Eight Canadian Youth Business Foundation entrepreneurs recognized by TELUS

October 30, 2012

Eight Canadian Youth Business Foundation entrepreneurs recognized by TELUS

TELUS launches November smartphone campaign, donates $25 from the sale of every business smartphone to CYBF

TORONTO, ON (October 30, 2012) – The Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) is pleased to recognize eight young entrepreneurs and their businesses supported by TELUS’ $171,000 donation to CYBF.

Back in April, CYBF and TELUS announced a joint partnership to help young entrepreneurs soar to new heights with their businesses. As part of the commitment, TELUS made a donation of $100* to CYBF for every person who attended a TELUS Challenge event, a year-long event series that supported small businesses with speakers and information to help them successfully tackle their business challenges such as how to increase their reach using social media and how to attract and retain Gen Y employees.

In addition, during the month of November, in support of Global Entrepreneurship Week (November 12-18), TELUS will be committing $25** from the sale of every business smartphone to CYBF to support young entrepreneurs as part of the donation.

The funds raised from the event series and smartphone campaign will go towards supporting eight businesses through CYBF’s program of pre-launch coaching, business resources, start-up financing and mentoring. The entrepreneurs recognized today will also be provided mentoring sessions with senior TELUS staff, promotional support through speaking and networking opportunities and a free Samsung Galaxy Note.

“CYBF is delighted to partner with TELUS to help young entrepreneurs succeed while also driving a culture of youth entrepreneurship in Canada,” said Katrina White, Chief Strategy Officer, CYBF. “This partnership is instrumental in helping us provide the vital tools and support needed to prepare new generations of Canadian entrepreneurs to embrace the challenge involved in realizing their dreams of owning their own business.”

To date, CYBF has invested in more than 5,260 young entrepreneurs, whose businesses have created more than 20,800 new jobs.

“At TELUS, we have a philosophy to “give where we live” and in this case, that means supporting the growth of entrepreneurial business in Canada,” said Jim Senko, vice-president of Small and Medium Business Marketing at TELUS. “CYBF is a very dynamic and effective organization, and TELUS is very pleased to be working with them to empower the next generation of business owners.”

The CYBF entrepreneurs and businesses that will benefit from TELUS’ support are:

  • Grass Frame Works: James Moore and Al Roback of Vancouver, British Columbia manufacture bamboo bicycle frames and fully assembled bicycles using these frames. The frames come from fully sustainable materials such as bamboo, hemp fibre and plant based epoxy. www.grassframes.ca.
  • Kamisand Media Group: Nigel Fish and Mitchell Bowler of Vancouver, British Columbia, developed Kamisand Media Group, a website asset brokerage that connects owners of small- to medium-sized website-based business to individual investors interested in expanding their own online revenue portfolio. www.kamisand.com.
  • Fine Line Homes: Chris McLaren of Okotoks, Alberta custom builds homes focusing on ecofriendly products, innovative processes and green building techniques. www.finelinehomes.ca.
  • 3twenty Solutions: Bryan McCrea and Evan Willoughby of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan design and manufacture durable, stackable and transportable modular work force houses, offices and custom products for the mining, oil/gas, construction and industrial markets. http://3twenty.ca.
  • Anice Jewellery: Brittany Hopkins of Toronto, Ontario, offers one-of-a-kind jewellery, custom and repair work, antiques and workshops. www.anicejewellery.com.
  • InsurEye: Alexey Saltykov and Dmitry Mityagin of Toronto, Ontario create free online tools for consumers to educate them about insurance and create transparency in the insurance marketplace in Canada. This includes price comparison and customer experience tools and a credit card navigator. https://insureye.com.
  • 3D Energy: Jean Carriere of Ottawa, Ontario provides energy simulations and virtual design consultations to architects, engineers, builders and building owners in order to reduce energy consumption and create a sustainable environment. www.3denergy.ca.
  • Numesco: Mylene Montpetit of Suroit-Sud, Quebec offers innovative graphics design and publishing of 3D educational books for kids using an interactive whiteboard and developed with input from teachers. www.numesco.com.

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*Challenge event series raised $64,000 for CYBF
**Campaign runs from November 1 – 30, 2012. TELUS will contribute a maximum of $107,000. Eligible for new business activations and renewals of smartphones. Total donation to CYBF including Challenge event series is $171,000.

About CYBF – Canada’s Entrepreneur Gateway

The Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) is the ‘go to’ place for youth entrepreneurship. As a national organization, we are dedicated to growing Canada’s economy one young entrepreneur at a time. We look at character not collateral, when providing youth, age 18-39, with pre-launch coaching, business resources, start-up financing and mentoring, to help them launch and sustain a successful entrepreneurial business. CYBF is the founder of G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit (G20 YES) and founding member of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance (G20 YEA). www.cybf.ca.

About TELUS

TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $10.6 billion of annual revenue and 12.8 million customer connections including 7.4 million wireless subscribers, 3.5 million wireline network access lines, 1.3 million Internet subscribers and 595,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment and video.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed more than $260 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 4.2 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Fourteen TELUS Community Boards lead TELUS’ local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Lesley Wilmot
Director, Marketing and Communications, CYBF
1-866-646-2923 Ext. 2203, cell: 647-680-8165
lwilmot@cybf.ca

Elisabeth Napolano
TELUS Media Relations
416-906-9830
Elisabeth.Napolano@telus.com