Capital Conversations
Community dialogues to explore funding solutions together
• Kick-off (In-person): July 2025
• Virtual Sessions: Fall 2025
• Supporting Women Founders
• Kick-off (In-person): July 2025 • Virtual Sessions: Fall 2025 • Supporting Women Founders
What are Capital Conversations (CapCons)?
A space for founders, funders, investors, and other ecosystem actors to engage in candid community dialogue about the challenges and solutions for women and gender-diverse founders building strategic funding pathways in BC.
Interactive gatherings to foster meaningful conversations
Founder Stories —both successes and challenges—because we learn from the full journey
Insights and opportunities from ecosystem thought leaders
Active knowledge sharing where everyone contributes resources, insights, and tools
Collaborative, facilitated problem-solving where everyone brainstorms and contributes to solutions
Inclusive space designed for candid dialogues and connection
Who This is For
CapCons Series is part of the Capital Connect Program, which serves BC-based tech and tech-enabled ventures. For this series, we prioritize participation from women and gender-diverse folks, and those who actively and directly support them, to ensure we are centring the experience of these founders.
Registration is by application; we will be in touch to confirm your participation.
Founders & Entrepreneurs
Whether you're just starting to think about funding strategies, actively preparing for investment, or further along and have successfully navigated funding gaps, we want to hear and learn from you!
Ecosystem Builders
Accelerators, incubators, investors, funders, government representatives, academia, and support organizations—anyone working to strengthen the innovation ecosystem. Your expertise and perspectives are essential to building better solutions together.
Upcoming events
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Funding Pathways Roundtable: Insights to Action
Designed specifically for Ecosystem Builders to move from insights to action and collaborate on removing barriers for supporting women founders.
10:00 - 12:00 PM PST (Virtual)
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Beyond Bootstrap: Building Support for Self-Funded Growth
Explore strategic bootstrapping with seasoned founders and ecosystem experts and learn how to balance self-funding with strategic non-dilutive options.
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM PST (Virtual)
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Future of Funding: How AI is Changing the Game
Discover how technological innovation is transforming access to capital and what it means for your funding strategy.
10:00 - 12:00 AM PST (Virtual)
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Community-Centered Capital
How can funding vehicles evolve to prioritize community benefit and long-term sustainability.
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Global Perspectives in Capital Structures
Exploring International and emerging funding models.
Dialogue Learnings
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Dialogue Learnings *
Funding Pathways: Collective Wisdom
July 15
Our kickoff session brought together 35 women founders and thought leaders in downtown Vancouver for a community dialogue that proved the power of centering founders as the experts of their own experience. Through interactive activities, participants shared real funding stories, identified common challenges, and co-created actionable solutions together.
The session demonstrated that when diverse voices come together in a supportive environment, the collective wisdom that emerges goes far beyond what any individual organization could develop alone.
Don’t forget to click on the button and check some insights from this first session.
Why This Matters
Research from WEOC shows that women entrepreneurs typically access only two funding sources—predominantly high-risk options. Meanwhile, our 2024 Ecosystem Analysis revealed that ecosystem fragmentation and lack of specialized expertise are major challenges for organizations supporting entrepreneurs, particularly those focused on women founders.
So here’s the challenge…
A fragmented system where valuable knowledge stays siloed and founders struggle to navigate complex funding landscapes alone
Our approach…
What if we stopped working in silos and started solving this together? CapCons bring together the ecosystem—founders AND those who support them—to share insights, explore creative solutions, and build the pathways we all need
• Get notified
• Join the Conversation
• Get notified • Join the Conversation
Melanie is a strategic advisor and researcher, with deep expertise in entrepreneurship and ecosystem building. As Managing Partner at Volition and Lead Researcher at Women in Tech World, she has spent nearly a decade building inclusive innovation ecosystems across Canada and beyond.
Her work has included mobilizing investment capital for climate tech ventures, designing founder-friendly programming for 20+ partners, and collaborating with government agencies to develop inclusivity action plans. Through her research and hands-on work with founders, Melanie brings unique insights into the challenges and opportunities facing innovators today.
Core Facilitators
Our core facilitators anchor each dialogue while bringing in specialized guests—thought leaders, founders, and ecosystem actors—who share insights tailored to each topic.
Melanie Ewan
Volition
Nicole Troster
Coeurage Labs
Nicole is the go-to expert for women entrepreneurs in service-based businesses who are ready to break through revenue plateaus and scale to $500K and beyond. With 7+ years of experience helping business owners overcome growth challenges, she knows that scaling isn’t just about working harder — it’s about working smarter.
She is a certified business coach and the founder of YSpace ELLA, an award-winning accelerator that has supported over 450 women-led ventures. Her approach blends deep subject matter expertise with systems thinking and stakeholder-centered design.
Big thanks to a Key Partner!
“We're deeply grateful to Nicole from Coeurage Labs for her vision, expertise, and generous collaboration in bringing the Capital Conversations series to life. Her strategic insights and extensive knowledge have been instrumental in co-designing these conversations.
We're honoured to partner with someone who shares our vision for building a stronger, more connected innovation ecosystem.”
Featured Voices
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Isabel Nolan
Startup Canada
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Melanie Rupp
WeBC
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Nicole Troster
Coeurage Labs
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Chelsea Sang
Export Navigator
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Candace Lauren
BEBC
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Alisa Stephenson
Futurpreneur
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Keith Ippel
Spring
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Kristi Fairholm
Thrive Impact Fund
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Julie Bogle
BLG LLP
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Charlene SanJenko
The Fireweed Institutes here
Building Something Together
Building Something Together
Here's what makes this series special—we're not just talking, we're building something valuable for everyone.
Throughout the series, we'll capture insights, resources, best practices, tools, and creative solutions shared by our community. All of this will be compiled into a public Funding Pathways Knowledge Hub—a comprehensive resource library available to founders and ecosystem organizations across BC and beyond.
Our Sponsors
Ecosystem Contributors
Interested in partnering with us?
Support the series through sponsorships
Co-host sessions aligned with expertise
Share specialized resources
Provide speakers or subject matter experts
Cross-promote to extend community reach
Reach out at melanie@VolitionAdvisors.com to discuss any of these opportunities
The Discovery Foundation is a registered charity whose mandate is to promote and facilitate commercial innovation and the development, growth, and sustainability of the science and technology sector in British Columbia. The Foundation, through the Technology Education Program (TEP), provides funds to qualified Agents to deliver high-impact educational programs and training across British Columbia.
In Partnership with
There are no upcoming events at this time.