Content Type, Events, Contests & Activities | November 17, 2016

GEW: On the Road – Anthony’s Highlights from St. John’s, NL

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For Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) this week, we have teamed up with Amway Canada to send three ambassadors across the country to report live from the road as they visit Canadian entrepreneurs, small businesses, community partners in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and attend GEW events. Yesterday Anthony was on the road in St. John’s, Newfoundland for the day. Here is a recap of his day and some of the ‘ah-ha’ moments he had along the way.

To kick off Anthony’s day in St. John’s, he made a visit to the co-working space that Futurpreneur is based out of, Common Ground, before heading to city hall for a GEW flag raising with Councillor Lane.


Anthony’s Insights:
“Visiting the co-working space was the first taste of NL entrepreneurship. I learned about a business that got 4 million in VC funding and are working on a DNA sequencing project specifically for the province.”

After the flag was raised in the city of St. John’s, Anthony went to a community partner meeting where he met 12 different Futurpreneur partners including the YMCA of Northeast Avalon, NLOWE, and more.


Anthony’s Insights:
“The community partners networking event was awesome. I learned about how much financial support there was for all the businesses locally.”

Once Anthony learned a bit more about the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the local organizations that support entrepreneurs, he headed for lunch with a couple Futurpreneur mentors, Jon Butler and Sheldon Payne, plus a community partner, mentor and former Futurpreneur loan recipient, Chelsey Paterson.


Anthony’s Insights:
“Lunch (and the drives with Scott) were great because I really got into the mind of the entrepreneurs, to understand that the people that do businesses here have grit, and really the heart to make whatever work. IT’s in the community; it’s in the soul of the people. You can’t even teach it. Every Newfoundlander has the spirit or hard work and collaboration and hard work in their blood. And that’s why they will be successful. They have to be.”


From there, Anthony was off for a sweet treat at the Volcano Bakery and stopped for a radio interview with 590 VOCM Backtalk.


He also visited a few other local businesses, Sumac, which is a Labanese restaurant, and Fiberlilly, a sewing fabric store.


Anthony had a great and busy day in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Some of his key learnings from his day were:

  • Everyone has their different reason for being an entrepreneur, and sometimes it is just in your blood.
  • There is SOOOO much money out there for entrepreneurs; we just need to take the time to find it.
  • Collaboration can create opportunities.

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