small businesses : Innovation + Job News

Back in the fall, five North American companies were selected to participate in a three-month bootcamp to develop new apps for wearable technologies (like Google Glass).

One was Toronto-based software design firm Normative, and the app they came up with is now available. It's called "A to B" and the idea is simple: record your route during an activity (running, biking, skateboarding), and then race against your own recorded routes.

It's one example of the kind of work the 25-person company has been working on over the past six years—work that, says Normative CEO Matthew Milan, is essentially driven by the same goal: "using software technology to help people do the things they want to do…to give them better capabilities, make it easier for people to do stuff."

One example we've all been hearing more about lately: the Internet of Things. That, explains Milan, "is what happens when you start assigning network addresses—just like you have on your cellphone or computer—to a much wider range of things like, like your car, or your dishwasher, or your alarm clock."

And while that might seem to needlessly complicate things, the goal, at least, is to make them simpler, "to use data you get from the network to optimize experiences people are already having." (For instance, having your dishwasher remind you to get detergent.) Normative's latest foray into this realm is called Peak, an app that uses sensors in specially designed skis to collect data about your performance.

But this kind of integrated software design isn't just about the fun toys and gadgets, fancy new gizmos that few people will ever buy or use.

Another Normative project: developing an intranet for the Hospital for Sick Children.

"Five or ten years ago people would build an intranet, and it would help make it easier to find documents, for example," Milan says. Their goal at Sick Kids was to "help people find people rather than people find documents…make a system that makes it really easy for people to find each other, develop relationships with each other, collaborate with each other." It allows people with expertise who may work only a few doors or floors away, but never have met in person to easily find each other, and work together on research and patient care.

As for the future of technology in Toronto, and Canada more broadly, Milan says that "one of the challenges we have is that there is a real dearth of real literacy in terms of technology… We really need strong leadership that understands how technology is going to make things better at all levels of society."

He compares it to the U.S. New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt's slate of laws and social programs that established the social safety net Americans grow up with today. Milan believes that technology now offers the same kind of promise and potential—the ability to fundamentally change our expectations, establish baselines for what daily life looks like, or as he puts it redefine "what 21st century society should give its citizens."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Matthew Milan, CEO, Normative

Toronto has a growing number of accelerators, innovation hubs, and other organizations designed to help support young ventures launch and develop successfully.

Up next: many of those organizations, along with more traditional institutions, are starting to collaborate, forming partnerships that capitalize on their strengths and creating opportunities for people from various sectors to share their respective areas of expertise. A few months ago, for instance, Ryerson and St. Michael's Hospital announced a partnership to help the former's engineers and the latter's clinical scientists work together.

Another new partnership was announced recently between OCAD University and the Centre for Social Innovation. The goal is to develop a social enterprise-specific stream within OCAD's overall entrepreneurship hub, called The Imagination Catalyst. The Imagination Catalyst was created to help young enterprises with commercialization; this new partnership will do the same for social ventures in particular: enterprises that have some human, cultural, or environmental goal.

As part of this new collaboration, OCAD U will offer residencies to three CSI members at its Imagination Catalyst incubator, helping with access to funding, and providing other entrepreneurship support. CSI, meanwhile, will offer membership—including access to space, a vibrant community, and other funding sources—to all those incubated by Imagination Catalyst.

"Apart from start-up funding, introductions to venture /angel investors, etc., we believe any incubator experience is enhanced if you have a diverse set of start ups in the space," explains Petra Kassun-Mutch, executive director of Imagination Catalyst.

"Diversity in our case means legal form, scale, sector, and level of experience. We believe the social enterprise sector is an extremely important and growing part of the start up community space."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Petra Kassun-Mutch, executive director, Imagination Catalyst, OCAD University

More than a decade ago, the Toronto City Summit Alliance (now CivicAction) and the Maytree Foundation conducted some community outreach, asking what the most compelling issues facing Toronto were—including which issues were being neglected and required more attention.

One key issue that came up in that survey: integrating immigrants effectively into the city's labour market. And so those consultations led to the creation of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC).

This week, the organization is celebrating its 10th anniversary at an awards ceremony that will also honour individuals and organizations for their leadership in this sector.

