Founder Spotlight

We share our members’ achievements; the challenges they overcame, and the advice they want female entrepreneurs everywhere to know.

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Meet Maudeleine Myrthil, Director of Entrepreneurship for Groupe 3737, a Montreal-based national incubator and accelerator focused on supporting diverse entrepreneurs launch and grow their businesses through personalized coaching and a wide array of programming.

Its name comes from the address of its offices, which once served as a factory where immigrants, including the mother of one of Groupe 3737’s founders would arrive each morning looking for work. 

Q. Tell us about Groupe 3737.

The idea was born in Saint-Michel in Montreal, which is one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Canada. It was launched by our co-founders Frantz Saintellemy and Vickie Joseph, two entrepreneurs who were raised in Saint-Michel and had an opportunity to buy offices there and saw it as a way to support the community. We wanted to give entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds a place to turn to that could help them to grow their business and have a social impact, first in their own community, but also to be able to shine internationally. 

We knew that we needed to have something dedicated to entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds, because they are facing challenges that other entrepreneurs are not facing. We began in 2012 but it wasn’t until 2016 that we began to build the structure of our organization in earnest. I’m proud to say since then we have expanded nationally, with offices in Edmonton, Moncton, Halifax, Calgary, Winnipeg, Gatineau, Québec city, Sherbrooke and Toronto, and we’re looking forward to celebrating our 10-year anniversary this fall. 

Q. How did you grow and scale Groupe 3737 over the past decade?

It was tough. When we launched, we were limited to private funds. It was very hard to find investors. Ten years ago diversity wasn’t valued the same way it is today. It wasn’t sexy; it wasn’t interesting, so we were really preaching in the desert, so we needed to build credibility and have success stories. Our programming and coaching has been very successful and we were able to prove to the government and other organizations that with personalized coaching provided by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, you’ll see tangible differences. 

Another strategy we’ve used, which other incubators don’t really do, is go on trade missions. We help entrepreneurs to see that the world is their market and that it’s possible to do business, for instance, in Dhaka, where we did our most recent trade mission. Within the last few years, we’ve accompanied 1,000 entrepreneurs and those entrepreneurs have created 700 jobs, and among their businesses were able to raise millions in revenue. If we could accomplish that with minimal funds, imagine what we could do with more support. That’s how we began to extend our program and presence throughout Canada. In the past few years we’ve started to receive the support of the government who realized that helping us can help them reach more entrepreneurs.

Q. What kind of entrepreneurs should get in touch with Groupe 3737?

Anybody who has an idea. We have nine programs in total because we don’t want to leave anyone behind. One of the differences between us and other incubators is we don’t serve a specific niche. So depending on the area of expertise for your business, we will find a coach and we will find a program that can help you.

If you’ve just started and have an idea but don’t know exactly where you’re going, we have the Business Launch program. If you already started your business, have your business plan, have your financial statement, and want to grow your business, we have the Elevation program. Women entrepreneurs often face challenges that men in the space don’t face, so we have the Fempreneure. If you’re a new immigrant in Canada or you are elsewhere in the world and you're thinking about moving to Canada with a project to build a company, we have the program Migranpreneur. If you're in university, college or high school, and you want to learn more about entrepreneurship, we have the Youth program. Wherever you are in the entrepreneur journey, we have a program for you. 

Q. As a diversity-focused incubator, what advice would you give entrepreneurs when it comes to diversity and inclusion strategies for their own ventures?

I think these days it’s more interesting to talk about inclusion rather than just diversity, because it's really the inclusion aspect that we need to focus on. It has to be part of your mission. Too often with businesses, you see that the employees and the board don’t reflect the clients or the customers they’re serving and that’s a problem. So inclusion needs to be part of the plan from the very beginning. That doesn’t mean being everything to everyone — it means having sensitivity and creating opportunities. It’s not a checklist — it has to be authentic. If customers don’t feel that authenticity in what you’re doing, then it won’t work. 

So be true to yourself and be true to your values, but for instance, when the time comes to create marketing strategies, ensure you’re inclusive. Sometimes in business doing the work to ensure you’re inclusive can get lost along the way, but if you make it part of your strategy from the very beginning of your journey, it’s more likely to remain part of the plan as you grow.

Q. What piece of advice would you give to entrepreneurs in our network?

Just do it. Just jump into it and have confidence that it will work. Believe in your idea and do the work — make your business plan, do the market study, do what you're supposed to do, but also trust yourself. And you can dream big — these days it’s possible to have a company where you will have clients all over the world. It doesn't have to be small. Reach out to organizations and funding sources in the ecosystem that can help, and ultimately just trust yourself and trust the process. 

I also think it’s important to see yourself as an entrepreneur. I think we need to change the prototype of an entrepreneur — it’s usually imagined as a man in his 30s doing something tech or AI-related. But anyone, any of us can be entrepreneurs, in any field of business. 

Thank you, Maudeleine!

If you’d like to be considered for our CWN Founder Spotlight, please reach out to Armita Maroufi, Partnership Manager at CWN, and share more about your company.