u/begiantca

In grad school, Cedric Attias led a study on how different pitching styles put pressure on the UCL. Now, he works for the Mariners

Ronnen Harary, 55-year-old Ivey Business School grad, is a co-founder of Spin Master, a Canadian toy and entertainment company – the fourth-biggest toy company in the world, generating about $2.4 billion in annual revenue. (Harary is also the human most responsible for global phenomenon Paw Patrol.)

But 30 years ago, Harary and his co-founders were twentysomethings with big dreams and just enough cluelessness to try to make them come true. The unexpected value of youthful ignorance is the subject of Harary’s new book, No Experience Necessary: Why Betting on Yourself in Your Twenties Is the Best Decision You’ll Ever Make.

A key insight from Harary on their early success: "We didn’t overthink it, and we didn’t feel like we needed to know everything. The key thing is that we showed up."

"When you’re young, you almost don’t know what you don’t know and you have the passion and energy to go out and make the kinds of mistakes that lead to success. Most people become more risk-averse as they get older. And then there is the ability that younger people have to see the world through fresh eyes. So much of entrepreneurship is about reimagining what is by tapping into the zeitgeist. When you’re young, you are the zeitgeist. You can identify those white spaces, and that’s where all the gold is."

He adds: "I think that the taxes in our country drive people south. For younger entrepreneurs, I would love to see tax deferrals or even tax breaks in the earlier stages. If you’re starting a business and you’re between 20 and 35, I don’t think you should be paying the same taxes that older people are paying. If you want to give people a leg up, the most important thing is [helping them have] cash flow so they don’t have to hand over equity to people who already have money."

Read the full story.

According to Be Giant’s inaugural Upstart Index – drawn from a proprietary Ipsos poll of more than 3,000 aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs – 71 per cent of B.C. founders say the cost of living in their area makes running a business difficult. That’s the highest figure of any province in the country.

Many B.C. founders are finding other ways to stay and keep building, leaning harder on the capital sources closest to home: 31 per cent drew on family or friends to fund their business, versus 26 per cent nationally, a significant gap. They’re working differently, too. A third of B.C. founders put fewer than 20 hours a week into their business and appear to be running their startups alongside other work to make the math add up.

Read the full story: https://www.begiant.ca/stories/places/entrepreneurship-cost-of-living-bc

The Canadian entrepreneur co-founded two companies – Dunk, a social media brand focused on basketball, and Surf, an audience engagement platform – wrote a book on entrepreneurship – 2022’s The Young Entrepreneur – and racked up accolades, including spots on Plan Canada’s Top 20 under 20 and Bay Street Bull’s 30 under 30 lists and a United Nations Outstanding Youth Leadership Award. Now, he’s shifting gears.

“I was like, ‘I can’t be doing five, six different things, I need to really focus in on a few and take a bigger bet with them,’” says Goswami. “I had a lot of projects. Did I have insane success with any one of them? No. I was doing well in certain areas, but I wasn't successful in any one particular area, at least by my standards.”

Currently, he’s working on his new startup, BrokerPlus, which targets a decidedly less flashy customer: Canadian mortgage brokers. 

“Early on, it was about mad curiosity, obsession over an idea. Nowadays, it’s actually a lot more around focus,” he says.

Read the full story here.

One of the strongest themes to emerge from a new poll of 3,000 Canadian aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs to benchmark their plans and sentiments, is the sunny outlook of young founders operating in the country today. Consider that among the gen Z entrepreneurs surveyed:

• 68 per cent said Canada is globally competitive as a place to start a business (versus 61 per cent of millennials, 50 per cent of gen Xers and 47 per cent of boomers);
• 59 per cent agreed that Canada offers enough opportunity for ambitious entrepreneurs (compared to 52 per cent of millennials, 50 per cent of gen Xers and 40 per cent of boomers); and
• 56 per cent felt Canada is more supportive of entrepreneurs than it was five years ago (versus 47 per cent of millennials, 37 per cent of gen Xers and 34 per cent of boomers).

Read the full story: https://www.begiant.ca/stories/people/gen-z-entrepreneurship-trends-canada-2026

According to a new poll measuring Canadian entrepreneurial sentiment, 29 per cent of emerging founders in the country are solopreneurs. And there’s a notable gendered trend among them: 39 per cent of women founders in the country are operating without any co-founders or employees, nearly twice the share of men doing the same. What's contributing to this trend? Read the full story.

Entrepreneurs see Canada as a promising place to start a business, but new data suggests significant barriers – including cost of living, childcare and regulation – are making future growth more difficult.

The findings are part of the largest independent study of its kind in the country. The poll shows strong entrepreneurial spirit in Canada, particularly among younger founders and newer Canadians. Sixty-eight per cent of Gen Z entrepreneurs said Canada is globally competitive as a place to start and grow a business, and founders who arrived in Canada five to 10 years ago were more likely than average (62 per cent versus 53 per cent) to say that Canada offers ample opportunity. Read the full report: https://www.begiant.ca/stories/people/entrepreneurship-canada-2026-upstart-index