Entrepreneurial thinking is a future-ready skill.

Yet we're treating it like an elective.

Future-Ready Skills

Skills that belong in every classroom

Not soft skills. Foundational skills — for every job, every life stage, every future.

Critical Thinking
Analyze, question, and build on ideas
Resilience
Fail, reflect, and keep going
Creativity
Generate original solutions to real problems
Collaboration
Build with others across differences
Problem-Solving
Start from a problem, not a solution
Adaptability
Navigate futures we can't fully predict

Be first in the CoLab Entrepreneurship Hub

What is it? A dedicated space inside our collaboration & networking app built for K12 — where the ecosystem can finally build the future of entrepreneurship - together

  • Find, share and iterate high-quality, vetted, teacher-applied resources — no starting from scratch and no stagnant collections.

  • Connect with collaborators — co-teachers, school partners, and organizations already doing this work.

  • Discover solutions — tech tools, PD providers, and events that support entrepreneurship education in real classrooms.

Built for the full K-12 ecosystem: educators, administrators, solutions providers, researchers, and industry partners.

Launching Soon 🚀

Launching Soon 🚀

How We Got Here

From classroom to conversation with Shopify

🏫
The Beginning
A teacher who never thought entrepreneurship was "for her"
Ariella spent over a decade loving her role as a middle school science and math teacher. But she spent most of those years feeling like an island. The tools didn't exist to stay connected with colleagues, trade resources without jumping through hoops, or find collaborators working on the same problems. She'd talk to teacher friends after hours and hear the same thing back — I wish there was an easier way. She'd never taken a business class. But she'd built a side-hustle on Shopify to support dog rescue — and realized she knew enough to build what was missing. So she left the classroom and built CoLab.
🎤
Elevate Festival 2025 — Toronto
CoLab opens for Harley Finkelstein on the main stage
Pitching in front of thousands, alongside the President of Shopify and executives from Cohere, OpenAI, Aurora, and more. Then Harley said something that stopped everything.
💡
The Spark
"We need to bring entrepreneurship into schools. The earlier the better."
Harley challenged the room to act. He said what needed to happen — but not how. That's where teachers come in.
— Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify
🎬
The Video
Ariella posts a direct message to Harley on LinkedIn
The pitch: pair Shopify's network of entrepreneurs with CoLab's network of teachers to co-create resources and support any teacher — Grade 1 to 12 — can actually use in their classroom.
⚡
Harley Responds
"Very cool. Let's go. Will be in touch."
These words from the President of Shopify mean the door is open.
📊
Now — 2026
Gathering real data from students and teachers
Through surveys, on-the-ground events like University of Toronto Entrepreneurship Week, and real conversations — we're finding out what students are actually experiencing. This goes directly into what we build next.
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Next — 2026
Turning data into real support for teachers
Evidence in hand, we go into the Shopify conversation ready to build — with teachers at the centre of it.
For Teachers

We can't skip over the people who make this actually happen.

Every conversation about entrepreneurship education jumps straight to what students need. The teacher who has to actually make it happen gets left out entirely.

Without teachers who are engaged, equipped, and genuinely supported — none of it happens. That's not an afterthought. It's the whole thing.

The reality right now

Where entrepreneurship education exists today, it exists because of dedicated teachers building things from scratch, on top of an already packed plate. It ends up as bell work or a pre-summer add-on — not woven into real curriculum. That's not sustainable. And it's not their fault.

What We're Building

Real infrastructure. Not another ask.

📚
Surface what already exists
Find the best resources teachers have already built. No starting from scratch.
🤝
Co-create together
Build with educators and partners like Shopify — your expertise, amplified.
🏆
Recognition for your work
Teachers leading this deserve to be seen and valued — not expected to give it away quietly.
🧩
Start small, go further
No overhaul. Embed this into what you're already doing, one step at a time.
🔄

Problem-based, experiential learning can replace existing work in the curriculum — not pile on top of it. The goal is to make this possible for every teacher, not just the ones willing to work twice as hard.

Student Survey

Before we build, we listen.

We're gathering data from students on what they're actually experiencing with entrepreneurship in school. What's working? What's missing?

This goes directly into our conversation with Shopify and what we build next at CoLab.

CoLab Education · Student Survey
Entrepreneurship in School: Your Experience
Share with your students! Their voice is helping build something real for classrooms.
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About 5 minutes
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Completely anonymous
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Grade 4 through post-secondary & recent grads

Created by CoLab Education · Founded by a former Ontario teacher

Have resources to share or want to get involved?

Send us a quick note and we’ll be in touch.