MBiz | December 2020

NORTH FORGE TECHNOLOGY EXCHANGE

N orth Forge Technology Exchange CEO Joelle Foster seems to operate in one gear — overdrive. It’s been a pedal-to-the-metal year since Foster took the wheel in February, leading a multi-faceted revitalization to expand North Forge’s reach, increase its impact and redefine its ethos. “I just hate that I have to sleep,” Foster says. “We’ve had tremendous growth in the past six months.” A new four-stage Founders Program, launched on June 1, has transformed North Forge from incubator to hybrid incubator-accelerator, with digital programming to reach entrepreneurs and innovators in every nook and cranny of Manitoba. It's participating in a diversity and inclusion pilot project with Ryerson University and the Women’s Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH). And it's rolling out new programs that focus on advanced manufacturing (AMLab), Women in Technology (WiLab), would-be angel investors and more. “We are the new North Forge — we have evolved to meet the new demands in Manitoba,” Foster says. A founding board member — and the only woman on the original board — Foster was leading the University of Calgary’s Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking when she was asked to take the CEO position. She and her family moved back to Winnipeg in late February, just as the global pandemic was taking hold. “Everything was shutting down, so it was interesting starting a new job with a new team during COVID, when you’re all on Zoom,” she says. DRIVING CHANGE AT NORTH FORGE

North Forge Technology Exchange CEO Joelle Foster. Photo by Shannon Vanraes

Hence, her team spent three months developing the Founders Program, with input on best practices from academics and other incubators around the world. “Since June 1, we have been working with 56 companies, so you know what that tells me — that there was a massive need for something like this.” To address another massive need, Foster’s team is partnering with the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) to start up the North Forge Angel Network. It will provide free resources, such as webinars, for Manitobans who are interested in investing in a technology- enabled company, but who lack the knowledge and expertise. “We want to enable people and give them the confidence to become an investor. That’s what was missing in Manitoba.” It’s especially important to address gaps in funding for female founders – a challenge that affects the entire tech industry. Female-founded companies are more likely to have women in leadership roles, and women-led companies and those with diverse teams perform better. That certainly seems to be true for North Forge, which now has four female board members — three of whom were brought on during the pandemic — along with its indefatigable CEO. ■ Learn more at northforge.ca

“Coming back, I kind of looked at everything and thought, ‘What was our original mandate? Why was North Forge created and who was it supposed to serve?’ It was getting really back to the grassroots of why were we created.” As the province’s innovation arm, they help entrepreneurs take businesses from the idea stage to prototype and — now, for the first time — commercialization. “We have one of the largest publicly accessible fabrication labs in North America,” Foster says, adding the 16,000-square-foot facility in the Exchange District’s Innovation Alley has been open 24/7 during the pandemic, with strict safety protocols. “People have invented a lot of PPE using our fabrication lab, which is quite exciting. We thought with everything they’re doing that we have to help advanced manufacturing companies or entrepreneurs scale up, as well. So we created AMLab. It helps people who have hardware or a prototype take that to commercialization. We’ve never done that before.” In recent years, North Forge has opened offices in The Pas and Pinawa, but Foster wanted to help entrepreneurs validate and grow their ideas regardless of their location. “We needed to make a bigger impact in the province — the entire province. It was so important to include anybody who had an interesting tech idea or innovative idea.”

WINTER 2020