Profiles are Futurpreneur Canada’s way of promoting you and your company. The information you provide below will be used to create a story profile – a two-page document that illustrates an overview of your business and your start-up journey. These profiles are used to pitch the media for coverage, promotion on our website, to our networks, in marketing campaigns and more. Futurpreneur Canada will make all possible efforts to ensure that you preview your profiles and provide your approval prior to them being used.
The questions asked here are designed to create a profile that is inspiring and engaging, and we expect this questionnaire will take between 30-40 minutes to complete.
This package includes:
- Entrepreneur Questionnaire
- Image and Information Consent and Release Form
- Contact Information at Futurpreneur Canada
Thank you – we are excited to promote you and your business, and your involvement with Futurpreneur Canada!
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Futurpreneur Canada (formerly the Canadian Youth Business Foundation or CYBF) has been fuelling the entrepreneurial passions of Canada’s young enterprise for nearly two decades. We are the only national, non-profit organization that provides financing, mentoring and support tools to aspiring business owners aged 18-39. Our internationally recognized mentoring program hand matches young entrepreneurs with a business expert from a network of more than 2,800 volunteer mentors.
Futurpreneur Canada is a founding member of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance, the Canadian member of The Prince’s Youth Business International, and the Canadian host of Global Entrepreneurship Week. Futurpreneur @Futurpreneur
For more information, please contact:
Lesley Wilmot, Director, Communications
Futurpreneur Canada
133 Richmond St. W. Toronto, Ontario, M5H 2L3
Phone: 1-866-646-2922 x 23203 Email:
STEP 1: PROFILE INFORMATION
Please complete this section and email your answers to Amanda Filipe at
Please include:
The completedEntrepreneur Questionnaire (typed answers)
Your company’s black and white and colour logo in .eps or .jpeg format
Your headshot photo-please send the highest resolution photo available, preferably 300 dpi.
Any photos of you and your business/product in action
Image and Information Consent and Release Form
Please complete this general information:Official Company Name: Permission Click Inc
You and your partners’ (if any) full names: Chris Johnson
Business Address / 125 Adelaide St
City / Wpg / Province / Mb
Postal Code / R3A0W4 / Date of Birth / 12/23/82
Work Phone / Home Phone / 2047994321
Email / / Website / Permissionclick.com
Twitter handle / @permissionclick / Facebook account / Facebook.com/permissionclick
Please list other partners in the business who are not on the Futurpreneur Canada Loan:
Scott Macaulay, Kevin Buckner
Is your company: Registered Incorporated Mb Incorporation
What industry category do you belong to? Software Application
Job Creation: List number of employees (include you and your partners):
At the time of business inception / Today
Full-Time (>35 hr/week) / 0 / 4
Part-Time (<35 hrs/week) / 0 / 1
If you had to provide a member of the public with a quick description of your business (including products and services), what would you tell them? (100-150 words)
Digital permission slips and payment collection for K-12 schools! Parents can approve and pay fees for events in seconds on any device.
What were you and your partners (if any) doing prior to starting your own company?
‘Working for the man’ as they say.
How did you hear about Futurpreneur Canada?
Joelle is impossible not to know in Manitoba!
What has being an entrepreneur enabled you to do that you couldn’t have done working for someone else?
‘Own it’ in every sense. Own the successes, own the failures and setbacks, own the rewards if/when they come. There’s something unbelieveably satisfying that comes from building something out of thin air that makes your customer’s day a little better.
Tell us your story (in short) about what/who inspired you to become an entrepreneur, why you started your company, how you started and why you love being an entrepreneur:
The wife of one of our co-founders is a phys ed teacher at a local high school. Sitting around the kitchen table in the evening chasing parents for permission and payments was getting a bit tiresome. Her husband, Scott, came up with the idea of building an application to take on the task. Scott took the idea to a Ramp Up Weekend event where Kevin and Chris took notice and ended up joining Scott on the adventure to build Permission Click.
Scott is an entrepreneruship lecturer at Red River College.
Chris has a background in technology and software development, along with sales/business planning and operational experience.
Kevin is a Chartered Accountant who specialises in startup accounting.
What challenges/barriers (if any) did you overcome as you started your company? How did you overcome them? If you had prior doubts, what were those doubts and what made you finally decide to take the leap and start your business?
We would need a WAY bigger box to answer this one! Few highlights/lowlights:
-It’s all about building something that can be built once, but used by many. We spent a lot of time upfront focused on product market fit. We interviewed over 70 teachers/principals/admins and many parents to understand how to build a solution to fit. Building a scaleable product is a huge risk because you have to be pretty confident you’ll have users after you invest the huge amount of time and energy to build the thing out. The passion and pushing we received from teachers and admins was enough for us to jump.
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Why did you choose to start your business where you did?
Winnipeg is the best place to live on the planet. This must be a trick question? ;)
Big reason is Winnipeg’s amazing community of support. Startup Winnipeg, Ramp Up Manitoba, strong Futurpreneur presence, several accelerators, great government investment tax credits etc.
Provide a short quote about how Futurpreneur Canada has supported you:
Joelle is known as ‘Startup Mom’ in these parts. She has been a strong advocate of Permission Click for months even prior to our applying, and we’ve seen how much she supports and connects other founders with eachother and opportunities. We have already raised a angel/seed round of capital, but applied to join Futurpreneur to become part of the family. Looking forward to mentorship and attending Spin Master Innovation program!
Tell us why you feel entrepreneurship is important to Canada and to your community (i.e. the impact):
I firmly believe it’s more valuable to a local economy to have 100 vibrant diverse companies with 100 employees than a single entity with 10,000. For Winnipeg, I think entrepreneurship and startups are the ticket to economic growth and job creation.
