Since its inception, Queen鈥檚 Partnerships and Innovation鈥檚 Wings program has helped a diverse, eclectic range of entrepreneurs and innovators successfully launch their businesses. Run by a team experienced in helping startups take flight and drawing on experts in a range of fields, the program has taught participants how to recognize their strengths, focus on what it is they are really selling, and identifying their customers. The program welcomed its final cohort of fledgling startups this January 2023. These are their stories.
Nancy Dionne faced a challenge with launching her new company, Insite Project Consulting Inc. A professional engineer with 25 years鈥 experience working as a project manager for real-estate investors and government agencies, she was at home with the world of data and things. Working as the lead consultant on a new housing project or infrastructure upgrades, her work might involve engineering designs, certifying construction, or dealing with authorities over permits they needed. Demanding and not straightforward.
As a trained civil engineer and project manager, she was comfortable dealing with the physical world. But for her, the ins and outs of business seemed to rely more on the intangible, and she admits, 鈥淐reating a new business wasn鈥檛 something I knew about.鈥 She didn鈥檛 want to waste time and energy that should actually go into the business just trying to get it off the ground. As she put it later, with a bit of a laugh, she needed someone 鈥淭o direct me to where I needed to go, to get to where I wanted to be.鈥 Through her connection to the WE-CAN Project led by Queen鈥檚 Partnerships and Innovation (QPI), the local program that offers various programs and services to help women entrepreneurs, she was able to connect with QPI鈥檚 Wings Acceleration program.
She found the help she needed: first in the weekly sessions which she found 鈥渁pplicable and useful,鈥 and which were enlivened by the contributions of her fellow participants, who were, she says, 鈥渞eally intelligent and had great ideas鈥, and then, outside of those sessions, working one on one with mentor Elza Seregelyi.
鈥淪he was phenomenal,鈥 says Dionne. 鈥淪he was really able to lead me down the right path.鈥
Wings brought about two key discoveries.
鈥淭he strengths I thought were really important to my clients, tended not to be. Because of my vast knowledge and great attention to detail, my most appreciated strength is really to help clients with planning and execution to keep the project on track,鈥 but not so much with the day-to-day grind of getting the job done.
In addition, she discovered that her clients foremost appreciate her 鈥渕ore hands-on, transparent approach to client relations.鈥
Too often, consultants don鈥檛 seek to understand the clients鈥 objectives and keep them informed, which leaves them vulnerable to surprises on their project delivery times and costs. She now takes a refreshing approach when responding to requests for project proposals, making sure that she tailors hers to address the individual needs of the client and how they can benefit from her company鈥檚 services.
For Dionne, the benefits of the program were almost immediate. 鈥淎s soon as I started the program, I began implementing what I learned,鈥 she says. And the day after the program ended, she was rewarded with an exciting new job. As project manager of Homes for Heroes Foundation, she is overseeing a tiny homes development for veterans being built in Kingston near Lake Ontario Park. All made possible in no small part by the lessons she had learned through Wings.
In the near future, she also hopes to continue growing her company with an agile group of like-minded people, while maintaining strong relationships with her clients, taking advantage of her years of experience and the lessons Wings gave her.
Queen鈥檚 Partnerships and Innovation (QPI) offered the Wings Accelerator program, along with many other programs and services, with support from the , through the , an initiative led by in Eastern Ontario and in which QPI is a regional partner.