Growing food entrepreneurship in Canada with Mike McNeil, Venturepark Labs

Join us on this episode of the Food Grads Podcast as we welcome Mike McNeil, Vice President of Operations at Venture Park Labs. Venture Park Labs is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting early stage entrepreneurs in the food and wellness industries. Learn about their accelerator programs, their commitment to enhancing Canada's food landscape, how they aid small startups, and their shift towards creating Canada's only business growth ecosystem.

Mike introduces his journey from politics to entrepreneurship, the unique challenges of scaling a food and beverage start-up in Canada, and the shift towards creating a dynamic food industry ecosystem.

Sponsor: CareersNow!

Timestamps

[0:00] Introduction
[3:32] Mike's career journey
[13:06] Arlene Dickinson in the Canada's food space
[14:59] Entrepreneurship in Canada
[19:33] Entrepreneurship in Canada vs the United States
[23:29] Food business certifications in Canada
[27:41] Programs Venturepark offers
[34:50] How Mike coordinates everything
[42:09] Scaling your business as an entrepreneur
[44:38] Advice for budding entrepreneurs
[48:30] Where you can find Mike
[49:05] Outro

📄SHOW NOTES
https://foodgrads.com/mike-mcneil/

🎙 About the Podcast - FoodGrads
The FoodGrads Podcast takes you on a fascinating journey into the hearts and minds of the amazing people who work in the food, beverage and hospitality industries. From Food Scientists to Farmers, Chefs to the Plant, QA Technicians to Dietitians, R&D to Sales, no matter what your passion–there’s something for everyone in Food–we’ll help you find it!

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