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Propelling Eastern Ontario’s businesses
R T N E C NO I TAV O N N I E H T OKI T A V O N N I ’ D E R T N E C E L Launch Lab is a regional innovation centre that kickstarts new businesses
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and helps established ones grow and scale.
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aren Brunet raised $700,000 for her business during a global pandemic and now aims to be running a $9-million company in three years. The founder of iKare.Med, an importer and wholesaler of medical devices for the prevention and management of urinary incontinence, likes to say “I made a business by peeing my pants.” At its root it’s true. Years of misdiagnoses for various ailments and giving birth to two children 16 months apart led to urinary incontinence. She wanted a better solution than adult diapers or pads so she invented one called Cntrl+. But the other truth of how she built her company was by using the services of Launch Lab. Launch Lab helps innovative entrepreneurs launch, grow and scale their businesses. The organization is a regional innovation centre and member of the Ontario Business Support Network, a provincially funded network of resources for entrepreneurs located within its boundaries. “Our purpose is to foster entrepreneurship and the commercialization of innovations to help build globally competitive companies in Eastern Ontario,” says Scott Runté, CEO of Launch Lab. “We’re here to support companies that are starting,
Karen Brunet, founder, iKare.Med
growing or scaling in Eastern Ontario. We want to be a catalyst and a voice for the innovation ecosystem in the region.”
Primo partnerships Launch Lab helps between 100 and 150 entrepreneurs every year and owes part of its success to the strong partnerships it has built and fostered. For example, while its head office is in Kingston, it also has satellite offices in Cornwall, Smiths Falls and Belleville, the latter three offered through partners who provide office space. Its team of “entrepreneurs in residence” (EIRs) operate throughout the region to provide timely, strategic advice to help founders make the right decisions to
grow their businesses. The services the entrepreneurial advisers offer include marketing, raising capital, coming up with a sales strategy, advising on intellectual property and financial modelling, to name a few. In addition to this mentorship, Launch Lab can provide access to marketintelligence reports, training opportunities and workshops, connections to sources of capital and a large network of professional partners and resources. “Companies are looking for access to talent, capital and markets. Our partnership model is extremely important,” Runté says. “We don’t go find talent for clients, but we help them get connected to partners that can provide support. When they need access to capital, we partner with the Southeastern Ontario Angel Network. We also work very closely with the Community Futures Development Corporations, of which there are several in our region. When it comes to market access, we work with our
regional innovation centre partners across the province, economic development agencies and the universities and colleges in our region to leverage their networks. “In the region, we work very closely with our neighbouring regional innovation centres, Invest Ottawa and Spark Centre. Working together, we want Eastern Ontario to be recognized as a leading innovation corridor and, moving forward, we want to be a champion for the innovation that’s happening across multiple sectors in the region.”
Launch Pad Launch Pad is an eight-week boot-camp program for early-stage companies. “Rather than having one-on-one interaction, we put them through a weekly boot camp with their peers that takes them through different aspects of what they need to be thinking about, we give them introductions to some of our entrepreneurs in residence and help them to further develop their business model,” he says.