Paid to Innovate Fall 2022 Recap

by Brigid Savage and Karen Zhan

In September 2022, The Social Ventures Zone welcomed 24 undergraduate students from a wide range of programs at Toronto Metropolitan University to the first ever Paid to Innovate (opens in new window)  cohort.

The Paid to Innovate program is a short, four-part course developed to help TMU students take their idea or interest in a social issue and turn it into a path towards a social start-up (opens in new window)  while getting paid. The curriculum was taught by Sarah Brigel (opens in new window)  and Alex Gill (opens in new window) , the Operations Coordinator and Director of the SVZ, respectively. The focus of these sessions was for the students to identify a problem they had an interest in solving and developing a strong solution.

In addition to the educational sessions hosted by the SVZ, the Paid to Innovate students had the unique opportunity to attend networking nights and fireside chats, as well as access one-on-one mentorship from members of the SVZ community.

At the Networking Nights students got to network and learn about venture development from industry professionals. In four 20-minute rounds, each student met with industry professionals to ask questions, gain insight, and receive advice about their start-ups. Industry guests included Ali Taiyeb (opens in new window) , Nikki Waheed (opens in new window) , Gonzalo Cervantes Begazo (opens in new window) , Suha Lalani (opens in new window) , Nirusan Rajakulendran (opens in new window) , and Katrina Carlton (external link, opens in new window) . The evenings ended with networking sessions where students could meet with peers, SVZ members, and industry professionals.

The SVZ also hosted two fireside chats for the Paid to Innovate program. The first conversation was with VESTA (external link, opens in new window)  founder Lucrezia Spagnolo. Lucrezia joined the SVZ in 2018 and has been working on her venture tirelessly since. VESTA is a social enterprise that works at the intersection of gender-based violence, technology, and access to justice. In 2022, VESTA partnered with the Kingston police and Queen’s University to bring the platform to students on campus.

During her fireside chat Lucrezia spoke with SVZ Operations Intern, Karen Zhan, about her journey to entrepreneurship and the challenges and successes she had along the way. Lucrezia worked a corporate position in the fashion industry before realizing that she wanted to pivot into starting a social venture. She knew that survivors of sexual assault needed resources and the opportunity to speak about their experiences in a safe and protected way. Lucrezia followed her instinct to empower these individuals and founded VESTA. 

The second fireside was moderated by Alex Gill, the director of the SVZ and a social entrepreneur. He interviewed Mark Barnes (opens in new window) , an entrepreneur with nearly 40 years of experience. Mark is one of the coaches at the SVZ and has been a management consultant for the past 28 years. He has extensive experience working with growth-oriented small to mid-sized companies and develops strategies for them to secure financing, build effective management teams, enhance profitability, and improve business processes.

Alex and Mark spoke about Mark’s journey to entrepreneurship, from creating a boardgame when he was in university with his roommate, to buying two jazz magazine publications, to taking over Joe Blo beer. Students who attended the fireside chat were able to ask Mark questions about his experiences, including what he would do differently if he were to start again. At the core of Mark’s fireside chat was the advice that entrepreneurs should seek collaboration and community wherever they can, because otherwise entrepreneurship can be lonely and very difficult. You can hear the entire conversation between Mark and Alex on the SVZ’s podcast, Waves of Change, here (external link, opens in new window) .

Throughout the Fall semester students developed their business plans, started researching their problems, and ideating their solutions. The SVZ congratulates all the participants for completing this program, and looks forward to bringing this program back in Winter 2023!

Applications to join the Winter 2023 cohort of the Paid to Innovate program are now open!