Sustaining Momentum: How The Forum’s E-Series Spring Cohort Transformed Canadian Women Entrepreneurs and Reinvigorated Their Businesses

Building and growing a business is a process that’s full of excitement, life-changing connections, and new opportunities—but that process can also be overwhelming and filled with uncertainty. When you spend your time, energy, and resources on your vision day-to-day, it’s not always clear whether you're making the right decisions or moving in a direction that’s aligned with your goals. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? For entrepreneurs seeking guidance, support, and connection, finding a community of like-minded individuals you can trust can be transformative. It can help push past imposter syndrome, encourage strategic decision-making, and create a system of support that inspires personal and professional growth.

This past spring, 162 women entrepreneurs across 10 provinces and territories in Canada participated in The Forum E-Series Spring 2025, presented by RBC. Running from May 27, 2025, to June 12, 2025, this program was designed to provide access to critical education and lasting relationships to entrepreneurs in the early and intermediate stages of business growth. 

The cohort featured 27 expert speakers from seven Canadian provinces, and ultimately supported the program to achieve a 100% participant recommendation rate. 

Keep reading to learn more about E-Series, see what alumnae gained by taking part, and understand why they wouldn’t hesitate to refer another entrepreneur to this flagship program. 

Hands-On Learning and Actionable Insights

Whether you struggle with delegating tasks or have difficulty building a team, running a business as a solopreneur—or with minimal help—can make the weight of being a business owner feel even heavier. Inclusive and diverse, E-Series welcomes all self-identifying women, non-binary and trans-femme entrepreneurs from all backgrounds. Regardless of where you are in your business journey, E-Series offers insightful workshops for everyone and a strong ecosystem of support to accompany it. 

By intentionally spreading the program over nine days within a three-week span, attendees are given sufficient time to digest the information they learn, ask questions, and bounce ideas off each other. Focusing on the fundamentals of building a successful business on your terms, speakers led participants through live sessions on digital marketing, legal, human resources, generative AI, and financial literacy, and so much more. Through sessions and breakouts, participants understand how to make thoughtful, strategic decisions and when to take a calculated risk.

The spring faculty shared tangible strategies and insights to help guide participants in unlocking their business growth. With different breakout sessions occurring simultaneously, participants chose which live session best suited their needs, with replays of all sessions available afterwards. They received personalized support from the industry experts and seasoned entrepreneurs leading each session, leaving with knowledge, resources, and action steps that could be applied to their businesses immediately.

For many E-Series participants, enrolling in the program was game-changing.

“The Forum E-Series Program offered a fresh lens, grounding foundational concepts in the realities of entrepreneurship. It helped me move from overthinking to intentional action, and I now confidently show up in my new identity as the Founder of Lost+Found Personal Transformation. The program gave me momentum, reinforcing that I could build something aligned, impactful, and entirely my own.” — Ankita Rao, Founder, Lost+Found Personal Transformation.

Entrepreneurs left the program feeling confident in their abilities and equipped to achieve their business goals.

A Community of Champions

A common thread throughout many entrepreneurial journeys is the feeling of isolation. Steadily investing time and energy in building your vision can mean spending early hours or late nights on your own. To counter this feeling and connect entrepreneurs with the people that understand exactly where they’re coming from, The Forum thoughtfully designed E-Series to encourage genuine and mutually beneficial network growth, reminding participants that entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be a solitary experience. 

Ensuring E-Series participants had multiple ways to connect, participants had the option to engage in Coffee & Community Connects, a block of time to meet fellow entrepreneurs before diving into the scheduled sessions each day. By having designated peer-to-peer networking sessions, it provided participants with the opportunity to connect, share ideas, and tap into a national supportive group of like-minded entrepreneurs. For those who wanted to maintain momentum outside the designated meetings, an exclusive WhatsApp group was available for networking throughout the program and beyond. 

A willingness to show up, not only for themselves but for others, created a sense of support that reverberated throughout the E-Series group. 

“Beyond the content, this community created genuine safe spaces for real conversations about the entrepreneurial journey.” — Megan Swan, Founder, Megan Swan Wellness.

By creating a space where women could come together, participants felt comfortable building honest and true relationships. By the end of the program, these entrepreneurs gained a new community of people who want to open doors for one another, share resources, and champion each other.

Growing with Experts and Seasoned Entrepreneurs

Hailing from seven provinces, the 27 spring season faculty have a deep understanding of what it takes to ideate, build, and scale a business. 

Meeting entrepreneurs where they were in their journeys, The Forum curated a collective of high-profile, inspiring entrepreneurs who shared their knowledge on a breadth of topics, with some even being past E-Series participants themselves. These experts and entrepreneurs, and their respective classes, provide a glimpse into the range of the sessions offered in the Spring 2025 season:

• Avery Swartz of Camp Tech: Generative AI Fundamentals for Business (ON)

• Madie Spence of Lerue Creative, on behalf of Squarespace: Attract & Impress - How to Optimize Your Website to Grow Your Business (ON)

• Roshni Wijayasinha of Prosh Marketing: Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs (ON)

• Caroline Wakefield of Aspire Academy Hub: Market Smarts on a Shoestring: Harnessing Big Data Insights Without the Big Budget (BC)

• Merin Coutts, MC2 Coaching: Scaling Smart: Strategies to Unlock Potential and Master Business Expansion (AB)

Touched by the power and excellence of the spring cohort participants, this group also left a lasting impression on the speakers.

“Thank you for this opportunity to connect and keep us inspired. Thank you for having me there and giving me space. The value of what is being shared, the program curation, and the excellence is top tier.” — E-Series Spring 2025 Faculty 

With valuable takeaways and strategies that can be implemented amid rapidly changing industry conditions, The Forum’s group of speakers was invested in pouring their diverse knowledge into fellow women entrepreneurs and helping them unlock a new level of potential for their businesses. 

Learn more about all Spring 2025 faculty here.

The Forum Effect

By living in a world that’s increasingly connected, there is no shortage of information. A quick search or scroll can bring advice from numerous experts in a split second. While this has its place, information overload can creep in, often preventing business owners from taking action. The E-Series program is designed to cut through the noise. By streamlining information and providing value-packed, expert-led content, this season impacted the lives and businesses of over 150 women entrepreneurs. After nine days and 27 sessions, participants walked away with clarity, actionable strategies, renewed confidence, and a vibrant community of fellow entrepreneurs excited to support one another in their next chapter of transformative growth. 

Ready to Level Up Your Business?

Centred on education, community, and taking businesses to new heights, E-Series spotlights what's possible when an inclusive and welcoming space is created for women entrepreneurs to connect and build together. Are you ready to elevate your business and foster life-changing relationships? Join the waitlist for our next cohort.

Thanks to the support of our sponsors and donors, we’re happy to offer program fees on a sliding scale. While the full value of E-Series is $1,500, we ask you to consider your finances and pay what you can between $0-$849.