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Entrepreneurs with disabilities seek investor attention

Funding founders with disabilities can generate more wealth in Canada, VCs and entrepreneurs say

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Due to lack of awareness and the tendency among investors to avoid funding founders who don’t seem to “fit in,” founders with disabilities are underfunded and underrepresented in Canada.

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A recent report from BDO indicated that 22 percent of Canadians live with disabilities, and yet 0.5 per cent of small-to-medium-sized businesses are owned by a disabled person. The report further suggested that founders with disabilities face barriers such as invisibility, ostracization, and prejudice.

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Here, three experts, including two founders with disabilities, discuss why funding is so difficult to achieve, what changes need to be made, and how those changes can be implemented by investors to generate more wealth in Canada.

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Jasmin Ganie-Hobbs, Director Tech Finance, BDC Business Development Bank of Canada

What are the challenges founders with disabilities face when looking for capital?

“The biggest challenge is bringing to light how difficult it is for people to get funding if they don’t fit in. When there aren’t a lot of people like you championing for you, you’re not getting to the front of the line and you’re not getting the same opportunities for funding.”

Why are they facing these challenges, in your opinion?

“I think it’s an awareness. I’m a minority female in business. When I started out in the industry, I would walk into a room full of entrepreneurs and I didn’t look like the other people in my industry. They didn’t equate the way I looked with being able to be credible.

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“If you don’t look the way other people expect you to look, you’re not fitting in the same way as everybody else. If there’s no awareness in highlighting that, people remain unaware. The structures that exist have been accommodating those who made them.”

What is needed to change this?

“We need to consider this gap, because if we don’t go about funding entrepreneurs with disabilities, we are not going to create businesses that are economically viable. We need to help to build wealth among this population and allow them to receive capital. What we want to do is promote entrepreneurs, which fosters employment, which drives the economic engine of Canada.

“Ninety-eight per cent of entrepreneurs in Canada are small businesses. They are not big companies.

“The first component of change in this area is brand awareness. If you’re not aware of a problem, you can’t change it. It’s about shining a light on the problem so that we can be aware and bring about change. There is a gap to be filled. We need to shine a light on this gap so that more money and funding can be fueled this way. We are going to create more jobs, and we’re going to create more wealth. It’s a business case, but it’s also the right thing to do.

“Corporations need to have various initiatives that specifically focus on and address the inequities.”

Where are you seeing green shoots of change?

“The green shoots of change begin with people like you and me. We may not think about entrepreneurs with disabilities every day, just as we don’t think about the immigration or refugee crisis every day because we have Immigration Canada to do that. However, when you become aware of it, you’re not turning a blind eye, and we have a willingness to contribute to the change and to advocate, help and champion.”

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Gwen Lim, Founder, Motion and Still

What are the challenges founders with disabilities face when looking for capital?

“To give context, I am on the spectrum with Asperger’s, and it was evident and intense while growing up, but I did learn to mask and cope over time through practice.”

“In my case it was getting the nerve to bet on myself. I think this is what every founder faces, but more so by people who have been told they’re different. People with disabilities also sometimes feel they’re unlikeable, or not “popular” and therefore feel like they have less of a chance, resulting in some not even trying.”

Why are they facing these challenges, in your opinion?

“It’s from memory, life experience and societal affirmation. The words “You’re different” hurt, especially when you’re growing up and trying to make friends.

“In my case, these feelings repeat themselves with every new person I meet, and as a result, I am extremely guarded when it comes to sharing my thoughts or emotions. I tend to gauge people based on their tolerance to my bluntness first and assess how open they are to expressing their own thoughts, before I start sharing my personal opinions with them.

“I like to know that if I express something important, to what degree or how clear they’d be in responding to my input.”

What is needed to change this?

“More education, even articles like this, to communicate that although there are differences, there are ways that these can be advantageous. For example, I have tunnel vision, which makes me highly suited and adept to technical and detail-oriented tasks, such as video editing, or looking through a camera lens, which requires intense focus when there is a lot of environmental stimulus.

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“In addition, an individual with self-awareness to their difference also benefits by understanding that their abilities have fluidity. In my case, during COVID, I acquired knowledge in Blockchain technology and learned to code in Solidity. My skills aren’t limited to only one or two actions or activities, and I can switch my interests or skill sets, especially if the new task is complimentary to my abilities.”

Where are you seeing green shoots of change?

“By people having curiosity and by employers appreciating that people with differences may actually help the team in the workplace. We hone in and focus on things that may get overlooked. We have different ways of looking at situations and solving problems, and perhaps sometimes don’t have patience for filtering our thoughts if the oversight is egregious and there is a good cause to break social protocols (the ‘yes man’ mentality during meetings).”

