Why we are starting Innovate Chestermere

Building our own businesses is how we noticed the gap. We keep meeting neighbours who are starting something, such as a home bakery, a trades business or an app on the side, who do not know where to turn locally.

A fast-growing, young community

Chestermere has grown from 22,163 residents in the 2021 federal census (Statistics Canada) to 32,255 in the City's 2025 municipal census, and it has a young population. Many of the people starting something here are newcomers to Canada, run home-based or service businesses, or are building something alongside a full-time job.

However, there is no local place for new founders to meet, learn from each other, and find the right support early.

The gap we see

One-on-one business support already exists through local and provincial organizations. What appears to be missing is a community layer: regular events, peer connection, and someone who points founders to the right support at the right time.

We do not intend to duplicate existing services. Our role is to find Chestermere founders early and connect more of them to the organizations that can help.

Listening before we build

We have not yet done the most important part of this work, which is talking to founders. We are therefore interviewing ten Chestermere founders and running a short community survey before we design any program. If our interviews show that we are wrong about the gap, we will say so.

What comes next

• January 2027: the first monthly Founders Night in Chestermere.
• Spring 2027: a registered society with a local board, and a small pilot cohort of eight to twelve founders.
• Throughout: a simple quarterly report on who we reached and where we referred them.

If you are building something in Chestermere, or you would like to help others who are, we would be glad to hear from you. Join the list for the first Founders Night.