When that initial survey was conducted, community groups said that while there were many immigrant settlement organizations, "there weren't a lot of organizations that were focused on this issue of opportunities for skilled immigrant labour," says TRIEC's executive director, Margaret Eaton.

And the resources that were being devoted to the issue were scattered. "Mentoring had been done in different organizations," she goes on, but once the new organization was formed "they came together under that umbrella," allowing for a better distribution of talent and increased scale of activity. The core of TRIEC'S activities is a one-to-one mentorship program that currently has 1,300 pairings; Eaton says that those who go through the program see an average increase in earnings of 62 per cent.

Reflecting on the past decade, Eaton says that "one of the big things we've seen is that some things have stayed very much the same: skilled immigrant unemployment is still double what it is for university-education Toronto-born population. if anything, it has gotten worse through the recession."

When asked why she said that, one key factor is that "the economy has changed so much. we're now seeing secondary migration—[people] coming to Toronto first, then moving elsewhere in Ontario or out west," where there are more plentiful job opportunities.

On the positive side, there is now an Ontario commission looking at regulated professions to try to make their requirements much more transparent to the applicants, easing the process for new immigrants who want to transfer their credentials from elsewhere so they can pursue their professions here.

As part of its 10-year anniversary, TRIEC is also looking to the future, and expanding its strategic objectives. "One of those," says Eaton, "is employer culture—looking at the glass ceiling that immigrants experience."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Margaret Eaton, executive director, TRIEC

Startups can be inherently rewarding. They can also be extraordinarily financially rewarding. But they can also be a slog, and they’ll fail more often than they’ll succeed. It can make for some pretty dark nights of the soul.

So Startup Canada has decided a little wining and winning might be just the thing for the Canadian startup community.

The Toronto-based organization, founded in 2012, has just announced the inaugural Startup Canada Awards to be given to individuals, organizations, communities, and institutions in recognition of the various sorts of excellence these kinds of projects can evince.

There will be 17 awards in all, ranging from the Entrepreneurial Effect Award through Incubator of the Year and a Lifetime Achievement award.

"Starting a company is a difficult task; entrepreneurs need a variety of elements to be successful including mentorship, encouragement, talented people, funding, and a network of contacts," said Victoria Lennox, Startup Canada’s CEO.

"It is important to recognize and celebrate those working to advance entrepreneurship in Canada; increase awareness of the importance of strengthening Canada’s entrepreneurship ecosystem and culture; and elevate the ambitions of the Canadian entrepreneurial community.”

Semifinalists will be selected regionally and announced at various fetes held in Halifax, Montreal, London, Calgary and Vancouver throughout May. The final awards will be handed out at a Wolf Blass-sponsored gala at the CN Tower on June 12.

Nominations are open until April 12 at the awards website.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Victoria Lennox

Entrepreneurs, we are often told—by venture capitalists, by mentors, by incubators—need experience. One of the key factors that goes into making a new venture viable is the founder's know-how, familiarity with their market, and business skill set.

So what do you do if you're 15 or 16 years old and have a great idea, but haven't had a chance to develop that kind of experience? One option: enter the Province of Ontario's second annual Make Your Pitch contest. It's open to Canadian citizens and landed immigrants who are full-time high school students, and returning to the school in the fall. You can enter as an individual or a team (of up to four), and your goal is to create a two minute video explaining your entrepreneurial idea.

Make Your Pitch is looking specifically for innovative ideas that fall into one of the following categories: technology, environment, social enterprise, retail, service, or arts and culture. Video pitches can be whatever inspires you—live, animated, slideshows—and the deadline for submitting them is Friday, March 28.

Videos will be judged both by an expert panel and by members of the public—that'll whittle the list to 18 finalists, all of whom will receive admission to the Ontario Centre's of Excellence Discovery conference in May, some networking opportunities, and a bit of mentorship advice. At the conference, those finalists will make pitches in-person; six ultimate winners will be chosen. In store for those winners: help developing a business plan, additional mentorship, a grant of up to $3,000 to start the business, and reserved entry in the province's Summer Company program, another initiative that helps support small student businesses.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Employment

Every city and region has its challenges and often the best authorities—both on the nature of the problems and the value of potential solutions—lies within the local community, the residents who encounter these issues first-hand. That's the principle underlying communityBUILD, an ongoing collaboration between VentureLAB, a York Region innovation accelerator; York University; and United Way York Region. It is "is a partnership from three very different organizations," says VentureLAB project lead Heather Crosbie, "and the partnership itself breeds quite a unique approach to what we're tying to do, which is tackle York Region social issues through the lens of social entrepreneurship."

