Changemakers

Emerging leaders reinventing how Canada does business

Yinka Adesesan. Black Innovation Programs Manager at Toronto Metropolitan University’s DMZ

At home in Nigeria, Yinka Adesesan watched too many talented entrepreneurs launch businesses that started strong and fizzled out—his own included. Granted, a customized T-shirt store (run out of the back of his mother’s car, no less) probably wasn’t a million-dollar idea, but its teenage founder had the kind of ambition and innovative gusto that would serve him well no matter what he did. These days, Adesesan is putting it to work at TMU’s business incubator, DMZ.

After immigrating to Canada with his family in 2022 (via Barcelona, where he earned a master’s in design management), Adesesan landed at DMZ, where he was promptly promoted. His tall task: “Identify and bridge the gaps in opportunity, funding and support that disadvantage Black founders.” Statistics Canada reports that a mere 2.1% of the country’s business owners are Black (more than two-thirds of them men); at DMZ, 24% of its 850 portfolio companies are Black-led.

Adesesan is watching that number climb thanks to his many and multifaceted efforts. Among them, over $2.5 million distributed in grants and services that directly support 1,000-plus Black entrepreneurs across Canada. Programs include the Black Innovation Launchpad, which teaches entrepreneurial skills to aspiring business owners, and Dream Hub virtual workshops, which allow founders to network and collaborate. The $5,000 Black Youth Entrepreneurship Award, meanwhile, goes to a particularly impressive up-and-coming founder.

Adesesan’s biggest endeavour thus far, just two months into his new gig, was leading the annual Black Innovation Summit, where 10 Black-led startups pitched a panel of judges for their portion of $55,000 in funding. The winner, if you’re curious, was Montreal-based Cleanster, which connects property owners with top-rated cleaners. At its helm was (young, Black, female) Gloria Oppong; her perfect pitch won both the top prize of $30,000 and the $5,000 People’s Choice Award.

Summit guests, meanwhile, enjoyed a day-long networking event and roundtable discussions to share their successes and failures and mingle with like-minded entrepreneurs. “Yinka’s commitment to connecting as many Black entrepreneurs as possible to our programs and collaborating with other players who are also dedicated to a more equitable ecosystem has transformed DMZ into a true catalyst for change,” says DMZ executive director Abdullah Snobar. “He’s driving widespread impact across Canada by helping more Black-led start-ups thrive through partnerships and collaboration.”

Crucially, Adesesan’s “founders first” philosophy nurtures the business owner more than the actual business—90% of startups fail, and many entrepreneurs fail many, many times before they finally succeed. “Failure is still a success if it makes you smarter,” he says. The key is to find another idea and try again—but capital helps, and that’s DMZ’s mission. As Adesesan puts it: “Just being able not to worry about money helps you do better business.”

Tatiana Estevez, Founder and CEO of Permalution

When Tatiana Estevez and her Quebec-based team talk about the cloud, they mean literal clouds. Some two billion people currently lack safe drinking water, and according to the UN, two-thirds of countries won’t have enough water to cover their needs by 2030. “We’re addressing the problem of water scarcity by, as I like to say, milking the clouds,” says Estevez. A three-unit collection system (a predictive “atlas” to choose the best spots, a radar sensor to analyze the water content and quality, and durable fog collectors) essentially harvests fog, converting it to between 150 and 2,000 litres of water per unit, per day, from remote corners of the planet.

A straightforward process that’s comparable to windmills for water, Estevez’s fog collectors are currently being put to the test in Abu Dhabi and scaling up to industrial-size models that are affordable, efficient and safe. “Water that comes straight from the source is very high-quality, comparable to distilled water,” says Estevez,
who was recently named by the World Bank as a CEO Water Champion.

Dr. Kelle Hurd, Vice-chair for Indigenous Health, Department of Medicine, University of Calgary

As one of few Indigenous physicians at U of C, Dr. Kelle Hurd—Métis on her paternal side and with a grandmother of Luiseño heritage—is championing safe medical spaces from the inside out. Of her many positions and endeavours
in urban and rural practices across Alberta, Hurd oversees educational delivery to faculty, residents and new
students. “We’re creating culturally safe spaces where Indigenous patients can access meaningful care that resonates with them,” she says. Staff under Hurd’s watch are taught trauma-informed care that incorporates Indigenous ways of healing as an adjunct to Western medicine. One small but also huge example: Accommodation of smudging—a ceremonial burning of plants to cleanse negative energy—when patients are admitted to hospital.

Harrison Amit, Founder of Hovr

When Harrison Amit arrived in Toronto in 2018, he was awed by ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft. “We didn’t have those in Nova Scotia, and they were such an easy way to get around,” says the 29-year-old. Once he got talking to drivers, though, he heard a different story: “They described an incredibly exploitative model, like a mobile sweatshop.” Drivers make far less than minimum wage, can’t predict their income and have no recourse against AI technology that automatically pairs customers willing to pay the most with drivers willing to accept the least.

Unable to resist the entrepreneurial urge to solve a problem, Amit created and launched RideHovr, a.k.a. Hovr, last May, with the tagline “100% Fare is 100% Fair.” Drivers get a fixed base rate, plus additional pay for more time and distance, while Hovr gets a mere dollar per trip—from the rider. How much more does an ethical ride-share cost? “Most trips are actually less expensive than Uber,” says Amit. Hovr is currently working at ramping things up for supply to meet demand: More than 55,000 drivers are currently on Hovr’s waitlist, and 80,000 Torontonians have downloaded the app.