Calgary is becoming one of the best places to build a startup, but most of the early-stage entrepreneurs we speak to aren't aware of the local tech resources that are available to help them.

With applications for the Calgary Founder Institute now open, we're excited to release the Calgary Startup Resource Guide, which is currently in Draft v1 below! It was developed by the Calgary Founder Institute and local leaders: 

This is just a draft, and while we spent many hours on this research, more input is needed. Please leave your comments on this collaborative Google document to help us complete the list. There are definitely omissions on this current version. 

Are you looking to build a startup in Calgary? Then apply to the Calgary Founder Institute today!

Text version included below, for ease of searching:

Startup Stages

There is no one right way to build a technology company, but for the sake of simplicity we have outlined a basic, common, sequential framework.

1. IDEA-STAGE

This is where new entrepreneurs get inspired, learn best practices, develop skills, validate ideas, and begin to build their team and product.

1. Inspire

1. Startup Media: Centralized local information, listings, and news. (i.e. startup blogs / publications / lists / FB groups/ newsletters, Startup Digest)

1. BetaKit Calgary

2. Start Alberta News

3. Startup Calgary News

4. Startup Digest Calgary

2. Inspirational Events: Open, inclusive, beginner startup events (i.e. Startup Weekend, idea fairs, and inspirational meetups) 

1. AccelerateAB

2. ATB Transformation (Calgary)

3. Business Success & Fail Club YYC

4. CivicTechYYC - Tech for Good

5. Fuckup Nights

6. Startup Weekend Calgary

2. Educate

1. Best Practices: Beginner knowledge-sharing events. (i.e. beginner events that serve to educate more than inspire, like Startup Founder 101, etc).

1. Alberta Blockchain Consortium

2. Alberta Women Entrepreneurs

3. Calgary Security Hub

4. Calgary Startup Founder 101

5. Calgary Virtual Reality Meetup

6. ChicGeek

7. Hyperledger Calgary (Linux Foundation)

8. PyData Calgary

9. Startup Calgary

10. Startup Grind Calgary

11. Women in Data Calgary

2. Training & Feedback: Skill & Idea development. (Ex. bootcamps and comprehensive training programs, like Founder Institute, etc)

1. Big Data Developers in Calgary

2. Business Academy

3. Calgary Agile Methods User Group

4. Calgary Artificial Intelligence Meetup

5. Calgary Cloud Business Meetup

6. Calgary Deep Learning Meetup

7. Calgary JavaScript

8. Calgary Startup: Idea to IPO

9. EvolveU

10. Founder Institute

11. Leaf Forward Cannabis Startup Bootcamp

12. Lean Startup Machine Calgary

13. Lighthouse Labs

14. NetSquared Calgary

15. PyYYC

16. Startup Traction Calgary

17. Women's Data Science Study Group - Calgary

18. YYC Ladies Who Code

19. YYC Ruby

3. Validate

1. Team Formation: Resources for teaming up. (i.e. events or other resources that facilitate early-stage recruitment and cofounder matching”)

1. ATB Entrepreneur Centre YYC

2. Calgary Entrepreneurs Network

3. CoFoundersLab

4. Entrepreneurs' Organization Calgary

5. eWomen Network

6. Founder2be

7. FounderDating

8. Pixels and Pints

9. Product Calgary

10. Universal Womens Network

2. Build First Product: Hackathons & resources to build. (i.e. hackathons and other builder-focused events and resources)

1. ATB Open Finance Hackathon

2. BioHackYYC

3. Calgary - Cognitive, AI & Data Science Meetup

4. CalgaryHacks 2020

5. Code Club

6. Coding Calamity Mini-Hackathon 2020

7. Data for Good - Calgary

8. Fuse 33 Makerspace

9. Google Cloud Developer Community Calgary

10. HackerNest Calgary Tech Socials

11. Learning Deep Learning & Mini-Hackathon

12. Oil Sand Tech Meetup

13. Product Hunt YYC

14. Protospace

15. Software Developers of Calgary

16. SozenTech YYC

17. Space Apps Challenge Calgary

18. YYC Hacks App Development Hackathon

2. LAUNCH-STAGE

In this stage, entrepreneurs establish and formalize the company, develop the product, get feedback from customers, and prepare for the next step.