That ongoing project has an upcoming major event: communityBUILD Mash-UP, a two day intensive workshop to help better understand some specific challenges within York Region, and to spur local social entrepreneurs to develop innovative approaches to tackling those issues. By the end of the Mash-Up, some participants will be selected for a prize pack that includes mentoring, office space, and other in-kind support.

With the help of the United Way, two specific social problems were identified: food insecurity and youth unemployment. The goal of the Mash-Up is to spend "two intense days to work on solutions to two of these 'grand challenges,'" explains Crosbie. 

One of the features that makes this event unique, she says, is "you can apply to be a collaborator, to join an existing team, as well as pitch as a team or an existing early-stage project." Applications for partipating in either capacity are being accepted online until March 8. A panel of local experts will winnow down the list of applicants; those selected will participate in the two-day workshop, which runs March 27-28.

After that, says Crosbie, there are "three hurdles to get over" before the winners are selected: whether the proposal is relevant to one of the "grand challenges"; whether the team proposing an initiative "has experience in either living the reality or working on the problem"; and whether everyone else participating in the Mash-Up sees merit in the proposal.

The workshop will begin with everyone pitching their ideas and it'll be up to the Mash-Up participants to select which of those ideas seem most promising. Those will be the ones that teams will work on over the course of the two days—developing business plans, rollout schedules, and the like. A panel of four or five entrepreneurs will determine the "viability, scalability, and sustainability" of the fleshed-out proposals, and select the ultimate winner.

It's one of many new initiatives the organizing partners hope to develop over time. "The long-term objective," says Crosbie, "is to build out an ecosystem of social entrepreneurs tackling social issues in York Region specifically."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Heather Crosbie, VentureLAB project lead

A new study examining the state of foreign investment in the Toronto region—Roadmap to Revizalization—includes some important calls to action for spurring local economic development. The Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA), a public-private partnership, released the study last  month. Among its members: all the municipalities and regions that make up the GTA, along with private and public sector partners. 

"Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is accelerating as a key driver of economic growth," reports the Roadmap. "Over the period 1990 to 2011, FDI globally grew 75 per cent faster than Gross Domestic Product (GDP). When foreign firms open up shop here they create jobs and capital investment, and generate tax revenue that feeds back into the Canadian economy."

There are also knock-on effects: an influx of talented workers, and a more dynamic, innovative economic environment in general. And crucially, these benefits spill across municipal borders: it's not a question of pitting one city in the region against another in an attempt to attract a new office HQ, for instance, but understanding that as soon as one foreign investor sets up here, the benefits will be distributed, which is why the report's key conclusion is so crucial.

"The GTA currently lacks effective regional coordination," writes the Roadmap, in attracting FDI. Multiple organizations and levels of government all try and tackle this issue, but they are not working in concert, and in some cases find themselves at odds. If the Toronto region is to strengthen its capacity to attract foreign investment, in short, we need to start pulling together in a coordinated and organized way.

"The Toronto region is the primary engine for FDI attraction in Ontario and in Canada, representing 52 per cent and 24 per cent respectively of all FDI activity," the Roadmap explains. We perform relatively well compared to other North American regions, but globally we are ranked 18th of 27 cities. And this, says the report, has a lot to do with how we pitch ourselves.

It isn't that the Toronto region lacks the relevant, appealing qualities foreign investors look for: "This performance is at odds with the Toronto region’s relative attractiveness as a destination for foreign direct investment. For example, on a global basis the Toronto region ranks high in terms of key FDI drivers such as size, location, demographics, economic growth, skilled labour, infrastructure, ease of doing business and the provincial and federal fiscal policy environment."

So how do we improve? Among the recommendations: 

• Increased resources in attracting FDI. (The study found that Toronto spends considerably less, per capita, on attracting foreign investment than many other comparable cities.)
   
