Every school has ambitious kids. They just never meet each other.
Vancouver Founders exists to connect them — into one community that builds, learns and creates opportunities together.
Talent is everywhere. The network isn’t.
If you’re a teenager in Vancouver who wants to start a business, learn to code, build an audience, or launch a project, you’re mostly on your own. Maybe one or two friends are into the same thing. Your school might have a club that meets a few times a year.
Meanwhile, three schools over, there’s someone building the exact thing you need help with — and you’ll never meet them.
We think that’s a solvable problem.
Four things, done well.
Community
A network of ambitious students from across Metro Vancouver, online and in person.
Education
Practical workshops and founder talks that show you how things actually work.
Opportunity
Competitions, an opportunities board, a member directory and a co-founder finder.
Credibility
A place to be seen — member spotlights, founder stories, and a track record you build.
Started by a student who was already running a business.
I’m Jack. I started learning magic when I was 11, and at 13 I turned it into a business and booked my first paid show. For the last three years, I’ve been performing at events across the Lower Mainland.
Running that business became an education of its own. I had to figure out pricing, marketing, finding clients, handling rejection, and turning one booking into the next. I’ve also tried starting other businesses that failed. Those experiences taught me something just as important: having an idea is easy — executing, adapting, and continuing when things don’t work is much harder.
But through all of it, I was mostly figuring things out on my own. I didn’t know many people my age who were also building something. There was no room I could walk into and ask, “How did you handle this?” or meet someone who had already made the mistake I was about to make.
That’s why I started Vancouver Founders.
There are ambitious students across Metro Vancouver running businesses, building apps, creating products, and pursuing ideas — but very few ways for them to find each other.
Vancouver Founders is the community I wish I’d had when I started: a place to meet, learn, collaborate, share opportunities, and build alongside other young people who are serious about creating something.
— Jack
The culture we’re building.
Give before you ask
Members connect each other with advice, contacts and opportunities. Reputation is built by being useful.
Build, don’t just talk
Every member should be making something. Events are for doing, not just listening.
Meet three new people
You should leave every event having met at least three people you didn’t know before.
Smart, not hype
No get-rich-quick energy. No MLMs. No pressure to sell to other members.
Success is broad
Revenue is one measure. So are learning, creativity, leadership and social impact.
Schools collaborate
We’re a network between schools, not a competition between them.
The central network for young founders in Greater Vancouver.
We’re starting in Vancouver with a founding cohort of 100 students. Over time: more schools, an annual youth startup competition, a mentor network, a summer incubator, and eventually chapters across Metro Vancouver — Burnaby, Richmond, the North Shore, the Tri-Cities, Surrey.
The goal is that any ambitious teenager in this region has an obvious place to go, people to build with, and a path to what’s next.
Want in on the founding cohort?
Applications take about 10 minutes and are reviewed on a rolling basis.