Toronto Women’s Entrepreneurship Forum: Space for Radical Generosity

The Toronto Women’s Entrepreneurship Forum 2017 took a disruptive approach to the entrepreneurial conference model. Instead of talking heads doling out advice, #TWEF17 was about women entrepreneurs entering into a conversation.

SheEO founder Vicki Saunders has a direct explanation for #TWEF17’s invigorating approach. “Why repeat old approaches in a completely disrupted world? It’s time for new approaches, from large-scale economic ones to even in the way we run conferences. We’re creating an open, generous environment, one that isn’t telling entrepreneurs what they need to do: it’s building a conversation.”

Who Is Vicki Saunders?

Saunders founded SheEO in Toronto in 2015 as an alternative way of getting money to ventures led by women. Instead of a traditional venture capital fund, the model pooled contributions from a community of supporters, called “Activators,” and used the pool to back ventures the community chose. The money was lent at zero interest, then repaid so it could be lent again to the next group of founders.

That idea of a community acting together, instead of a few experts deciding from the top, is the same thinking behind the forum’s format. Saunders also set out the approach in a 2017 book, Think Like a SheEO: Succeeding in the Age of Creators, Makers and Entrepreneurs.

The #RadicalGenerosity Session

Part of that conversation was the remarkable mid-conference #RadicalGenerosity session, where women entrepreneurs approached the mic to explain what their enterprise needed: And hands all over the room shot up to offer the exact help that each speaker was asking for.

“At most conferences, you’ve got the experts onstage, and then someone in the audience asks a question or makes a point that resonates perfectly with you—then you never get a chance to speak to that person,” says Saunders. “Our #RadicalGenerosity session addresses that. We find that female entrepreneurs often keep their businesses smaller because they don’t ask for help, they don’t put themselves out there.” The session (and SheEO’s upcoming app) creates a safe space for contact between women who can help each other.

The format is simple, and that’s its strength. Asking a room of strangers for help is hard, and most events never give people a reason to do it. Making the ask the main event, with the whole room primed to say yes, turns a networking reception into something that can actually move a business forward in a few minutes.

Why Toronto

The standing-room only success of the event points to another exciting aspect of Toronto Women’s Entrepreneurship Forum 2017: the city itself. “Toronto right now is so exciting for entrepreneurs,” says Saunders. “It’s a city that gives you permission to get out there and go for it. And for women entrepreneurs, who start businesses at twice the pace of men, we’re saying that there’s no need to replicate what guys are doing: what women are doing is working.”

What Happened Next

The year after the forum, women’s entrepreneurship became a federal priority. Ottawa launched the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy in Budget 2018, describing it as nearly $2 billion of investments and commitments brought together under one federal framework. Part of it funded not-for-profit organizations that run incubators, accelerators, networking and mentorship for women founders, which is the kind of support the #RadicalGenerosity session was trying to create from the floor of a conference.

SheEO kept growing, and kept changing. Between 2020 and 2022, the organization says it confronted internal issues of racial equity, and its gendered name gave way to a new one: Coralus. According to Coralus, its community has since moved more than $21 million CAD in zero-interest loans to hundreds of ventures, with no collateral, no ownership given up, and a 90% repayment rate. It says it has chosen more than 260 ventures to back, and that 45% of the founders it funded have historically been excluded from traditional systems of capital.

Saunders’ profile grew along with it. Coralus notes that Saunders was named Business Leader of the Year by the Toronto Region Board of Trade and a UBS Global Visionary.

What It Means for Founders

The lesson from #TWEF17 is one Saunders put simply: many entrepreneurs keep their businesses smaller than they need to because they don’t ask for help. That’s worth taking seriously whatever kind of company you run.

Be specific about what you need, whether it’s an introduction, a supplier, a first customer or advice on a hiring decision. A clear ask gives people something they can say yes to. And when you’re on the other side of the room, the cheapest way to help another founder is often just to raise your hand.