CASE STUDY
CANADIAN WOMEN’S CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (CANWCC)
EMPOWERING THROUGH DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
Maximum Impact for Allied Women
Introduction
Women represent only 16% of entrepreneurs in Canada, making CanWCC’s mission not just important but vital. InFounders partnered with CanWCC to bring peership roundtables to their members, offering a space where women entrepreneurs could connect, support each other, and unlock new opportunities.
This case study highlights the real impact of these roundtables: how InFounders’ peer collaboration led to powerful networks, strategic growth, and transformative success stories for women in business.
The Challenge
Women entrepreneurs often navigate their journey without a strong peer network, facing challenges unique to their dual roles in business and life. CanWCC sought to support them while recognizing that their members are highly strategic about where they invest their time, given the demands of running a business alongside other responsibilities.
To provide a solution with real ROI on their time, CanWCC partnered with InFounders to introduce Peership Roundtables—structured, high-impact peer communities designed to foster support, insight, and growth.
Transformative Stories: Empathy, Resilience, and Growth
InFounders roundtables gave women entrepreneurs a powerful space to connect, share, and grow together. With deep empathy and a shared understanding of each other’s challenges, these women didn’t just support each other—they invested in each other’s success.
Participants checked in outside of meetings, offered both tactical strategies and mindset shifts, and celebrated wins together. The results speak for themselves:
- Overcoming imposter syndrome and stepping into their full potential.
- Closing major contracts through insights and connections gained in the group.
- Achieving significant business revenue growth with the support of peers who believed in them.
CanWCC members experienced firsthand how community is a competitive advantage.
Jennifer Haufler, below, was a CanWCC member.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Common Shared Experiences Fuel Deep Connections
Seeing how our roundtables offered a space where participants could finally be surrounded by fellow women entrepreneurs who understood their reality, bonds within CanWCC roundtables were incredibly deep and powerful.
2. Reframing Mindsets
Women entrepreneurs can grapple with intricate emotions that can hinder their progress and limit their potential. These emotions, such as self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and fear of failure, can create mental barriers impeading progress. Addressing these emotions and developing emotional resilience is crucial to unlocking their full potential and empowering them to succeed in their entrepreneurial ventures. Emotional support provided in these roundtables played a pivotal role in helping women entrepreneurs navigate these challenges and move past emotional barriers to achieve their goals.
3. Meaningful Connections Amplify Impact
The roundtables’ focus on empathy and understanding, coupled with efficient time management, allowed women to navigate challenges swiftly, amplifying the impact of their businesses.
4. Pooling Women-Specific Resources
As women entrepreneurs, participants had unique and powerful recommendations of resources, insights, grants, and connections that perfectly applied to other women entrepreneurs like them.
EXPANDING NATIONALLY
With the great success of these local cohorts, CanWCC will soon be expanding its InFounders roundtables at the national level.
We are thrilled to be helping them support a growing number of women entrepreneurs all across Canada!
CONCLUSION
Entrepreneurship can often seen as an uphill battle for women, but for the CanWCC participants in these roundtables, their shared experiences became a source of power, an asset – not a barrier. In each other, they found understanding, insight, and support that made them stronger.
These roundtables didn’t just provide knowledge; they created a space where the unique realities of being a woman in business were not just acknowledged but leveraged as a strategic asset.
The result? A tight-knit network of incredible women who didn’t just navigate entrepreneurship together but elevated each other to new heights of success.
PEERSHIP MAKES BUSINESS SENSE
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