As part of the Canadian Centre for the Innovation Economy (CCIE), DMZ fueled the development of Canada’s 2024 Innovation Report Card, which gave our country’s innovation performance a C. Although we didn’t ace it, knowing where our shortcomings lie is the first step to boosting our innovation game.

There’s a lot of unknown about the future of the innovation economy in Canada. 2024 brought us many curveballs – declining capital for early-stage companies, recent changes in capital gains taxes, more entrepreneurs going back to their day jobs and a soaring cost of living. While the dust begins to settle, the best thing we can do as an innovation ecosystem is take note of where we stand.

Here are our four key takeaways for how our innovation ecosystem can level up.

1. Adopting the 3 pillars of innovation: Capacity, activity and results.
2. Embracing competition to boost innovation. 
3. Stepping up our patent game to compete globally. 
4. Bridging the gap from early stage success to sustainable growth.

Adopting the 3 pillars of innovation: Capacity, activity and results.

Canada’s innovation capacity focuses on resources for human capital, knowledge and entrepreneurship. Our activity centers on investments and early entrepreneurial steps, while our results gauge the impact and productivity of innovations.

So why does all this matter?

Innovation is vital for economic growth. Having a high innovation capacity breeds creativity, constant activity transforms these ideas into action, and the results can be measured by real-world impact.

In a nutshell, these fundamentals are the keys to Canada staying ahead in the global game and thriving on the world stage.

Over the past 10 years, the DMZ has evolved from an informal student coworking space into the world’s top university-based incubator and accelerator program. How was this made possible? Through a vision to empower people to go bigger. Bigger than themselves. Bigger than our space. And bigger than imagined.

As we celebrate our tenth-year anniversary, we reflect on how the DMZ became a globally-recognized, powerhouse incubator for tech startups.

How the DMZ came to be

In 2010, a student at Toronto Metropolitan University approached the school’s then-President, Sheldon Levy with a request. The student had an idea for a business but he couldn’t find support on campus to bring it to fruition. Sheldon, as the visionary leader behind Ryerson’s transformation to what it is today, recognized the opportunity and founded the DMZ, then known as the Digital Media Zone.

When the Digital Media Zone was launched in April 2010, it was conceptualized as an open space for Ryerson students to work on business ideas. It had a 100% acceptance rate and the initial goal was to simply fill the space, test the concept and build energy. Spearheaded by its first Executive Director, Valerie Fox, the space was given its name because most students at the time were working on business ideas in the digital media field.

From the beginning, there was significant interest in the Digital Media Zone. Showing signals of early success, Valerie Fox and the leadership team made a transformative decision to open it up to the public. No longer would you have to be a Ryerson student – or even a student at all, for that matter – to belong to the space. This change marked a turning point, and the Digital Media Zone started receiving applications from tech founders across Canada, as well as volunteer mentors, advisors and corporate partners who wanted to be part of something new.

Then came another turning point for the Digital Media Zone. With the tech startup market growing quickly, the space was being flooded with applications and increased attention. The Digital Media Zone was becoming the benchmark for incubators, so a decision was made to give it a new face and further develop its programming. First, the Digital Media Zone was rebranded to become the DMZ, signaling it had become tech sector agnostic. Second, additional staff members were hired to build out its internal capacity, startup programs and investor network. And third, the Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) program was established to attract additional outside industry mentors and community champions. Together, these changes set the course for the DMZ’s accelerated growth and success.

In July 2015, Abdullah Snobar took over the role of Executive Director, after working at the DMZ for several years as the Director of Business Development and Community and before that with startups in several capacities. Building on the momentum already underway, Abdullah had a vision to take the DMZ even higher, driven to uncover new ways to  help its startups grow. He set to work, talking to entrepreneurs and listening to their pain points, trying to understand how the DMZ could serve them better. He invested in rebuilding the DMZ so it offered more functional workspaces, better communal areas to host events and investor meetings, and home-like amenities, such as coffee, snacks and showers. Abdullah knew that if he could get more people into the space – from founders, to EiRs, to investors – it would elevate the DMZ’s visibility. He also knew that a comfortable environment would support founders as they spent long hours taking advantage of their short runway to build a startup.

Next, the DMZ set out to build a mission statement and clarify its values. The DMZ took a different approach to other incubators, deciding to put an emphasis on supporting founders, rather than startups. This, in turn, led the DMZ to begin accepting applications from founders who showed incredible potential, even if their startup idea wasn’t there yet. The DMZ also put considerable resources into expanding its program team, growing it to become the largest department.

Finally, with much success at home in Canada, the DMZ turned international, quickly attracting global attention and bringing founders from around the world to within its four walls.

What does the DMZ look like today?

Today, the DMZ is ranked as the top university-based incubator in the world by UBI Global, standing out as the best amongst over 200 programs in its category.

The DMZ has a growing team of over 30 staff and it occupies more than 40,000 square feet of space overlooking downtown Toronto. As of 2019, the DMZ has supported over 448 startups, which have collectively raised more than $714 million in seed funding and fostered over 4,000 jobs.

The DMZ is also home to world-class mentors and partners. It has opened international offices in New York City and Amman and is doubling down on a number of local initiatives.

What has helped the DMZ succeed?

Perhaps the biggest factor that helped the DMZ get to where it is today has been an unwavering commitment to its values: Founders first. Equity over everything. Be great. These values have set the course and helped the DMZ make difficult decisions along the way. They’ve also given rise to the DMZ’s four core offerings for founders: coaching, community, support with customer acquisition and access to capital.

