Successful business people come from all walks of life and from every corner of the globe, but Canadian entrepreneurs are gems worth noting.
There are many impressive Canadian entrepreneurs who have made names for themselves.
Most exemplify sheer determination and belief in their ideas, while stepping outside the "norm" of working 9-5 jobs to make ends meet.
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20 inspiring stories from famous entrepreneurs
Here are just 20 of the many Canadian entrepreneurs who have found commercial success, along with their inspirational stories of hard work and dedication.
1. Michele Romanow
If you’re one of the many aspiring entrepreneurs who daydream about creating something that shakes up an industry, then this story is definitely going to fascinate you.
Meet Michele Romanow, a serial entrepreneur, star of Dragons' Den Canada and co-founder of Clearbanc. Clearbanc changed the startup funding game almost as soon as it was founded.
It’s much better to be 70% ready. Jump in, get started, and start the process of iterating rather than waiting till it feels perfect.
Clearbanc is known for offering non-dilutive revenue sharing agreements, thereby allowing startups to retain equity while growing.
But it didn’t happen overnight.
Michele’s inspiring story started during her college days. When most of us are worried about getting good grades and playing games, Michele was changing the way games are played.
From launching an online caviar business during her university days to sitting in the investor's chair on CBC’s "Dragon's Den," Michele's journey is an aspiration for entrepreneurs in Canada.
Related: Don't let imposter syndrome keep you from following your passion
2. Kevin O’ Leary
“Mr. Wonderful” or “Maple Man” as we all know him, carries not just a catchy nickname but an inspiring story of business excellence too. You might have enjoyed his sharp critiques and candid advice on “Shark Tank,” but did you know his own journey started in a humble basement?
Downturns are the best time to start businesses because you develop discipline in terms of how to spend money. Those habits serve you very well in good times.
In 1986 Kevin O’Leary co-founded Softkey Software Products, a tech company for family education and entertainment, from the basement of his house. Eventually he acquired The Learning Company for $606 million and began operating under that name. He sold The Learning Company to Mattel for $3.5 billion in 1999.
He used his reputation to build something even bigger — a global brand that includes everything from books to speaking gigs.
Plus, he's continued to make savvy investments across a variety of sectors with O'Leary Funds and his other business ventures. This move has kept him in the spotlight as a major player in the Canadian business world.
Related: Think you don't know enough to start a business? Help is at hand.
3. Jennifer Wagner
Next on our list of Canadian entrepreneurs is Jennifer Wagner. If you're interested in sustainable development, you probably know her as the 'Climate Trailblazer.’
Climate change is such an enormous problem that we need to explore big, creative and outside-the-box ideas.
Jennifer earned a place on Clean50, an honor for anyone working in her field.
Canada has seen a lot of immigration lately. This has led to the expansion of cities and a boom in construction. Jennifer noticed a problem — construction is beneficial for the community and country, but only if done responsibly.
After joining CarbonCure in 2010, she worked her way up from employee #2 to President. Jennifer played a crucial role in recruiting the talent and funding that created the company’s innovative CO2 trapping technology. It injects CO₂ into concrete, achieving both permanent CO₂ removals and emissions reductions. Brilliant!
Under her leadership, CarbonCure’s technology was adopted in hundreds of concrete plants worldwide. Since stepping away from CarbonCure in 2022, Jennifer has been actively nurturing and promoting early-stage climate tech startups.
4. Scott Gravelle
Something about the innovative nature of leafcutter ant colonies captured Scott Gravelle's interest, so much so that it fuelled the entrepreneur's eventual creation of Calgary-based robotics logistics company Attabotics Inc.
Mr. Gravelle's appreciation of the way these colonies were built vertically instead of horizontally inspired him to make significant changes to the e-commerce distribution warehouse model. Using robots, Attabotics moves products in an up-and-down structure rather than across aisles, which drastically cuts down on the amount of space required in warehouses.
Scott is one of a growing number of Canadian entrepreneurs who are thinking outside the box to create highly successful businesses. For nearly three decades, Gravelle has been a pioneer in the integration of digital technologies in the manufacturing industry and has used his innate entrepreneurial skills to develop a thriving company.
If you’re going to put effort into anything, pick the biggest idea, because it’s the same amount of effort as doing the smallest one, but you’ll have a chance of making a bigger difference.
Prior to his career as the CEO of Attabotics Inc., Scott served in a variety of other roles, including a partner in a successful longboard company, an army medic, and a hang glider pilot.
Related: Meet Jasmine Branderhorst, a modern maker
5. Eva Wong
Eva Wong is the COO and co-founder of Borrowell, a Canadian fintech firm that helps educate Canadians to make sound decisions about their credit health and become financially stable. Based in Toronto, the platform offers free credit scores, educational tools, and regular credit monitoring.
