Callum Presenting at a Startup Weekend Event
Callum Mayer grew up in the Maritimes and studied at Dalhousie University where he completed his Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Finance. Callum wanted to become an entrepreneur from an early age, especially when he saw the success of local entrepreneurial ventures, such as Pete’s Fr00tique. For his third co-op, Callum undertook an Entrepreneurial Work Term (EWT) with one of his friends.
They started a company, called “Student Shine”. The business offered student driven services for property maintenance, such as pressure washing and window and gutter cleaning. After one successful year of operation, Callum wanted to focus on new business ventures and their team partnered with transferred their operations to Freshman Services.
From the outside, Callum is clearly an entrepreneur at heart. Callum met Mary in the Innovation class at Dalhousie University. Similar to Megan, he was invited to participate in a Startup Weekend Event and loved it. He has since participated in the Summer UP accelerator program at Dal, as well as, Propel ICT’s Launch 36 Accelerator.
Callum explains the significant role events that the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship runs, such as Pitch Competitions, the summer accelerator, and Canada’s Business Model Competition play for student entrepreneurs. The events help students expand their network, access mentoring, find a space to work and focus, as well as, give them access to much needed funding to advance their businesses.
As our conversation wraps up, I wonder why Callum has not decided to leave and he describes the same culture that I had heard earlier from Megan. The Halifax startup community has a unique and genuine, “pay it forward” mentality. Callum describes it as being able to reach out to nearly anyone and having them be willing to help out because everyone wants to see everyone succeed here!
