Early Entrepreneurs Inc

Kimberly Cope of Early Entrepreneurs Inc. / Kimberly Cope, d'Early Entrepreneurs inc.
  • Owner:

    Kimberly Cope

  • Jobs Created:

    2

  • Inception:

    2013

  • Mentor:

  • Industry:

    Education/Child Care/Child Enrichment

  • Location:

    Vancouver, British Columbia

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Business Profile

Early Entrepreneurs Inc. provides seed funding to classrooms of students in grades 4-12 to create and start their own social venture. Students gain hands-on experience starting and running a real business, and at the end of the term their profits are donated to charity.

My Story

Kimberly Cope always thought entrepreneurialism was an interesting career path, but it was not until she attended a conference and became exposed to the ideas of social entrepreneurism and purpose-driven business when she realized this was the path for her.

The idea for Early Entrepreneurs came from the organization’s current philanthropic advisor, Taylor Conroy who had been experimenting with the best fundraising platforms for his own social enterprise, ‘Change Heros’. One of his many experiments was testing what happened when you gave students money to create an idea and start a venture. Working with Kimberly, he suggested there was an opportunity here to do more.

Going above and beyond simply giving money to classrooms, Kimberly has developed a comprehensive curriculum for students to learn about entrepreneurship, social and charity work, and experience it all first-hand. She is working closely with principals to integrate the program across entire schools so it becomes part of a schools culture and something students become familiar with and excited about year over year.

When asked how Futurpreneur Canada has helped her business, Kimberly said, “Futurpreneur Canada has supported me with great networks and the resources required to get started in the field I am passionate about.” She continued to say, “I went into the class hoping to inspire students, but they ended up inspiring me. I don’t think you choose your passion, I think it chooses you and those young students helped me to realize my passion.”

Interest in the program is growing and there are teachers from other countries asking about how to access the program. As a result of the demand, Kimberly is now developing an online course.

Advice

For people thinking about becoming an entrepreneur – do it. Embrace your creativity, let go of fear, accept the uncertainty, realize failure is a means to learning and work on painting your own picture of the future.”