Anyone can be an entrepreneur. You don’t need to have an 'entrepreneurship gene.'
The company has accrued impressive accolades, including being named among the top 100 fitech firms according to KPMG.
Eva put her 15 years of experience in the world of business and global not-for-profit organizations to good use to establish Borrowell, which now boasts more than 3 million members.
Eva is an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® winner in Ontario, and was named one of the Standout 35 on the global Women in FinTech Powerlist
Eva's educational background is quite impressive and includes degrees from Queen’s School of Business and Harvard University.
Before starting Borrowell, she worked at other companies, including Maple Leaf Foods, Oliver Wyman, and the UN Development Programme. She also co-founded Toronto Homecoming and sits on the board of The Scott Mission.
6. Tara Bosch
Turning a passion into a successful business is precisely what Vancouver-born Tara Bosch has achieved. While in her junior year at the University of British Columbia, Tara started selling her own candy creations to vendors she contacted via email.
She developed a candy recipe with much less sugar than conventional confectionaries without compromising on taste after discovering a lucrative niche.
Anyone with a sweet tooth who doesn't want to give up on their favourite treats but also wants to remain health-conscious can enjoy a guilt-free treat from Tara's company, SmartSweets.
View your journey as an adventure and you’ll never be disappointed.
After quickly gaining traction with her product, the young Canadian eventually dropped out of school to pursue her blossoming career as an entrepreneur to run SmartSweets.
In 2020, SmartSweets was acquired by asset firm TPG Growth for $360 million, making Bosch, the majority owner, a millionaire.
Related: The rise of young entrepreneurs in Canada
7. Jodie Morgan
Targeting pollution and being profitable while doing so is an accomplishment that Canadian Jodie Morgan can add to her list of accolades.
I only want to work with organizations that will make the world a better place, one year from now or 100 years from now.
Jodie is the CEO of GreenMantra Technologies, an innovative firm that uses discarded plastic that otherwise would wind up in landfills and waterways and transforms it into polymer additives, artificial waxes, and other chemicals.
That's just one example of a handful of companies that Jodie oversees. In fact, the entrepreneur has successfully helped build five companies with her serving as CEO/president. She's also on several boards, including GreenMantra Technologies, Pinova Holdings, and Bartek Ingredients, to name a few.
8. Mallorie Brodie and Lauren Lake
Ontario-born Mallorie Brodie and Lauren Lake teamed up to create Bridgit Solutions, an app that makes completing construction projects more streamlined for contractors. More specifically, the app gives contractors the chance to log and complete specific tasks on schedule, post images, and share pertinent information with team members.
In 2021, the two secured CAD$24 million (roughly US$19.4 million), in Series B funding.
One of the things we did well was not falling in love with our own ideas. You have to remove any ego from it and purely listen and quantify [to find the bright spots].
The two both grew up in construction families and used their knowledge and experience to develop construction-based software that can be customized according to the needs of construction workers.
9. Stephanie Ciccarelli
Stephanie Ciccarelli is the co-founder of Voices.com, an online marketplace to connect producers, marketers, and instructors with creative talent.
Stephanie herself has more than 25 years of experience using her voice to communicate through the written word, spoken word, and song, after graduating from Western University with a Bachelor of Musical Arts. She has since used her experience in the industry to develop an award-winning company of her own.
Stephanie has been a frequent guest speaker at industry conferences and has been made PROFIT Magazine's W100 list a handful of times.
Do something that is meaningful to you. If you don't have a passion for it, you won't have the fire within you to keep yourself going.
In addition to regularly contributing to the Voices' blog, Stephanie is also a contributor to The Huffington Post and Backstage Magazine.
10. Hamid Arabzadeh
With an extensive track record in the world of business, Hamid Arabzadeh easily makes the list of some of the most impressive Canadian entrepreneurs.
Hamid currently serves as the chairman and CEO of RANOVUS, a company that develops optical transceiver communications hardware products for high-speed communications for telecommunications and information technology industries. The company is headquartered in Ottawa and has operations in the US and Germany as well.
“Welcome being disrupted.”
Prior to his position at RANOVUS, which he's held since its inception in 2012, Hamid held various senior management positions at firms including Identos Inc., Motive Health, and Spoke Technologies, among others.
Thanks to his impressive background, Hamid has been able to drive innovations including a secured laser technology that boasts 40 times the capacity of regular fiber optic cables, without the carbon footprint.
