Are you an emerging innovator with a product or service that you believe can transform the construction industry?
Why be a mentee?
CONtact helps entrepreneurs and innovators launch, modify or expand their products or services for industry adoption. After an individual successfully becomes a CONtact mentee, they will be connected with an appropriate mentor or mentors, enabling them to expand their network and connect with leading industry professionals with the goal of helping refine their product or service offering.
Becoming a CONtact mentee and taking advantage of the mentor program is a great way for aspiring entrepreneurs to showcase their products and ideas.
Benefits
- Learn from experienced mentors to fine tune their product offering
- Build new relationships and network with industry professionals
- Receive practical feedback from construction leaders
- Acquire knowledge, skills, tactics and competencies
As travel is required, CONtact will cover the eligible travel costs for a single face-to-face meeting with the mentor at the CCA annual conference.
Apply to be a CONtact mentee!
What do our past mentees have to say about their experience?
“The mentorship opportunity was very valuable for us. Our company’s expertise was primarily in the aerospace and defence industries and therefore having the opportunity to talk with industry experts in the construction and infrastructure sectors was incredibly valuable.”
Shaun Kennedy, President & CEO, Mach 85
“This program is excellent. The materials were thought provoking and detailed. The quality of the mentor was exceptional. The mentor was able to give us objective and industry specific advice that has been invaluable to our business.”
Faren Bogach, Founder, Pay Prompt Inc.
Mark Masry, Founder, Persistent Ventures Inc.
“The mentorship session was great. The mentors were very knowledgeable and friendly and provided both insights into the AEC industry that would be hard to get elsewhere, and direct feedback on the product. It was a huge help, particularly at this early stage in the product’s development. Highly recommended.”
The mentorship program from CCA was extremely helpful. Building a start-up company is all about finding the right product/market fit. We had a lot of hypotheses before attending the program, and the conversation and mentorship with the industry experts and professionals helped us gain more insights into their pain points, and reshape our solutions.
Bowen Xie, CEO, Robolution Technologies Inc.
Requirements
- You are an entrepreneur or innovator with an innovative solution for the Canadian construction industry and based in Canada
- You are an incorporated, profit-oriented, small or medium-sized business in Canada
- You have 500 or fewer full-time equivalent employees
- You plan to pursue growth and profit by developing and commercializing innovative, technology-driven, new or improved products, services or processes in Canada
- If it is a technology-based product or service, the innovation must be at level three or above of the technological readiness scale at the time of the application
- All selected mentees must be clients of the National Research Council – Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP), or will be required to do so in order to qualify for the mentorship program.
Three selected mentees will have the opportunity to present their solutions to the industry at the CCA Annual Conference, with one face-to-face mentorship meeting at the conference and the chance to network with senior industry executives.
Note: CCA or mentors are not responsible for commercialization of the mentee’s product or service.
Mentees will be chosen after careful consideration based on the criteria established by the CONtact advisory council.