Articles
Advice from experts
Explore our Articles section for expert insights, tips, and strategies to help your startup thrive.
Founders Building What Matters: AC:Studio’s Second Cohort Takes the Stage
On February 19, 2026, founders, partners, and mentors gathered at the University of Waterloo’s Fed Hall for the AC:Studio Showcase. Sponsored by RSM, Smart & Biggar, and OVHCloud, the showcase…
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Building Thought Leadership
Marketing and Communications, Mentor Ellyn Winters-Robinson, explains how startup founders can build a thought leadership strategy by choosing the right platform, optimizing their profiles, and strengthening their professional presence online.
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Building a Customer Advisory Board: Turning Feedback into Fuel
When you’re building a startup, it’s easy to fall into the trap of making decisions in a vacuum — creating products and features based on what you think customers want.…
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Going Global: Top 3 Tips for Attracting Foreign Investment
Explore expert insights from Finance Mentor, Kevin Elop, on how early-stage tech startups can attract foreign investment, including his top tips on readiness, time commitment, and targeting the right investors.
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Brock study explores AI support for breast cancer patients
After her own breast-cancer journey, AskEllyn founder and AC mentor Ellyn Winters-Robinson is helping lead a national study on how AI can support others through theirs.
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Bootstrapping vs. Outside Investment: how startups really grow
Choosing between bootstrapping and raising funding can feel daunting, but it’s also a powerful opportunity to define how your business will grow. Bootstrapping can help you stay lean, focused, and…
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Reimagining entrepreneurship through equity and inclusion
Every founder faces barriers, but women and gender-diverse founders have even more barriers to break through. On August 20th, eight founders shared their experiences breaking through those barriers at the…
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When is the Right Time to Invest in a CRM? 3 Signs It’s Time to Make the Switch
Implementing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a pivotal milestone for a founder as they take their company from startup to scale up. While adopting a new platform can…
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Is your startup investment ready? Here’s what investors want to see
Fundraising is a pivotal milestone for any startup — and while it can be challenging, it’s also an exciting opportunity to accelerate your business growth. It’s your chance to expand…
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Building Better Founders: AC:Studio’s First Cohort Delivers Big Results
With $10 million in support from FedDev Ontario, AC:Studio welcomed 100 companies into its inaugural cohort. Over time, that number narrowed to 50, then 25. These were high-potential companies with…
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From Ideas to Impact: Stories from the Global Impact Creator Program
The Global Impact Creator Showcase highlighted groundbreaking innovations and the passionate changemakers driving meaningful, sustainable change. Tabatha Laverty, VP of Marketing and External Relations at the Accelerator Centre, said the…
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AC:Studio Innovation Showcase
On March 26, 2025, over 200 people joined us for the 2025 AC:Studio Innovation Showcase at the Ken Seiling Waterloo Region Museum. It was an afternoon of insights and lessons…
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