• Coordinated, clearly planned out strategies which give all stakeholders defined roles in attracting FDI. This should include agreement on strategically selected "target sectors and markets"—ideally about 9 or 10 of them.

• More extensive private sector involvement, which is lower here compared to many other regions.

"The Toronto region is significantly underperforming relative to its potential," the report concludes. "The opportunity is significant, and the ROI is clear. But money alone will not be enough to fix the current situation. Significantly improved collaboration and coordination of efforts across a broad range of organizations is needed."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source:Roadmap to Revitalization (report)

When Kathleen Wynne's government unveiled its first budget last year, one focus was on youth jobs initiatives: it included $295 million over two years to boost youth employment, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Among the projects in that youth job strategy: a Youth Investment Accelerator Fund, which would give up to $250,000 each to tech-based companies whose founders are less than 30 years old.

This month, the Youth IAF announced the first four recipients of funding through the program—all of which are based in Toronto. Those recipients:

• PUSH, which is working on wearable devices that help athletes train more effectively by providing real-time feedback about their performance. PUSH is an alumni of MaRS.
• Rubikloud, a B2B tool which uses e-commerce data to yield insights into purchasing patterns, sales conversions, traffic changes, and more. Rubikloud also came up through MaRS.
• SoapBox, an employee engagement tool that was developed with the support of Ryerson's Digital Media Zone and whose clients now include RBC and and Indigo.
• Greengage, which comes out of Rotman's Creative Destruction Lab. Greengage focuses on helping organizations meet their sustainability goals by giving employees the tools to do things like monitor and reduce the environmental impact of their behaviours.

The Youth IAF's main goal is to accelerate commercialization of young tech-based companies, and in particular those "that have graduated from recognized accelerator programs within the province and Ontario Universities and colleges, or are enrolled with a Regional Innovation Centre under the ONE program."

Applications are available online and accepted on a rolling basis.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Ministry of Research and Innovation

Many Canadian entrepreneurs, both anecdotally and in industry surveys, lament the lack of funding for early-stage ventures that's available here, relative to what they can find south of the border. 

One new development that may at least begin to help with those concerns: late last month Premier Kathleen Wynne announced that the province, in conjunction with the federal government and several private sector partners, has launched a new venture capital fund. The Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund had a total of $217 million in commitments at its first closing, and is aiming to hit $300 million in short order.

In order to raise the starting pool of money the provincial and federal governments are matching private investor contributions (one dollar for every two the private sector invests), up to a total of $50 million each. The fund takes its name from Northleaf Capital Partners, the Toronto-based firm that is managing it. It is a "fund of funds"—a fund that invests in other funds—and is in addition to (not a replacement for) the existing Ontario Venture Capital Fund. The latter launched in 2008 and has, according the provincial government, "attracted $872 million in private sector capital while creating and retaining 1,500 jobs in the province."

The Northleaf Catalyst Fund is the first provincial fund launched under the federal governments Venture Capital Action Plan, which was announced a year ago, and which will distribute $400 million over the next 7-10 years.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Office of the Premier

We all know that the shift to digital technology in general, and more recently the shift to mobile technology in particular, is remaking many businesses and economic sectors.

In an attempt to better understand some of these changes, the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) has just released a new report looking at the role of mobile app development in Ontario's creative industries: books and magazines, film and TV, and music. Collectively, these industries generate $14.5 billion in annual revenue.

Among their findings, which are based on surveys completed by industry representatives in the summer and fall of 2013:

• Half of all respondents already use mobile apps in their businesses; another 31 per cent plan to incorporate them "in the near future." 


• Mobile app use isn't evenly distributed within the sector: as expected, a very high percentage of those in the digital media industry have incorporated apps into their businesses (64 per cent), compared to magazines (55 per cent); books (47 per cent); film and tv (39 per cent); and music (32 per cent).


• A large majority (68 per cent) of respondents use their apps as content distribution channels. Of all respondents, 43 per cent have so far seen an increase in sales and revenues in response to incorporating apps into their businesses. This is counterbalanced, however, by the reality that total benefits are right now very hard to measure: only 7 per cent of the respondents who have adopted mobile apps in their businesses reported "any measurable benefits," though the report's authors caution that this "may well be the result of difficulty in measuring the return on investment of mobile apps adoption…as opposed to not getting any discernible benefits from adoption."


