Launchpad for Backing Canadian Small Businesses is a complimentary web-based skills development platform available to all eligible applicants of the Backing Canadian Small Businesses grant and mentorship program—created to support business growth with self-paced learning. The platform includes modules on leadership, strategic planning, operations management, financial modelling, and goal setting through a series of instructional videos, quizzes and interactive surveys designed to help track progress.

By submitting to register for the platform, I confirm that I applied with this email address for Backing Canadian Small Businesses.

Launchpad for Backing Canadian Small Businesses content is created and delivered by DMZ at Toronto Metropolitan University. By submitting to register for Launchpad for Backing Canadian Small Businesses, I acknowledge that American Express assumes no responsibility or liability for any content provided.

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Course Curriculum

  • 1

    Chapter 1: Starting Up

    • Welcome to Backing Canadian Small Businesses

    • Launchpad for Backing Canadian Small Businesses: Pre-Course Survey

    • How to Start a Business

    • Quiz: How to Start a Business

    • Solving a Need vs a Want

    • Quiz: Solving a Need vs a Want

    • Problem Definiton

    • Quiz: Problem Definition
  • 2

    Chapter 2: Frameworks & Goal Setting

    • What is Design Thinking?

    • Quiz: What is Design Thinking?

    • The Canvases

    • The Canvasses: Make your own Lean Canvas !

    • Goal Setting

    • Quiz: Goal Setting

    • Goal Setting and Finding Your North Star
  • 3

    Chapter 3: Legal Basics

    • Business Name Registry

    • Quiz: Business Name Registry

    • Business Agreement Essentials

    • Quiz: Business Agreement Essentials

    • General Data Protection Regulations

    • Quiz: General Data Protection Regulations

  • 4

    Chapter 4: Finance Basics

    • Basics of Finance

    • Quiz: Basics of Finance

    • Debt vs. Equity

    • Quiz: Debt vs. Equity

    • Intro to Cap Tables

    • Quiz: Intro to Cap Tables
  • 5

    Chapter 5: Market Opportunity

    • How to Define TAM

    • Defining TAM: Quiz

    • How to Calculate TAM

    • How to Calculate TAM: Assignment

    • Finding your Beachhead

    • Quiz: Finding your beachhead
  • 6

    Chapter 6: Raising Capital

    • Bootstrapping

    • Quiz: Bootstrapping

    • Fundraising

    • Quiz: Fundraising

    • Grants and Where to Find Them

    • Grants and where to find them: Assignment

    • Crowdfunding

    • Quiz: Crowdfunding
  • 7

    Chapter 7: Being a Founder

    • Leading Through Uncertain Times

    • Leading through uncertain times: Survey

    • How to manage Remote Teams

    • Quiz: How to Manage Remote Teams

    • Building Foundational Mindsets and Behaviours

    • Building foundational mindsets and behaviours: Survey
  • 8

    Chapter 8: Talent

    • Hiring First Team Members

    • Quiz: Hiring First Team Members

    • Human Capital in a Business

    • Quiz: Human Capital in a business
  • 9

    Chapter 9: Product

    • Intro to Product

    • Intro to Product: Quiz

    • Building your MVP

    • Quiz: Building your MVP

    • Customer Journey Mapping

    • Quiz: Customer Journey Mapping

  • 10

    Chapter 10: Sales and Customer Discovery

    • Inbound & Outbound Sales

    • Quiz: Inbound and Outbound Sales

    • Sales vs Marketing

    • Quiz: Sales vs Marketing

    • Intro to Sales: The Sales Funnel

    • Quiz: The Sales Funnel

    • Landing your First B2B Sales

    • Quiz: Landing your first B2B sales

    • Pivoting

    • Quiz: Which of the following is NOT a good reason to pivot?
  • 11

    Chapter 11: Social Media, Marketing & Branding

    • Marketing Fundamentals

    • Quiz: Marketing Fundamentals

    • Marketing Fundamentals: Survey

    • Go-to-Market Strategy

    • Quiz: Go-to-market strategy

    • Personal Branding

    • Quiz: Personal Branding

  • 12

    Chapter 12: Pitching

    • What is a Pitch

    • Quiz: What is a Pitch

    • Survey: Practice your pitch survey

    • How to craft your pitch

    • How to craft your pitch deck survey

    • FINAL QUIZ

  • 13

    LP 2.1 Starting Up

    • Welcome to Launchpad 2.0

    • Pre-Course Survey
  • 14

    LP 2.2: People Management

    • Professionalism: How to act like a CEO

  • 15

    LP 2.3: Sales 101

    • Sales Funnel

    • Quiz: Sales Funnel

    • Lead Generation

    • Quiz: Lead Generation

    • Email Automation for Sales

    • Quiz: Email Automation for Sales

  • 16

    LP 2.4: Marketing

    • Marketing Mix

    • Quiz: Marketing Mix

    • Marketing Analytics & Tracking Performance

    • Quiz: Marketing Analytics & Tracking Performance

    • Pricing Strategies

    • Quiz: Pricing Strategies
  • 17

    LP 2.5: Goals and Metrics

    • Metrics

    • Quiz: Metrics

    • KPIs

    • Quiz: KPIs

    • Business Dashboards

    • Quiz: Business Dashboards

  • 18

    LP 2.6: Fundraising

    • Finding the Right Investors

    • Quiz: Finding the Right Investors

    • Fundraising: the Journey and Closing

    • Quiz: Fundraising Journey

  • 19

    LP 2.7: Congratulations & Wrap Up

    • Post-Course Survey

    • Wrap Up Video

Access to Launchpad for Backing Canadian Small Businesses

Email addresses that register for Launchpad for Backing Canadian Small Businesses will be cross-referenced with the applicant list. Any emails that do not match the existing application list will receive a follow-up to confirm application details, if applicable. 

If an individual registering for Launchpad for Backing Canadian Small Businesses has not previously applied to the program, unfortunately, access to the platform will be removed.