9 Mar 2026
Discover
It's never too early to explore your entrepreneurial potential. Whether you want to know what entrepreneurship is all about, playing with a business idea, or getting together with friends to launch a startup at university - we have the tools, programs and resources for your journey.
Discover Entrepreneurship
Learn Online
The Founder's Journey
Take our free online course with Ivey Faculty and Western Entrepreneurs that spotlights the process of building a business.
Discover Together
The Entrepreneur Experience
Attend The Entrepreneur Experience with other curious students and learn how to discover problems worth solving and craft customer profiles.
Be Inspired
Desjardins Entrepreneurship Speaker Series
Discover the entrepreneurial journey of Western alums through speaker events like Desjardins Entrepreneurship Speaker Series.
Build Your Venture
Build your idea
Startup Challenge
Develop your idea through 5 weeks of workshops and 1-on-1 mentoring and pitch it on stage for funding.
Pitch Your Idea
miniPITCH
Every month, students can pitch for a chance to win $150 in funding to test their ideas.
Work for You
Entrepreneurial Summer Internship
Spend the summer working on your own business through the ESI Program, which provides $10,000 in funding, workshops, mentorship and more.
Take It To The Next Level
Compete with the best
Business Plan Competition
Join student teams from across North America and beyond and pitch for $20,000 in funding at Canada's premier business plan competition.
Prepare to Launch
Western Accelerator
Receive $12,000 in funding, weekly programming, 1-on-1 mentorship with entrepreneurs, workspace and a community of like-minded founders.
Raise a Million
Western Angels' Demo Day
Meet and partner with investors from the Western Alumni Network to accelerate your start-up or scale-up to the next level.
Our Student Stories
No one was making bras for tweens when Jessica Miao was entering this important phase of life. Ten years on, nothing has changed. So Miao, together with Chloe Beaudoin decided to pick-up the slack, creating a bra brand for tweens through the Ivey New Venture Project. Read More.
After meeting in business class, Sydney Burns and Julia Piskunowicz began working together to “revolutionize equine care” through a smart tech horse blanket that tracks vital metrics, including temperature, heart rate, and gut sounds. Read More.
Aakarsh Garg had no plans to launch a startup when he came to Western. The computer science student from Kolkata, India, had already built an award-winning plant-monitoring device in high school, but founding a company felt like a distant dream. Read More.
Student, national boxing champ, and entrepreneur. These are the titles Shane McCarthy was balancing during his time at Western. After working on his business idea through the Startup Challenge, McCarthy would go onto win numerous competitions and launch through the Entrepreneurial Summer Internship. Read More.
During a trip to Asia, Joshua Gao was smitten by how technology and food combined to great effect. With the pandemic, he saw an opportunity to bring that evolution the Canadian resturant industry and started a company in his final year of University. Read More.
Starting HBA 1, Armon Shokravi came up with a plug-in to help Shopify merchants take advantage of Upsell opportunities during the Ivey Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, which has gone onto earn over $5 million for Shopify owners around the world. Read More.
