Alberta, Canada – Alberta Women Entrepreneurs’ (AWE) Grow to Greatness™ Exceleratorprogram has been announced as the Prairie Region Winner of the Incubator/Accelerator of the Year Award in the 2014 Startup Canada Awards.
“We are very proud to have our Excelerator program acknowledged by Startup Canada. With the Excelerator we’re doing something that is quite unique in the market,” says Tracey Scarlett, AWE’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are seeing tremendous value in investing not only in business start-ups, but also in our existing entrepreneurs looking to grow…At AWE, we’ve really moved from doing simple transactional services, such as a loan or a workshop, to creating a community of support for women entrepreneurs. Women business owners find a lot of support for starting a business, but not a lot of support exists for those who are trying to figure out how to become better — better operationally, better at managing their people, and better at entering new markets.”
The AWE Grow to Greatness™ Excelerator is a one-year program that includes intensive leadership development, business skills development and coaching in a facilitated peer group setting to address these needs. Grow to Greatness™ participants are female entrepreneurs that have clearly articulated that they require a different level of support and capacity building than is provided through traditional entrepreneurship incubation and start-up programs. Through these efforts participants have observed average year over year revenue growth of 20% and an average of 2 new jobs created by each business in the first year after participation in the program.
The Startup Canada Awards recognize those that create the environment for Canadian startups to thrive – the mentors, incubators, institutions, companies and investors. The awards celebrate and distinguish the individuals, communities and institutions in Canada that have demonstrated innovation, excellence, outstanding achievement and impact in advancing Canadian entrepreneurship. In its inaugural year, there were more than 260 applications and nominations from across Canada.
AWE invites you to join the celebration of their success and to help continue the conversation about how to improve the ecosystem for Canada’s startups by attending the Startup Canada Prairies Awards Reception and Fire Side Chat in Calgary on May 15, 2014 from 4.30pm – 7.30pm. To find out more information about the reception, please visit their Eventbrite page.
To find out more information about the Startup Canada Awards, please visit startupaward.ca.
To find out more information about AWE and their programs, please visit awebusiness.com.
See original article at Alberta Women Entrepreneurs.