1. Start

1. Establish: Law firms & banks for startups  

1. ATB

2. BDC

3. Bennett Jones

4. Blakes

5. BMO

6. Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP

7. Canadian Western Bank

8. CIBC

9. Dentons

10. Fasken

11. First Calgary

12. HSBC

13. KEB Hana Bank

14. McMillan Startups

15. Miller Thomson LLP

16. National Bank

17. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP

18. RBC Royal Bank

19. Scotiabank

20. Servus Credit Union

21. Stikeman Elliott LLP

22. Tangerine

23. TD Canada Trust

24. Torys LLP

2. Workspace: Co-working and flexible workspaces (note: “official” office space goes in 3.1.a. Infrastructure) 

1. Assembly Coworking Space

2. Boardroom

3. Business Lab

4. cSPACE King Edward

5. EFFECTIV

6. emergeHUB

7. HustleCo Workspace

8. iQ Offices

9. Mavericks

10. No Island Co Work

11. Notra Loft

12. Paserium

13. Regus

14. ReSourceYYC

15. Stratus

16. The Bridge

17. The Collective 12|12

18. The Commons Calgary

19. The Inc.

20. TradeSpace

21. WeWork

22. Work Nicer Coworking

23. Workhaus

24. WRK

2. Develop

1. Formalize: Accounting, development and HR for early-stage startups. 

1. Avalon Accounting

2. Cornerstone Digital

3. Diamond CPA Professional Services

4. Essential Designs

5. Hutcheson & Co.

6. Jibe Accounting

7. Ledgers Calgary South

8. MNP LLP

9. Oracast

10. Pekarsky & Co.

11. Resolve Accounting

12. RSM Canada

13. TERRAFORM

14. Uppercut

15. Vertical Motion

16. Vog Calgary

17. REHUMAN Inc.

18. KPMG

2. Prepare for Seed: Incubators and advanced mentorship. (i.e. advanced knowledge sharing, later stage events and resources for startup TEAMS)

1. 321 Growth Academy

2. BEAUSEANT Capital Partners Incubator

3. Harvest Builders

4. Innovate Calgary

5. JMH LaunchPad Program

6. Junction

7. Life Sciences Innovation Hub

8. Platform Calgary

9. Social Enterprise Incubator

10. Startup Next Calgary

11. TELUS Technology Incubator

12. Thrive

13. True Incubator

14. UC Summer Incubator Program

3. Launch

1. Seed Accelerators: Seed funding mentor programs (Techstars-style programs that provide funding)

1. ATB X Accelerator

2. Creative Destruction Lab

3. District Ventures Accelerator

4. District Ventures and IBM Innovation Space

5. Foresight

6. Futurpreneur Canada

7. Hatch YYC

8. Ignite

9. InterGen ScaleUp Program

10. Leaf Forward

11. TELUS Technology Accelerator

12. The Accelerator

13. Trade Accelerator Program

14. Tundra ACE Program

15. WaterNEXT

16. Zone Startups

2. Pitch & Demo: Show local startups for investment (i.e. demo days for companies seeking seed investment)

1. BDO VC Pitch Day 2020

2. District Ventures 2020 Demo Day

3. Fast Pitch Calgary

4. Founder Hotseat: Pitch Your Startup to Calgary Startup Experts

5. JMH LaunchPad Pitch Competition

6. Lighthouse Labs Calgary Demo Day

7. Pitch Party YYC

8. Startup Drinks & Pitches at Trolley 5

9. Women’s Pitch Night Calgary

3. GROWTH-STAGE

Here, a startup proves their utility, receives recognition, and scales up. This usually requires funding, angels, VCs, and ways to connect them to startups.

1. Recognition 

1. Investor Networking:  Connect professional investors with founders. (i.e. events or groups that facilitate connections with professional investors)

1. Canada Angel Investment Network

2. Canadian Investment Network

3. Inventures

4. The A100

5. National Angel Capital Organization (NACO Canada)

6. Valhalla Angels

2. Major Media: Mainstream local business press. (i.e. major local or regional publications that frequently champion local businesses)

1. Business in Calgary

2. Calgary Herald

3. Calgary Sun

4. Calgary's Business

5. CBC News Calgary

6. CTV News Calgary

7. Financial Post

8. Global News

2. Funding

1. Angels / Micro-VCs: Seed-stage investors (search AngelList, Gust, Crunchbase)

1. Adam Cragg

2. Alexander Von Gramatzki

3. Brad Zumwalt

4. Brock Bohonos

5. Bryan Slauko

6. Dan Belostotsky

7. Dave Edmunds

8. Dustin Wilkes

9. Eric Mah

10. James Lochrie

11. Jim Letourneau

12. John Tran

13. Luke Krueger

14. Matt Mastracci

15. Matthew Protti

16. Michael J. Sikorsky

17. Patrick Lor

18. Patrick Onyekweli

19. R Stewart (Randy) Thompson

20. Sandi Gilbert

21. Travis Callaway
    
    

