The Airdrie Entrepreneur Common (AEC) has announced that they have secured grant funding from Alberta Innovates to support entrepreneurs.

The grant will support building viable business solutions that, 'people love and are willing to pay for.' According to a press release by The City of Airdrie, the project addresses a gap across the entrepreneur support ecosystem in rural Alberta.

"Too many entrepreneurs are not moving from intuition to evidence in their business development process. Airdrie Entrepreneur Common (AEC) has partnered with the regional innovation networks across Southern Alberta (APEX Alberta, CARIN and RINSA) to collaboratively tackle this gap through curriculum development."

Jessica Williamson, President, of AEC lauded the grant, explaining that it will help the organization reach entrepreneurs at the very start of their journey, when they’re making crucial decisions that will impact the success of their business.

"We’re excited to roll out this evolution of the Discover program and assist more entrepreneurs with validating their business ideas in our community.”

Airdrie will be refreshing the existing Discover program with the new curriculum. Discover will run from October 3 until November 16. Over eight weeks, participants will run experiments to test:

  • Desirability (Do customers want this?)
  • Feasibility (Can I do this?) 
  • Viability (Can I make money?)

The program is suitable for tech-enabled startups, and small businesses, across southern Alberta. The learning is also relevant for existing businesses that are looking to revisit their business model and/or add a new product or service.

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