About Government to Start-up (G2S)

Why did you launch the program?

G2S is a program developed and run by TheCodeFactory to address the challenges being faced by displaced Government workers in Ottawa, Canada. The Federal Government of Canada has set in motion austerity plans that will see the reduction of 19,200 federal public civil service jobs over the next 3 years.

We love Ottawa and want to keep people here in the nation’s capital, rather than moving away to seek employment elsewhere. In response to this challenge, TheCodeFactory has launched a program to help re-skill and re-tool these displaced workers. The program aims to provide displaced government workers with not only the skill and knowledge to start their own business, but to have a fully functional and profitable business at the end of the program.

Who is it for?

The program is designed for anyone that wants to participate and start their own technology or technology enabled business.

To enter the program you must have:

- An idea you want to turn into a business

- Commitment: to the program and your fellow participants

o 2 hours in class per week (mandatory)

o Minimum 2 hours homework per week (more is better)

- Effort: you must be willing to do the work

How does it work?

The program is based on four broad sections: Foundations, Building, Product/Service Development, and Validating. The sections are broken into blocks of 6 to 12 weeks, with a very specific focus on building part of your business plan, team, systems or product and service. Each block builds on the previous work and adds another essential element to your business. At the end of the first year, participating founders will have: business plan, team (core and support), and product or service. The goal at the end of the program is for each participating business to be profitable. Our motto is “No start-up will be left behind”.

G2S is about shifting paradigms from employee to entrepreneur.

TheCodeFactory President Ian Graham made the leap from employee to entrepreneur in 2004 when he voluntarily left the relative safety and security of a well paid Product Management position at Alcatel Canada. Leaving an employee position at a large enterprise or Government to turn your own idea into a successful start-up is a significant paradigm shift. In many respects, employees with more experience transitioning to entrepreneurship face even greater obstacles to start-up success than young entrepreneurs with even more to risk. The Government to Start-up program is a very practical program rooted in real life experiences and knowledge.

The program itself is based on cohorts of founders working together over the course of the two-year program to build a profitable business. The curriculum is essentially an unMBA where the focus is practical, hands-on, and useful rather than theoretical and General Management.

When does the program start?

Our first intake will be in October of 2012, and we have information sessions on a weekly basis. You can check for the next event here or contact ian[at]thecodefactory[dot]ca for more information.