Getting your first job often comes with one frustrating catch: employers want experience, but getting that experience usually requires someone to hire you first.
This summer, the Embark Business Academy (Em-BA) delivered by DMZ set out to help change that.
From nearly 350 applications, we hand selected a group of career-hungry participants to join us for 14 weeks of workshops covering business fundamentals, AI fluency and career readiness. But Em-BA wasn't just about learning the theory.
Once the workshops wrapped up, 25 participants were chosen to take their skills even further, forming five teams of five to tackle real business challenges for real companies. Each participant received a $3,000 stipend as they researched problems, built strategies and used AI tools to develop solutions companies could actually put to work.
At our inaugural Em-BA Demo Day, we heard from the five standout teams as they pitched their solutions for a share of a $20,000 prize pool. From building growth strategies to finding new ways to reach customers, here's what our top teams came up with and who they had the chance to work with.
Meet the top 5 Em-BA finalist teams.
Team Access2Pay took home the $20,000 top prize for their work conducting primary research and stakeholder interviews to map out a go-to-market expansion strategy for Access2Pay's revenue operations platform.
Team Embark dug into user onboarding and conversion funnels to develop digital acquisition strategies designed to help more Canadian families open and maximize RESPs.
Team Arki brought an engineering mindset to business development, building a repeatable outbound sales engine for Arki's architectural project software.
Team SCOOTY took a closer look at the rider experience, using UX/UI analysis to identify feature priorities, sharpen market positioning and explore new AI/ML integrations for SCOOTY's RideGuide public transit companion.
Team Food Mamba tackled expansion, mapping supply dynamics, corporate customer acquisition channels and local vendor partnerships to build a playbook for entering the Vancouver market.
From classroom skills to business impact.
And these weren't projects destined to sit on a shelf. For the companies involved, the students' work provided real input they could use to move their businesses forward. For Access2Pay, that included research into six potential new markets, from universities and hospitals to transit and utilities, backed by stakeholder interviews and go-to-market analysis.
“The quality of thinking has made this a genuinely useful strategic input for our growth planning, not just a class exercise. We'd welcome the chance to host another cohort,” said Anand Misir, CEO of Access2Pay.
Embark got to experience that value firsthand, too. Beyond funding the program, the organization worked directly with one of the student teams on its own business challenge.
“Seeing Em-BA come to life and watching these students put their skills to work on real business challenges was incredibly rewarding. Our student team brought us fresh thinking and ideas we can actually use. That’s exactly what we hoped this program would create: meaningful experience for students and real value for the organizations they worked with,” said Andrew Lo, CEO of Embark.
Five teams. Five very different challenges. And 25 participants walking away with something increasingly valuable as they enter today's job market: proof that they can do the work.
From the classroom to real-world experience.
For students and new graduates, breaking into the workforce can feel like a catch-22. Entry-level roles ask for experience, but it's hard to build that experience until someone gives you a shot. That's the gap Em-BA was built to help close.
Instead of simply studying strategy, participants had to build one. Instead of learning how to pitch, they had to pitch. Instead of talking about how AI is changing the workplace, they had to put those tools to work solving actual business problems.
By the end of the program, participants weren't just walking away with another line on their resumes. They had projects they could point to, problems they'd helped solve and firsthand experience working with companies.
That opportunity was made possible through the support of Embark Foundation, whose $500,000 grant enabled DMZ to make the program free for participants and create paid opportunities for students to put their skills into practice.
Want to be the first to hear about upcoming programming? Subscribe to DMZ’s Tech Talk newsletter to stay up to date on early 2027 youth and skills focused initiatives.
.png)