A UNIQUE APPROACH TO BUSINESS START-UPS
Do you have a vision? A dream? At CEC Start-Ups, we have the knowledge, the talent and demonstrated success to support your path to a stable, growing company. Whether it's defining your business goals or preparing to fund your start-up, we are here to help.
Let our experts help you to validate your start-up idea. Let’s work together to build towards attainable goals and achieve the success you deserve.
What Makes Us Different?
We choose to work with entrepreneurs who have the drive and the potential to achieve
their goals. We then assist those entrepreneurs to validate their ideas and lay the groundwork for success.
Once your idea has been validated, we help you select the services and guidance you need to move forward, powerfully. We then connect you with our own network of professionals. Since each concept is unique, our approach is tailored to your business’s specific needs.
1. The “Fail-Fast” Approach: Is your business idea valid?
2. Business are chosen based on your ability to succeed
3. Targeted Mentorship: Forget endless workshops & tutorials
Resources at Your Fingertips
Welcome to the BEST office space in Vancouver. CEC Start-Ups is located in the penthouse of the famous Birks Building in downtown Vancouver, BC. This is where we’ll meet to discuss your ideas. This central location is easily reached by transit, proximal to key government resources, financial institutions, and a multitude of other business services.
We also offer local and international manufacturing capabilities, a 7000sq ft laboratory, mechanical design/engineering capacities, a deep well of mining/resource extraction knowledge, pan-Canadian and international networks, and a long legacy of supporting successful entrepreneurship in Canada.
OUR PROCESS
At CEC Start-Ups, we do things differently. We offer a customized approach to the development of your start-up.
Understanding you, your skill set, and the current status of your business is our first step. During this free coaching meeting, you will be provided with a list of action items to complete in an iterative process that will help determine your business’ potential for incubation.
Our initial focus will be on determining why your business idea is bound to fail. Being able to find a business idea’s points of critical failure early on, prevents the needless waste of time, money and effort. With this focus on points of failure we ensure that we main a very high success rate for the ideas we choose to incubate.
Once your idea has been thoroughly vetted, we will then be partnering you with the right resources at the right time.
Our Services
The Human Touch
- Mentorship/Leadership/Coaching
- Management Training
- Networking & Strategic Connections
- Cross-Cultural Training
- Sales Training
Money Matters
- Investments
- Business Valuation
- Capital Mentorship
- Financial Modeling & Pricing
Forecasting & Cost Analysis - Banking & Finance
- Accounting & Taxation
- International Sales
Nuts & Bolts
- Office Space
- Industrial Design &
Engineering - Prototyping
- Supply Chain & Logistics
- Operations
- Manufacturing & Testing
laboratory
Markets & Marketing
- Competitor & Market Analysis
- Vendor Research
- Marketing Strategies
- Branding
Legal
- Intellectual Property
- Patents & Trademarks &
Copyrights - Non-Disclosure Agreements
- Employment Standards
- Health & Safety &
Environment - Labour Market
OUR CREDENTIALS
CEO – Mark Mensing
Canada Export Centre has been supporting the creation of successful companies since 2012. They have incubated ventures focused on retail, tech, agriculture, manufacturing, and the resource (mining and forestry) sectors. Revenues from these incubated companies currently exceed CAD $150M annually and rapidly increasing.
Since founding Canada Export Centre in 2005, Mark’s team have been providing international business support, tools, path finding and market development services for companies from Canada, USA, Australia, Germany, Brazil, China, Japan, Korea, Turkey, Ghana, South Africa, among others. The Canada Export Centre has processed hundreds of market assessments and facilitated hundreds of millions of dollars in new business. They continue to advise companies from around the globe.
CEC-Start-Ups offers real-world perspectives and Mark is on the front lines. He will assess your venture honestly, bringing his wealth of knowledge and experience in the service of your potential business venture.
Senior Advisor – Ken Takeuchi
Ken graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor of Arts Commerce and has spent much of his life in the business world as first a business owner in the seafood industry, followed by over three decades of entrepreneurship training at the post-secondary level at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.
Ken’s journey began as he started a small, highly specialized, and targeted seafood business which helped feed the demand for sushi, Ken grew his venture into a substantial seafood importation, distribution, and wholesaling enterprise, gaining a tremendous amount of practical entrepreneurial experience.
After selling his share of the seafood business, Ken went on to create and incubate several small businesses which ultimately led to being offered a position at the British Colombia Institute for Technology in its new Venture Program, as it was then called.
Since 1989, Ken has been working with program participants, supporting the incubation of their ventures, giving him very pragmatic experience with every imaginable type of business and every type of business problem.
Ken has continued in leadership roles with various entrepreneurship programs, including the taking on the role of Managing Director of CEC Start-ups after his retirement from the BCIT School of Business in 2020.
Ready to Get Started?
Please complete our Contact Form. A member of our team will connect you with Mark Mensing, CEO or Ken Takeuchi, our Managing Director for an in-depth discussion about your idea.
Get StartedSubmit your inquiry here
Electrifying Your Ideas & Finding Solutions
Have you identified a challenge within your existing business and know how to solve it but need support? Or, have you been successful in a single market and are now looking to launch your business in Canada? Have you developed a minimum viable product? Do you have less than 1M in revenues?
Although our primary areas of expertise are manufacturing, resources, mining, and the environmental sector, core business foundations and practices can be successfully applied to almost any sector. Let us show you how.
PHONE
+1 604 685 7823
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