🧊 New Year, New Cold Dip Routine
Apply to LOI Labs Batch 12 Founder Cohort
Hey Friends,
📰 It's January: gyms are "in", alcohol is "out", and Canada is facing a cold Snowpocalypse this week. But not quite cold enough to keep your one friend from from cold dipping every day of the week to keep Huberman proud. All jokes aside, we trust all of you had an 11/10 holiday break and are ready to channel some Shia LaBeouf energy into 2024. Our New Year's Resolution for 2024 is simple. We just wanna hear back from Taylor Swift's EA.
Here's the tea: we DM'd her to ask if Taylor would be down to do an AMA for ya'll in April, but we haven't heard back yet. So stay tuned. And Erica if you're reading this email you know where to reach us 😏
Now, let's head to our Michelin star menu for the day 🤌
On Deck Today:
- 🚨 Our LOI Labs Batch 12 founder cohort applications close in 48 hours (0-$100K in revenue as a startup)
- ❤️ LOI alumni Anshul Sharma had her cancer come back and we wanna help her; message Kyle or read below to see how you can support
- 😳 Arlene Dickinson (from CBC Dragons) is speaking to LOI Feb 16th; save your seat before we max out at 100
- ☕️ Our founder/VC coffee meetups have been blowing up; email us if you wanna join our next ones in Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa
- 🤯 LOI Success Academy (our earliest programming) passed 3,500 participants
- 🤖 Wanna level up your AI skills? Join our 2024 AI cohort waitlist
Apply to LOI Labs Batch 12 Founder Cohort
📌 LOI Updates
Are you a young founder in Canada with a startup venture that has $0-$100K in revenue? We wanna see you apply to LOI Labs Batch 12 founder cohort. But do it ASAP, because applications close in 48 hours. It's a free 12 week program designed for busy young founders balancing school or another job that wanna scale their startup idea. You'll get mentored by world class speakers, join a slack community of 1,000+ founder and truly learn what it means to build a business so you can quit your full time job. Got your attention? Tap below amigo.
Apply to LOI Labs Batch 12 Founder Cohort
Ever heard of CBC Dragon's Den? Then you'll recognize Arelene. Spoiler alert: she's replied to our cold email to come do a fireside chat with Ryan Holmes for all of our LOI founders, alumni and prospective founders that may wanna join in the future. So mark your calendar and RSVP here before it's too late. We're maxing it out at 100 seats so it stays intimate.
Our Calgary cortado meetup went smashingly well last week, even though all of you had to face -35C snow storm temps to hangout in person. 😅 LOI alumni, Salena Dhillon, is already working away on our Vancouver meetup, John Sparrow is working away on our Winnipeg meetup and Paige Cey is QB'ing a Toronto meetup. So hit them up with a message if you wanna join the waitlist or message Erin O'Hallaran to host a LOI meetup in a city of your own ☕️
Email LOI to host a coffee meetup in my city
💙 Let's Help Anshul Kick Cancer's Ass
We've been reflecting on what 'community' means after an incredible founder meetup in Calgary and we hope you'll agree with us when we say that community is what makes LOI special. But we also believe:
Community is nothing if not supporting one another through difficult times.
So this is our reason for writing to you today.
We have a founder who just graduated from the Labs program and finds herself in a tough spot heading into 2024. Her name is Anshul Sharma ❤️🩹
Anshul is the founder of Rituals Veda Wellness, a startup dedicated to creating toxin-free wellness products. And her entrepreneurial journey began after being diagnosed with cancer at the age of 21 in 2020.
She adopted a rigorous wellness routine and toxin-free products helped her in her recovery. After overcoming cancer initially, she realized the pervasive presence of toxins in everyday products and decided to create a brand free from toxins to promote overall wellness. Her remission happened after 3 years.
Anshul was a dedicated Labs founder but in October 2023 was involved in a bad accident that left her hospitalized. After a hard-fought recovery, she thought everything was fine upon her discharge, but subsequent medical examinations revealed that the accident triggered a recurrence of the cancer she had previously
Anshul's cancer battle is back but she is not alone, she has this LOI community. The support of this community means more time spent with family, more time focussed on kicking cancer's ass and more time continuing to build towards her dreams of helping others achieve a more holistic sense of wellness.
The LOI team is asking for your support. Anshul loves this community and here’s how we’re going to show up for her and her family:
- 📩 If you and your venture want to support, please email Kyle at kyle@theleagueofinnovators.com and send codes or gift cards that can be redeemed for free goods and services from your ventures.
- 🎁 Our team will bundle these together and pass them along to Anshul and her family as one giant New Year gift on behalf of the community. All types of gifts are welcome and encouraged!
Support can come in many different forms and if you have other ideas of how you'd like to support, such as wanting to offer up your time or expertise to Anshul, please let Kyle know!
Thanks for linking arms with us to help Anshul ❤️
Email LOI to Help Anshul Sharma
📌 Highlights of the Month
- 🏆 LOI Venture invested in Retreat and Venues: the airbnb of venues and retreats for group sizes bigger than 50. You can view all the investments LOI Venture has made here
- 🤩 Jenny Orr won a book from B-Scudamore; the $700m founder behind 1-800-Got-Junk and O2E Brands. Missed the AMA with him? Email Rob
- 😬 You still haven't signed up for our Labs/Boost 2024 and know in your bones you won't be able to sleep sound at night until you do
Apply to LOI Labs Batch 12 Founder Cohort
- 🤯 LOI Success Academy (run by Shari-Ann Baker) has had over 3500 participants go through their online career development 101 or Entrepreneurship 101 course. If you know someone that'd wanna apply, send them here.
- 🎉 Dial to Tech, Suno Chat and Ment App won serious cash from our LOI Accelerator pitch off a couple weeks ago
- 📰 We're working on plans for YEY 2024 and may or may not be working with Othership to scale our sauna/cold dip activation. Book your YEY ticket here
- 🎙 Snapwrite founder Athiya Rastogi is speaking on stage at the Women in Science and Engineering Conference
- 🍔 Plufl copped a collab with Burger King: and it's kinda a big deal so you should go like and comment on the post below
Want to stay on top of future LOI news? Hit that big button below.
🥁 Visual of the Week
Don't forget: snag your seat to our AMA with Arlene Dickinson and Ryan Holmes before it maxes out at 100 sign ups.
RSVP to Arelene Dickinson's AMA
Your startup bestie-boos,
💙 The LOI Fam
P.S. If you want to apply for our 2024 Labs/Boost founder cohort but haven't had the time, email Rob ASAP so we can connect with you.