2. Venture Capitalists: Series A and beyond

1. Accelerate Fund

2. AVAC Group

3. Azure Capital Partners

4. BDC Venture Capital

5. BEAUSEANT Capital Partners

6. Blue Sky Ventures

7. BUILDERS VC

8. Bumble Bees Venture Capital

9. District Ventures Capital

10. EnerTech Capital

11. Evok

12. Harvest Ventures

13. Inovia Capital

14. InterGen

15. Kensington Capital Partners

16. McRock Capital

17. Panache Ventures

18. Rio Investment Partners

19. TriWest Capital Partners

20. Valhalla Private Capital

21. Werklund 

22. Yaletown Partners

23. RBC Ventures

3. Growth

1. Infrastructure: Office space, HR, local business insurance. (i.e. office space/ HR/ insurance providers for capital-rich companies to grow and scale) 

1. Alpine Insurance

2. Collis Insurance

3. Instant Offices

4. IT/IQ Group

5. Jones & Salt Insurance Brokerage

6. Krywolt Insurance

7. Lanes Insurance

8. LiquidSpace

9. LoopNet

10. Randstad

11. Regus

12. Rogers Insurance

13. Strategic Group

2. Expansion: Growth accelerators/consultants. (i.e. programs and business consultants for capital-rich companies to grow and scale)

1. Accenture

2. Aon

3. Atkins

4. Avanade

5. Boston Consulting Group

6. BrassRock Consulting

7. Cenera

8. CGI

9. Deloitte

10. Egon Zehnder

11. Ernst & Young

12. Fujitsu Consulting

13. Gartner

14. Grant Thornton

15. Hatch

16. Hill+Knowlton Strategies

17. KPMG

18. McKinsey & Company

19. Mercer

20. PwC

21. Tata Consultancy Services

22. Willis Towers Watson

4. SUCCESS STORIES

Successful homegrown companies that have raised significant institutional funding, employ a large workforce, or have achieved liquidity.

1. Absorb LMS

2. Ambyint

3. Athennian

4. Attabotics

5. Benevity

6. Blackline Safety

7. BlackSquare

8. Bulky Logistics

9. Circle Cardiovascular Imaging

10. Communo

11. CoolIT Systems

12. Crux OCM

13. DIRTT Environmental Solutions

14. Envio Systems

15. headversity

16. Kudos

17. Replicon

18. Robo Garden

19. The Virtual Gurus

20. VEERUM

21. Wave

22. Wedge Networks

23. ZayZoon

24. ZeroKey

Supporters

To facilitate the steps, every ecosystem needs strong supporters.

1. EVANGELISTS

Successful local founders who lead the ecosystem & frequently mentor newbies.  (i.e. Local leaders who have taken a leadership position, speak at a lot of startup events, mentor all the programs, etc)

1. Alan Campbell

2. Alecia Peters

3. Alice Reimer

4. Andrew Browne

5. Chad Ford

6. Chris Marra

7. Chad Saunders

8. Chris Jones

9. Danielle Torrie

10. David Chavez

11. Heather Herring

12. James Chepyha

13. Jenn Delconte

14. Jennifer Lussier

15. Joe Martini

16. John Wilson

17. Judy Fairburn

18. Kari Gordon

19. Kevin Dahl

20. Mary Moran

21. Ray DePaul

22. Rebecca (Mercedes) Klassen 

23. Rob Mcmurty

24. Shannon Pestun

25. Sid Sharma

26. Steven McIlvenna

27. Tamara Woolgar

28. Terry Rock

2. GOVERNMENT

Public organizations that facilitate local economic development

1. Alberta Innovates

2. Alberta Innovation Corridor

3. Alberta Small Business Resources

4. Calgary Chamber of Commerce

5. Calgary Economic Development

6. Calgary Innovation Coalition

7. Calgary Regional Partnership

8. Civic Innovation YYC

9. Rainforest Alberta

3. TALENT

Major local business or tech universities and employers that attract and retain local talent.

1. Local Universities (universities with prominent technical or business programs)

1. Alberta University of the Arts

2. Ambrose University

3. Mount Royal University

4. Southern Alberta Institute of Technology

5. University of Calgary

2. Local Employers (Major technical employers, like Microsoft or Google or large local companies, with large local offices) 

1. Absorb LMS

2. Amazon

3. Cisco

4. GE

5. Hewlett Packard Enterprise

6. IBM

7. Microsoft

8. Rogers

9. Siemens

10. TELUS

Learn more about the Startup Ecosystem Canvas here, and leave us your thoughts on the Calgary Canvas on this collaborative Google document (This is just a draft, and more input is needed!)

Are you looking to build a startup in Calgary? Then apply to the Calgary Founder Institute today