• About half (48 per cent) of respondents who have adopted mobile apps report that their operating costs stayed the same; 35 per cent said their operating costs went down, and the average operating cost reduction was 9 per cent.


• As far as building the apps goes, 17 per cent of creative industry businesses do their development in-house, 44 per cent contract development out, and 39 per cent do a combination of both.


• The report estimates that 3,300 new jobs have been created in Ontario's creative businesses as a result of mobile app development and adoption: 55 per cent are full-time, 21 per cent part time, and 24 per cent contract. Toronto, predictably, is the centre for this activity: 40 per cent of the province's mobile app jobs overall are located here.

ICTC's report also looked at the barriers to mobile. "Currently, the biggest hindrance to adoption of mobile apps," the report, says, "appears to be lack of monetization of adoption benefits, with a third (37 per cent) of the enterprises stating that they are aware of the functionalities of mobile apps, but not yet convinced of their value. Other hesitations stemmed from respondents being unfamiliar with the industry, the technology options available to them, previous bad experiences with app development, and concerns about their clients' readiness to use mobile."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Mobile Apps: Generating Economic Gains for Creative Media Industries in Ontario

It's one of those ideas that seems entirely obvious in retrospect: provide a forum for medical professionals to share clinical images, so they can have a large pool of resources to draw on when seeking to learn more about certain conditions, and a large pool of expertise to draw on for insight into particular cases.

Three Torontonians came up with just such a forum—a mobile app called Figure 1, the product of a startup of the same name. Figure 1 recently announced that it has raised $2 million in seed funding, to support its next stage of growth.

Figure 1 was started about a year ago by a practising physician, a senior developer, and a Ryerson communications professor. They launched at Ryerson's DMZ—"Ryerson's just really great with innovation and entrepreneurship and flexibility," says co-founder Gregory Levey (he's the communications prof)—and currently have nine full time staff. With the help of the seed funding they hope to double in size within the year.

The new financing will allow Figure 1 to grow in a variety of ways. Their first goal is to expand onto different platforms: they're planning to launch on Android within four or six weeks, and will then move onto a desktop version of Figure 1. They're also looking to expand into other countries; the app is available in Canada, the U.S., Ireland, and the UK at the moment, and Australia and New Zealand are next. (Because the app is for licensed professionals, there are costs involved when they expand to each new country as they need to accommodate a new set of medical regulations.)

Levey's quick to admit they don't have a business model quite yet—Figure 1's focus right now is on building the service and user base. This isn't, right now, worrying anyone: their investors are on board with that strategy. Many of those investors are based in America, though there are some Canadians in the mix as well, and that's reflected in the approach a bit: "I do think there's something of a difference," Levey says of the investment culture in the two countries. "The American ones, especially on the west coast, are really swinging for the fences. The Canadian ones are a little more cautious, a little more risk averse—but that's changing."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Gregory Levey, co-founder, Figure 1

For the third year, technology publication Techvibes is giving out awards to acknowledge the country's top new ventures and enterprises. The finalists for the 2013 Canadian Startup Awards were recently announced, and now it's up to you: the winners will be selected by the public, via an online vote. You can cast your ballot until midnight on January 19; the winners will be announced on January 20.

As usual, Toronto is well-represented among the finalists. Among the local ventures vying for awards are:

• InteraXon: a technology company that creates products based on tools that read a person's brainwaves.
• Music-messaging platform Rithm
• Business-to-business marketing company Influitive, which closed a major round of funding this time last year

All of those were nominated for the most prominent award: overall startup of the year. Toronto's well-represented in other categories. Two local startups are also nominated for accelerator graduate of the year. Bionym, which came through Creative Destruction Lab and The Next 36, provides unique user identification tools based on a person's signature heartbeat. And ShopLocket, which graduated from Extreme Startups, provides easy-to-use tools to help retailers set up online stores.

Techvibes received over 2,500 nominations; editors whittled down to the list of finalists with public input as well. Launched in conjunction with KPMG, the Canadian Startup Awards are given out in six categories. Last year nearly 18,000 votes were cast. Wattpad won for best overall startup in 2011, and Indochino in 2012.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan

In the waning days of 2013, when most of us were distracted by holiday shopping and trips back home, some promising information was released about a new set of economic programs for southern Ontario. The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) announced details of the Southern Ontario Prosperity Initiatives (SOPIs), which collectively will provide $530 million in the region.