11. Jenny Bird
Jenny Bird is a jewelry company founded in 2008 and named after its lead designer of the same name. Jenny's love of design was inspired by the natural surroundings she grew up around in Elora, Ontario. Her desire to create led her to develop her jewelry company, Jenny Bird, which has seen incredible growth over the past decade and is now recognized worldwide.
Never be afraid to say “I don’t know” and to ask for help.”
Jenny's pieces are worn by some of the world's most well-known names in Hollywood.
They're sold at hundreds of top retailers across the globe, including Nordstrom, Indigo, and Harvey Nichols, to name a few.
Over the years, Jenny has amassed an impressive arsenal of accolades and made it onto various coveted lists, including:
- The Globe & Mail's Report on Business list of Canada's Top Growing companies
- Growth 500 list of Canada’s fastest-growing companies
Jenny Bird is #265 on Globe & Mail's Report on Business list of Canada's Top Growing companies.
12. Shahrzad Rafati
Born in Tehran, Iran, Shahrzad Rafati became a Canadian citizen after immigrating to Vancouver, British Columbia as a teenager. In 2005, Rafati founded BroadbandTV, a Canadian media and technology firm that is the second largest video property, followed only by Google.
The company secured a massive $36 million investment from RTL Group in 2013. The Canadian entrepreneur continues to lead the company while also serving as a board member for several organizations, including social media management platform Hootsuite.
A tireless work ethic, and a willingness to constantly learn are more valuable assets than decades of experience
Shahrzad has been broadly recognized for her contributions to the media industry and entrepreneurship. In 2020, she was named the winner of the Business in Vancouver CEO Awards, Large Company Category.
13. Mike Lazaridis
Mike Lazaridis co-founded Research in Motion Limited (R.I.M.), which created the famous Blackberry and revolutionized how people communicate.
Lazaridis dropped out of university to achieve his first business-minded goal of creating and launching R.I.M. Since then, Lazaridis has founded other organizations, including the Centre for International Governance Innovation and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.
It’s not about what you know. It’s about what you dream."
Today, he is known as one of the most successful technologists in Canada and was named one of the top 100 most influential individuals by Time Magazine in 2005.
14. Tonia Jahshan
Canadian-born entrepreneur Tonia Jahshan built Steeped Tea and turned it into a massive retail empire that spans the globe.
Like many Canadians, Jahshan found herself working a job that she wasn't passionate about.
So in 2006, she decided to try out entrepreneurship by creating her own loose-leaf tea products and selling them.
Jahshan managed to take her small one-person company to one that now boasts thousands of sellers that help her rake in $20 million in annual sales.
Be passionate, trust your gut and believe in yourself.
Today, Jahshan not only continues to run her successful company, but also holds talks designed to inspire others to follow their passion.
15. Joseph-Armand Bombardier
The curious and inventive mind of Joseph-Armand Bombardier led him to launch Bombardier Limited, the largest railway equipment and civil airplane production company in the world.
From the time I was young, I dreamed of inventing a machine that would conquer the snow.
Born in Valcourt, Quebec, Bombardier dreamed of creating vehicles that would be capable of operating on the snow and at high speeds. He worked hard towards reaching this goal, which propelled him to eventually fulfill his dreams of developing and selling B7 snowmobiles.
16. Susan Niczowski
You may have come across Summer Fresh salads and dips in your grocery store, but what you may not know about these products is the CEO behind them. Since 1991, Susan Niczowski has been leading the company, which sells healthy-based mixed salads and dips.
Niczowski started teh company from her mother's kitchen
The key is to continuously meet budgets and keep growth and momentum steady
She played around with old family recipes for traditional Macedonian dips and sauces like hummus and baba ghanouj. It was a leap of faith to start the company, as these types of foods, while popular today, were not that common 30 years ago.
Through perseverance and belief in her products, Niczowski successfully changed the perception of these foods, which are now a staple in grocery stores and on kitchen tables of Canadian households.
17. Dani Reiss
Infamous outerwear company Canada Goose is run by Canadian entrepreneur Dani Reiss, who took the role of CEO in 2001.
It was his grandfather, a Polish immigrant, who originally developed the Canadian-based company in 1957, then known as Metro Sportswear. Reiss took Canada Goose public in 2017 and owns 18% of the stock himself.
The company is well-known for its high-quality down-filled jackets, which are not only favourites among Canadians, but are also coveted by the Hollywood elite.
Reiss has maintained Canada-based manufacturing without sending production overseas.
From my experience, the Canadian brand is very strong.
Thanks to his efforts to keep manufacturing on Canadian soil, the company now employs over 3,400 Canadians.