Eyra Abraham, Founder and CEO, hearing technology company Lisnen

What are the challenges founders with disabilities face when looking for capital? Why are they facing these challenges, in your opinion?

“The first challenge that many founders/people with disabilities (PWD) face when looking for capital is the network and access to investors.

“PWD are often marginalized from society and are often limited in growing new relationships and networks outside the immediate sphere. For example, suppose they were to look at joining programs for startups like accelerators or incubators. These programs are often not built to be accessible: i.e., choosing networking venues that are accessible or making accommodations that will allow for full participation in networking and learning activities with their fellow peers and advisors.

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“The second challenge that I see is that many people with disabilities are often starting businesses through experiences or wanting to solve personal challenges. The disability market tends to be viewed or assumed to be too niche (even though it has 1 billion people) by traditional venture capitalists (VCs). Many VCs believe that they won’t see a return on investment or a billion-dollar company. As a result, some founders will shift and position their product as a mass-market product to please the VC. Still, then the problem they initially want to solve for PWD becomes secondary and may not fully address PWD needs.

“Some founders will succeed in impact investing by positioning their products as social goods. Impact investing in Canada is new but growing. It relies on a different set of metrics other than revenue to appeal to investors. However, it does require new innovative business models to develop a sustainable business. In addition, one would need good mentors and advisors to guide the founders along the business journey. PWD may not have access or opportunities.

“Other times, the founder may need to find someone who understands the problem enough to want to invest. For example, finding angel investors or VCs who have a disability and capital to invest or an investor who is personally affected by the problem can take time because they aren’t typically found in typical VC social circles.

“Thirdly, with the lack of capital, they are expected to bootstrap to prove market demand before returning to the investor with evidence and proof. What ends up happening is that these products or services end up being priced high for the business to be profitable. If they are building a hardware device or advanced software tech, this can be very capital intensive. Therefore, the founder will need to have a network or the skills to develop independently. A domino effect is in play. Especially if they are marginalized because a lack of education, employment opportunities, and social networks can hold them back.”

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What is needed to change this?

“There are two key areas: access and mindset shift.

“For access: Startup communities that are inclusive to PWD founders, like Access to Success, Remarkable, or 2Gether-International (2GI) are a good start to enable opportunities for PWD. Other startup programs should include PWD to expand new networks of investors, peers and mentors who see the value and want to help the entrepreneurs grow their ideas and business.

“For mindset: All stakeholders need to shift their mindset to understand the economic opportunities from PWD and the assistive technologies. Technologies designed with PWD in mind tend to be mainstreamed. We can think about the telephone, SMS or speech-to-text, which were initially designed to address challenges for people with hearing loss. Or audiobooks or keypads (typewriter), which were initially designed for people with vision impairment. And if you look at the Alexa and Siri, these technologies were conceptualized originally to help people with no mobility to command a computer with their voice.

“Suppose we can understand that technology designed for PWD is naturally the seeds or the enabling technology for inclusive mainstream tech that can bring many users. We can see more investment in capital, resources, business opportunities and solutions to our problems. Like Uber’s success depended on GPS. Or the iPhone couldn’t exist without the right innovation for hardware, such as batteries, microchips, etc. The lives, experiences and assistive and adaptive tech for PWD can bring new advancement (new technologies, business models and social inclusion for all) to our society.

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“Lastly, it all comes down to cultural acceptance and minimizing bias. These are critical for any change.”

Where are you seeing green shoots of change?

“I’ve observed how Israel and China’s government investment in supporting people with disabilities bring innovations. Countries with better government policies and programs to develop and support PWD can bring new economic opportunities for PWD to work. As a result, this drives increased employee satisfaction (statistically, PWD are excellent employees who stay committed to jobs longer – a challenge many businesses are trying to overcome since the pandemic started). Also, PWD working in companies helps companies build better products with diverse ideas and drives more revenue for the business (statistically, companies that hire PWD have higher profits).

“Another thing that I’ve observed is that other sectors are in need of innovation, like health care and education. These sectors require collaborating with the government. If the government prioritizes PWD, companies seeking partnerships and procurements will need to show and demonstrate their services or products are inclusive to deliver public services.

“Another thing is the growing older adult population. More people live longer and work longer, but new forms of disabilities appear as they get older, making past activities more challenging. Yet, older adults do not want to be held back by barriers created by our environment. This has led to new market opportunities.”

Responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.

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