reflection

Reflections: Sharing learnings from the Toronto Start-Up scene

In this exercise, it was interesting to go back to browse the government programs that helped my own start-up over 10 years ago. I wanted to see if these organizations that had helped me were still around and how they had evolved since I took part in their programs. I was very curious to see what startups were now being promoted by these organizations and just how much bigger these programs have gotten.

Was Paper.Co part of the "StartUp Pipeline?"

After doing my research, I think that Paper.Co only partially related to the same initial "Canadian Start-Up Pipeline" I experienced when I was in the Toronto start-up scene.

It appears the initial rounds of funding for Paper, back when it was GradeSlam, did include some initial funding by BDC Capital through its Growth Venture Capital Fund. (Simpson, 2022). The oldest references I could find to show the connection between one of my Start-Up Pipeline Members, BDC and the predecessor of Paper.Co are below:

• "GradeSlam and its one-on-one, chat-based tutoring platform has raised $1.6 million in a round led by Pittsburgh and San Francisco-based Birchmere Ventures... BDC Capital, members of Anges Quebec, Real Ventures, angels Brian Karol & Robert Luxenberg as well as Gradeslam’s own CEO Philip Cutler all took part in the round." (Czikk, 2016).