Related: Building community through clothing
18. Leonard Lee
Lee Valley is a retail store that specializes in unique woodworking and gardening tools, but it's also home to some unique gadgets you'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. Leonard Lee, a Canadian entrepreneur, founded Lee Valley in Ottawa in 1978, and since then, several more stores have opened up across Canada.
Saskatchewan-born Lee went on to launch Canica Design in 1998, a medical design company. As a result of his successes, Lee was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2002.
19. Martha Hall Findlay
Toronto-born Martha Hall Findlay started her career off in corporate and commercial law, and even got into politics after being elected to the House of Commons of Canada with the Liberal Party of Canada.
Following her political career, Findlay got into entrepreneurship and is now one of the country's most successful females in business. She was the president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation and currently serves as senior VP and chief sustainability officer of Suncor Energy.
We need to be very clear about whether we’re willing to take on the world and embrace the global economic opportunity, as opposed to hiding from it.
Findlay was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2023, named one of Canada’s ‘Clean50 and listed as a top global female oil and gas executive.
20. The McCain Brothers
Back in the 1950s, brothers Harrison, Wallace, Robert, and Andrew McCain launched McCain Foods, which has since gone on to become a global empire selling food products in grocery stores across the world.
The McCain brothers took inspiration from their father, who farmed potatoes.
Courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity for action despite our fears.
Using their agricultural background, combined with frozen food technological innovations, they decided to try their hand at entrepreneurship by freezing sliced-up potatoes in the form of french fries.
It wasn't long before McCain Foods became a well-established company in the world of Canadian products. Today, McCain Foods is the largest manufacturer of frozen potato products in the world.
It's your turn to join these Canadian entrepreneurs
One thing these Canadian entrepreneurs have in common is that all managed to reach soaring heights in the world of business. They took risks, created opportunities and overcame many obstacles to see their dreams reach fruition.
Successful businesses take time, patience and a whole lot of determination to see things through.
Don’t be afraid to start small and build your business one step at a time.
You, too, may be the next to join these famous entrepreneurs as the next big Candian success.
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Shweta Saxena contributed to this post.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Still have questions? The answers may well be here.
Who is the best Canadian entrepreneur?
Determining the 'best' Canadian entrepreneur can be subjective. However, some of the common names in almost every list of successful Canadian Entrepreneurs are:
- Mike Lazaridis, for creating BlackBerry and revolutionizing the way people connect
- The McCain brothers who co-founded the frozen foods empire
- Joseph-Armand Bombardier, known for launching the world's largest railway equipment and civil airplane production company
Who are 10 successful entrepreneurs?
As mentioned above Mike Lazaridis, the McCain Brothers and Joseph-Armand Bombardier are popular names often mentioned in discussions about Canada's top entrepreneurs. But if you’re looking for an extensive list of successful entrepreneurs in Canada, we've got you covered. Scroll up to see not just 10 but 20 inspiring Canadian entrepreneurs.
What is an entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurs are those creative people who spot opportunities and turn ideas into profitable businesses. They are innovators and problem solvers who dare to take risks and challenge the status quo by:
- Identifying solutions to common problems
- Creating new products or applications
- Changing the way we think and live
Challenging? You bet! Rewarding? Absolutely.
What are the benefits of being an entrepreneur?
While entrepreneurship might seem challenging, it comes with its benefits. From the freedom to set your own schedule to following your passion and doing what you love, entrepreneurship is one of the few career paths that can provide these qualities.
Where there is risk, there are rewards. Entrepreneurship gives you the chance to make money but also to have a lasting impact on society.
Which Canadian entrepreneurs go on CBC?
CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) is a great platform for Canadian entrepreneurs to share their stories, insights and experiences.
If you’re into entrepreneurship you might have heard about CBC's 'Dragons' Den, ' which is the Canadian version of 'Shark Tank.’ It features entrepreneurs pitching their innovative business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists. A great show for entrepreneurs to get ideas and learn from experienced VCs!
What is the capital of Canada?
The capital of Canada is Ottawa.
What is the name of the company started by Tony Hsieh?
The late entrepreneur Tony Hsieh founded Zappos. It’s an online shoe and clothing retailer renowned for its exceptional customer service and company culture.
Why are so many Canadian entrepreneurs successful?
While this statement could be debatable, there’s no doubt that Canadians are enthusiastic about entrepreneurship.
There are several factors that fuel this mindset. Many Canadians want to become entrepreneurs for flexibility and control over their careers. A significant number of people view entrepreneurship as a critical next step, especially when they feel they've peaked in their current roles.
Additionally, a majority believe that being one's own boss is the main incentive for starting a business. See GoDaddy’s Venture Forward research for the latest statistics on Canadian entrepreneurs.
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