What were you three biggest successes as an entrepreneur? Please list them chronologically
(i.e. 2004 – Launched your business, 2005 – Acquired 15 new clients and won a Chamber of Commerce Award for Entrepreneurship, 2006 – Hired 2 full-time employees)
-Have 250K seed round committed and closing at present (2/3 closed)
-Have approx 25 schools across 5 districts using the product to date representing over 5000 parent users
-Invited to present at EdSurge Summit in St. Louis (thiknk tech crunch disrupt for education) – selected by conference attendees from over 100 applicants!
How has your mentor made a difference to your business? Please provide at least one specific example, in quote form: (i.e. How has your mentor helped you to achieve your goals, overcome obstacles and provide motivation to you?)
Haven’t firmed up mentor yet.
What message would you like to share with other youth who are considering becoming entrepreneurs? (i.e. if you were to start again, what would you do differently? What do you wish you knew when you started your company? What surprised you?)
If I had it to do over, I’d get integrated with the local startup community immediately. Can’t say enough about surrounding yourself with support. Having people around you going through the same things is critical to survive the rollercoaster of startup life.
Have you been in the media and are you comfortable speaking with the media? Please provide links to any news articles you have been mentioned in.
Very comfortable with media, and public speaking.
STEP 2: IMAGE AND INFORMATION CONSENT AND RELEASE
Please read and sign the consent form below; then email to Amanda Filipe at
IMAGE AND INFORMATION CONSENT AND RELEASE (ENTREPRENEUR)
For valuable consideration received, I, a Futurpreneur Canada entrepreneur hereby grant to Futurpreneur Canada the absolute, exclusive and irrevocable right and permission, in respect of any photographs or video or film recordings of me or my business taken at any Futurpreneur Canada video and/or photograph shoot or Futurpreneur Canada event, or any material provided by me to Futurpreneur Canada for Futurpreneur Canada’s promotional purposes (collectively, the “Images”), to: (a) record such Images; (b) to copyright the Images, in its own name or otherwise (and assign my rights throughout the world in such Images); (c) use, re-use, publish, re-publish, transmit, re-transmit, broadcast, re-broadcast, communicate and otherwise reproduce, modify and display the Images, in whole or in part, as a film or as a series of images, or in conjunction with any copyrighted matter, in original form or as edited or otherwise modified, in any and all media now or hereafter known, all for the purpose of promoting Futurpreneur Canada and its activities. I agree that Futurpreneur Canada may sell, assign, license or otherwise transfer all rights and releases granted to it hereunder in respect of the Images.
I also consent to the publication by Futurpreneur Canada of certain statements and announcements (collectively, “Statements”), specifically, I consent to Futurpreneur Canada: (i) including statements in Futurpreneur Canada’s publications, news releases and presentations that I am associated with Futurpreneur Canada; and (ii) making public announcements of the participation by me in the Futurpreneur Canada loan and/or mentoring program in the form of news releases, news conferences, the Futurpreneur Canada website or any other news media, which public announcements may include announcements of the achievements of me and/or my company or other updates as to my and/or my company’s performance. In respect of (ii), Futurpreneur Canada shall make all reasonable efforts to ensure that the entrepreneur reviews and approves of any written material used as part of such Statements prior to their dissemination.
In addition, I also hereby consent to the following collections, uses and disclosures of personal information (collectively, “Information”) by Futurpreneur Canada.
Collection and Use of Information.Futurpreneur Canada, and any of its third party service providers, collects and uses the Information provided by the Entrepreneur or collected pursuant to the Entrepreneur’s prior authorization, for the following purposes: a) advertising; b) media relations; c) marketing; d) fundraising; e) social media; and f) promotions in respect of Futurpreneur Canada’s operations (collectively, the “Purposes”).
Disclosure of Information.Futurpreneur Canada, and any of its third party service providers, discloses information in respect of the Entrepreneur to the following persons and for the following purposes: a) to third party service providers for the purposes of promoting Futurpreneur Canada; b) to other clients of Futurpreneur Canada, Futurpreneur Canada mentors or Futurpreneur Canada community partners for the purpose of providing or facilitating mentorship activities or for education purposes; c) as may be required in order to fulfil the Purposes.
To the extent permitted by applicable law, I hereby release and discharge Futurpreneur Canada from any and all claims, demands and causes of action arising out of or in connection with the recording, use or publication of the Images or personal information, including without limitation any and all claims for libel, invasion of privacy or right of publicity, or any other right arising out of or relating to the recording, use or publication of the Images or personal information.
I agree that my personal information collected in connection with the Images will be collected and used by Futurpreneur Canada and any of its third party service providers, and disclosed by and between them, for the purposes of promoting Futurpreneur Canada, and in accordance with, and to enforce, this consent and release. I acknowledge that (a) the Images and personal information will be used by Futurpreneur Canada’smarketing personnel and stored at Futurpreneur Canada’s offices in Canada in accordance with Futurpreneur Canada’s privacy policy; (b) I have a right to access and rectify any personal information held by Futurpreneur Canada; and (c) I can access more information on how Futurpreneur Canada collects, uses and discloses my personal information, and can obtain the contact details of Futurpreneur Canada’s Privacy Officer at
I have read the foregoing and fully understand the contents thereof. This consent and release shall be binding upon me and my heirs and personal representatives, and shall ensure to the benefit of the licensees, successors and assigns of Futurpreneur Canada.
Company Name: ______
Please Print Name: ______
Signature: ______Date Signed: ______
Telephone Number: ______Email Address: ______
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