and his book.
  • Jan. 6: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Raising an Entrepreneur, Margot Machol Bisnow
  • Jan. 20: Margot Machol Bisnow will join us for roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from her fireside chat and her book.
  • Feb 3: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Sell the Way You Buy, David Priemer
  • Feb 17: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from David’s fireside chat and his book.
  • Mar 3: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Escaping the Build Trap, Melissa Perri
  • Mar 17: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Melissa’s fireside chat and her book.
  • Apr 14: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Say Less, Get More, Fotini Iconomopoulos
  • Apr 28: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Fotini’s fireside chat and her book
  • May 5: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Scale Your Everest, Erik Severinghaus
  • May 19: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Erik’s fireside chat and his book
  • Jun 2: FIRESIDE CHAT with the author of Continuous Discovery Habits, Teresa Torres
  • Jun 16: Roundtable discussions on how to apply the learnings from Teresa’s fireside chat and her book