Today, Pow Wow Pitch, North America’s premier pitch competition for emerging Indigenous entrepreneurs, announced a first-time partnership with Square to support Indigenous entrepreneurs to grow sales online and as pandemic lockdown restrictions lift.

Pow Wow Pitch launched seven years ago as a grassroots pitch contest for vendors at the Ottawa Summer Solstice Pow Wow. With lockdown restrictions and Pow Wow cancellations in 2020, when Pow Wow Pitch moved online in 2020, it saw viral uptake by Indigenous entrepreneurs across Canada looking to gain exposure and support for their businesses. 

Indigenous Canadians are starting businesses at twice the rate as non-Indigenous-owned businesses and Indigenous women starting businesses at five times the rate of non-Indigenous women, leading the Indigenomics Institute to project entrepreneur-led growth to drive the $100B Indigenous-led economic growth by 2030. 

Pow Wow Pitch Founder and Anishnabeg entrepreneur and author from the Kitigan Zibi First Nation, Sunshine Tenasco, recognized the need for educational resources, mentorship, and tools to help new Indigenous entrepreneurs startup and sell anywhere, anytime.

“I want to provide Pow Wow vendors and Indigenous entrepreneurs with tools, training and technology that can help them to realize their dreams faster,” said Sunshine Tenasco. “Our partnership with Square will support Pow Wow Pitch entrepreneurs to grow sales and build momentum for their business ideas.”

Pow Wow Pitch and Square share the belief that everyone should have the ability to participate and thrive in the economy. Square’s tools empower and enrich entrepreneurs and shorten the distance between having an idea and making a living from it. 

Through this partnership, Square will support Indigenous entrepreneurs of all sizes to start, run, and grow their business by providing education on POS and selling online and offline, engaging its employees as mentors of Pow Wow Pitcher, adjudicating the pitch competition, and contributing prize dollars for winning entrepreneurs. 

“Entrepreneurship is an important tool supporting reconciliation, and it takes all hands on deck to support Indigenous entrepreneurs,” said Tenasco. “We are proud to continue kick-start a partnership with Square as we build an ecosystem for Indigenous-owned startups and entrepreneurs.”

To learn more about the partnership between Pow Wow Pitch and Square, visit www.powwowpitch.org/square.

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