A little behind our origin story, the inspiration behind our mission, and how you can help move it forward.
Founding story
Venture building with a purpose
I started Meaningful Ventures after spending years within venture building circles and recognizing the force it can be to enact change within a community.
While there are a number of supports within the city and across the province for existing founders and businesses, there are fewer organizations that are coming alongside change-makers and guiding them along the startup journey.
I hope that this platform can be a meaningful way for communities & changemakers to collaborate and build the future we want to see in Calgary and beyond!
We challenge the status quo across our discovery and creation process, and our approach to choosing a funding model is no different.
We're community-driven from day one and leverage a variety of funding methods within our startups to involve customers and consumers in value creation:
Co-Operatives
Customers are co-owners in the business and partake in the success of the business through dividends and payouts.
Crowdfunding
Customers front the cost of the business to receive rewards and discounts, typically in product-based businesses.
Blended finance
Leverage grants to subsidise costs alongside revenue-generating efforts to make services more affordable and accessible.
Crowd lending & equity
Open financial investment to the public through collaborative debt or equity financing to widen the investor base during expansion.
Bootstrapping
Front the cost of development or expansion based until revenue streams solidify and fuel the growth of the business.
Flexible pricing models
Find creative pricing models such as Pay What You Want to charge customers based on their level of financial stability.
Reference Organizations
Inspiration & resources
Learn more about other organizations that are leveraging the venture studio model to enact meaningful change within their communities.
Blue Ridge Labs
BRL is Robin Hood's venture studio for scaling innovations to solve the most pressing social challenges. They leverage business to address poverty in NYC.
Nesta is the UK's innovation agency for Social good. They design, test and scale new solutions to society’s biggest problems, changing millions of lives for the better.