There are four separate initiatives that have been launched:

• Business Innovation, for young ventures. This program targets new enterprises, providing them with business support to help increase their odds of success in the marketplace. Funding in this stream is available for non-profits that offer support to new businesses, early stage businesses that have less than 50 employees, and angel investor networks.

• Business Growth and Productivity, for established businesses. This stream of funding aims to help companies that are already developed expand further and create new jobs. Small- and medium-sized enterprises with at least 15 employees, and non-profits that provide productivity support services to those enterprises, are eligible.

• Commercialization Partnerships Initiative, which targets collaborative projects between businesses and researchers. This program aims to help major institutions work closely with business partners to help translate research innovations into market success. Among those eligible: post-secondary institutions and industry associations.

• Regional Diversification Initiative, which targets underdeveloped sectors of the regional economy. This stream of funding is open to non-profits with an economic development focus, and that have private sector or community partnerships that work on capacity-building initiatives.

For more information, visit FedDev Ontario.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: FedDev

Women have made significant strides in the workplace in recent decades, of course; just how far we still have to go as a culture in closing the gender gap isn't always as clear. A new study out of non-profit Catalyst sheds light on one aspect of that gender gap: what happens to Canada's MBA graduates. The news is concerning.

"Across job settings, women in Canada fare worse than men from the start. Women working in Canada each made $8,167 less than men in their first post-MBA job," the report finds. Moreover, "at 72 per cent, the majority of women started out in an entry level position, compared to just 58 per cent of men."

That gap persists among MBA graduates who are assessed to have high potential. Catalyst research also examined the drivers that lead to post-MBA success—who advances rapidly, and attains the most senior positions. Among the factors that lead to this success are being given critical work early on (generally understood as work with direct profit and loss impacts) or international travel opportunities. On both counts, male MBA graduates are given more opportunities than their female counterparts. For instance, of this so-called "high potential" cohort, 29 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women were given an international assignment.

One consequence of this: "women in Canada were more than twice as likely as men to choose a non-corporate employer following completion of their MBA." The report finds that "corporate Canada is experiencing a talent drain, especially among women, into non-corporate firms at rates higher than in other regions around the world."

Which is why, also, the report concludes with this: "These findings profile a wake-up call for Canadian organizations: the time to act is now."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: High Potential Employees in the Pipeline: Maximing the Talent Pool in Canadian Organizations

This summer, MaRS Discovery District announced a new program: an accelerator for socially-oriented businesses, called Impact 8. It's a bootcamp of sorts: eight participants were chosen for an eight-week crash course in everything from marketing to investor relations. That first cohort, chosen from more than 150 applicants, recently completed the program.

They celebrated in style, opening the TSX on December 5, and spending the day explaining their enterprises and pitching venture capitalists.

"One of the biggest roadblocks to getting my venture off the ground," says Gavin Armstrong, president of The Lucky Iron Fish Project, "was trying to really narrow down the business plan—hone in on the value proposition, who your customers are, and how you're going to deliver." As an Impact 8 participant, Armstrong got one-on-one time with experts who were able to walk him through the practical elements of pulling his project together more adeptly.

"The most critical thing is mentorship," Armstrong says about why he wanted to join Impact 8. He'd been working on Lucky Iron Fish on his own for a year prior to participating, but as a newbie entrepreneur the program "helped lay some of the first-time learning tools: financial fitness, marketing communications, intellectual property, trademarking…"

The Lucky Iron Fish, if you're wondering, is actually an iron fish—one that people can toss into a pot of whatever they are cooking, which will then absorb some of the iron, and help alleviate anemia. Armstrong is right now focused on Cambodia, a nation with significant rates of iron deficiency.

The entrepreneurs who joined Impact 8 all knew going in that they wanted to make a difference through their work—their projects must have social or environmental benefits in order to be eligible. It's the business side of thing that wasn't always as clear. "I didn't know how to make a sustainable business plan," Armstrong says frankly. "I was hemorrhaging money."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Gavin Armstrong, CEO of The Lucky Iron Fish Project and Impact 8 participant