Indigenous entrepreneurs are building businesses in an increasingly digital economy, and the tools they need can look different depending on where they are in their business journey. From developing a strong business idea to reaching customers online, building a website, or understanding how to market effectively, digital skills are becoming an important part of starting and growing a business.
That is why the Indigenous Prosperity Foundation’s Launchpad program is collaborating with Jelly Academy to expand access to practical digital skills training for Launchpad participants, including website development and digital marketing.
The collaboration strengthens the Launchpad entrepreneur journey by integrating specialized digital training alongside the program’s broader business learning, mentorship, peer connection, and opportunities to access seed funding. Rather than treating digital skills as separate from entrepreneurship, the partnership recognizes that entrepreneurs increasingly need both business knowledge and the confidence to use digital tools effectively.
It also reflects the value of partnerships in creating a stronger ecosystem of support for Indigenous entrepreneurs. By bringing together Launchpad’s entrepreneurship programming with Jelly Academy’s digital expertise, participants can access practical learning that responds to real business needs and can be applied directly to their own ventures.
Different businesses. Different digital needs.
Every entrepreneur enters Launchpad with different goals, strengths, and levels of digital confidence. This collaboration adds flexible digital training that can help qualifying participants build skills they can apply directly to their businesses.
Putting Learning into Practice
Through the Jelly Academy collaboration, participants can build practical skills across three areas of their digital business journey:
- Digital Confidence: Build practical skills using everyday digital tools for business.
- Digital Presence: Develop your website, content, branding, and online business presence, including learning through Jelly Academy’s Build Your First Website with Squarespace training.
- Digital Growth: Strengthen your marketing, customer engagement, and analytical skills through training in Social Media Strategy, Email Marketing and Automation, and Google Analytics 4.
The goal is not simply to teach technology. It is to give entrepreneurs practical tools they can use to communicate, organize, market, and grow their businesses with greater confidence.
And There’s More: Turning Learning into Something Tangible
Another value-add within the Squarespace + Digital Marketing stream is sponsored Squarespace website support. This added support is designed to help entrepreneurs move from learning into application by giving them an opportunity to use the skills developed through training to strengthen their own digital business presence.
For an early-stage entrepreneur, building or improving a website can be an important step in becoming more visible, reaching customers, sharing their story, and creating new opportunities for growth. Pairing practical training with website support helps bridge the space between learning a new skill and putting that skill to work in a real business.
Together, the Squarespace and digital marketing training creates a practical pathway from building digital confidence to establishing an online presence and learning how to reach and understand customers. It is another way Launchpad is adding specialized supports that complement the broader entrepreneur journey.
Additional details about the Squarespace support and participant process will be shared directly through the Launchpad team as they are finalized.
A Stronger Launchpad Experience
The Jelly Academy collaboration is one part of Launchpad’s broader approach to supporting Indigenous entrepreneurs. Through business learning, mentorship, peer connection, seed funding opportunities, and specialized programming, Launchpad continues to build multiple pathways of support that can respond to different stages, goals, and opportunities in the entrepreneur journey.
“What excites us about this collaboration is the opportunity to connect learning with something entrepreneurs can immediately put to work in their businesses. Alongside practical digital marketing and website training, the added Squarespace support creates a tangible next step for participants who are building their online presence. That kind of practical application is a meaningful value-add to Launchpad and to the entrepreneur experience we are continuing to build.”
— Michelle Okere, Executive Director, Indigenous Prosperity Foundation
About Jelly Academy
Jelly Academy provides practical digital skills and digital marketing training designed to help learners apply what they are learning in real-world settings. For this Launchpad collaboration, programming includes Build Your First Website with Squarespace along with Digital Marketing Bootcamp modules in Social Media Strategy, Email Marketing and Automation, and Google Analytics 4.
Training will be supported by Jelly Academy instructors Leanne Kenny, Deanna Wampler, Naomi West, and Alex Zagoumenov. Jelly Academy describes its training approach as grounded in accessibility and practicality, with learning designed to meet participants at different levels of digital experience and with different business goals.
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Indigenous Prosperity Foundation to provide Indigenous youth entrepreneurs with access to practical skills training that will help them build digital confidence to manage their business and their marketing efforts. Our training is grounded in accessibility and practicality: we will meet participants where they are, based on their digital experience and different business goals. Launchpad is an incredible program for Indigenous youth entrepreneurs, and we can’t wait to contribute to supporting them build, validate and grow their business ideas.”
— Darian Kovacs, Principal, Jelly Academy
Looking Ahead
The collaboration will extend beyond the training itself. As participants move through the program, IPF and Jelly Academy will look for opportunities to share what entrepreneurs are learning, how they are applying new digital tools, and how those skills are supporting their businesses.
The strongest measure of success will not simply be how many participants complete training, but what entrepreneurs are able to do with it, whether that means launching a website, improving an existing digital presence, developing a marketing strategy, understanding their analytics, or adopting tools that make running their business easier.
Interested in Launchpad?
Launchpad cohorts continue throughout the year, creating multiple opportunities for Indigenous entrepreneurs to participate.
To learn more about Launchpad, upcoming cohort opportunities, or the Jelly Academy training stream, contact the IPF Programs Team at programs@indigenousfoundation.ca