Another factor that has contributed to the DMZ’s success has been its leadership. The DMZ has brought on an advisory council made up of exceptional individuals – including Ryerson’s President, Mohamed Lachemi – who are committed to the DMZ’s values. Some of the individuals who have been foundational in shaping and leading the DMZ include Raymond Chang, Alan Shepard, Valerie Fox, Sheldon Levy and Hossein Rahnama.

By thinking big, acting with laser focus and bringing in people who believe in its vision, the DMZ has grown its impact larger than it ever could have initially imagined.

What makes the DMZ special?

Reflecting on the accomplishments, challenges and victories of the past decade, these items stand out as particularly salient:

• The DMZ has had the ability to influence post-secondary curriculum and policy. It’s brought industry and academia together (and also kept them separate at the right times) and developed a new model for experiential learning.
• The DMZ has created a place where people are supported to work on their dreams. It’s a space infused with passion, purpose and energy. Founders are putting themselves out there, knowing that their ideas could either fail fast or impact the world significantly.
• The DMZ has helped shape tech startup culture, transforming it from something that was considered simply “cool” to something that’s more mature. The majority of founders at the DMZ no longer set out for the coolness factor. Rather, they do it to fill an underserved gap in the market – often investing and risking serious time, money and resources.
• The DMZ has helped change the conversation on employment. By empowering people to become job providers, rather than job consumers, the DMZ has helped the wider community rethink their view of tech startups.
• The DMZ has helped bring attention to Toronto’s burgeoning tech sector. Over the past decade, the DMZ has been honoured to host notable visitors, including Prince Charles, Arlene Dickinson, Jack Dorsey and Prime Minister Trudeau. The DMZ has also expanded Canada’s presence internationally and helped high potential founders from around the world make Toronto their home.
• The DMZ has created a benchmark across the world, offering best in class support that’s structured and customized around the needs of each individual founder and startup. Respected as the top incubator globally, other programs look up to the DMZ as the gold standard and are asking how they can model on its success.

What’s in store for the DMZ?

This year, and in the years ahead, we’ll continue to be driven by our values and mission, seeking answers to our most important questions:

• What else can we do to support our founders and community?
• How can we work more closely with governments to facilitate relationships with tech startups?
• How can we embolden more corporations to work with tech startups?
• What can we do to push even harder on the international scene, helping Canadian startups become global powerhouse businesses, while also attracting even more talent to Canada?
• How can we continue to foster a “grit effect” and attract founders to our space who have both passion and perseverance?
• And perhaps most importantly, how can we ensure that what we’re doing is not just a hidden secret for the DMZ? How can we continue to put equity above everything, supporting different communities and ensuring no one is left behind?

Building the momentum of the past ten years, our vision is to keep going bigger. Bigger for our founders, bigger for our community and bigger with our impact.

If we’ve gone from being an informal student coworking space to the world’s top incubator in only 10 years, just imagine what we can achieve in the next decade.

“(At DMZYYZ) you tap right into the middle of a network, not just 2 or 3 LinkedIn meetings, but you dive into a community and you are surrounded by customers and mentors.” – Kata Ludvig, 2019 DMZYYZ Participant from Hungary CMO of BankZee

DMZYYZ is a two-week intensive soft-landing program in Toronto, Canada. The program fuels integration between international growth-stage startups and the North American market.

The North American innovation ecosystem is made of global Industry-leaders, and we’re just getting started.  DMZYYZ is your personalized ticket in.

Toronto has reached a whole new level, on and off the court.

WHY DMZYYZ?

This is not one size fits all, but a tailored two-week program based on your business.

• Need to improve your growth strategy but completed your product testing?
• Need investor support but not marketing?
• Wherever you are on your journey, DMZYYZ will meet you right there.

HOW?

Week 1

• 1-1 COACH- personalized coaching from our Entrepreneurs in Residence (EiRs).
• TAILORED LEARNING- sessions with cutting-edge industry champions.
• INTRODUCTIONS- pitch coaching and scheduled meetings with investors who make sense for your business.

Week 2

• TICKETS TO A WORLD LEADING TECH CONFERENCE-  connect with DMZ’s community and alumni of serial entrepreneurs from Canada and America.
• CONTINUED COACHING, NETWORKING AND SUPPORT- from DMZ’s team, community and EiRs while you are here and once you have gone home.

Meet one of  DMZ YYZ’s Entrepreneurs in Residence (EiRs) Phillip Gales:

“Harvard Business and Cambridge Engineering graduate, he’s raised $12 million from international VCs. He will teach you how he built an oil and gas data analytics company funded by Y-Combinator (W14).  He currently runs inate.ai, a company that optimizes startups and automates VC due diligence utilizing AI.”

Meet the rest of DMZYYZ’s EiRs (bios found in coaching subsection of page).

“We really benefited from the space. It was great going to meet with investors and seeing people interested in not just money making but also what we are trying to achieve.”

– Mohammad Saif Ahmad, 2019 DMZYYZ Participant from Jamaica, Founder of SmartTerm

RioAnalytics Founder, Victor Chaves from Brazil, saw an opportunity in Toronto and was able to take it because of DMZYYZ. RioAnalytics secured a lead investor for Series A round during DMZYYZ and generated 150+ customer leads. After DMZYYZ, RioAnalytics is now operating out of Toronto with staff and Victor is relocating to Toronto through DMZ’s Startup Visa Program.

“The calibre of the network within the DMZ community is huge. The amount of knowledge transfer that happens within the conversations you have is second to none.”

– Zoltan Czikos, 2019 DMZ YYZ Participant, Co-Founder of Hungarian-based startup, Neticle

After the program, DMZYYZ alumni have access to EiR online coaching, DMZ online content, investor introductions and community. Also, access to DMZ Toronto and DMZ New York offices for subsequent visits.

Applications are now open, it is time to start your global impact. APPLY NOW