Founder's Lab

We are excited to have Felix Yuen, IP & Business Law hosting a interactive workshop.
https://fruba-ip.com/

Your idea might be your most valuable asset — but do you actually know what it's worth, how protected it is, or how to turn it into a competitive advantage?
This session is all about intellectual property, and we're making it hands-on, interactive, and (yes) actually fun.
We've got two hours and two experiences lined up for you.

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Hour 1 — The Sauce Rater Workshop
Every business has a "secret sauce" — the thing that makes it different. But most founders can't clearly articulate it, let alone protect or monetize it.
In this guided workshop, you'll work through identifying the true differentiators in your business (with a special focus on intangibles), score them against a structured evaluation framework, and assess how well those differentiators are actually being protected and commercialized.
You'll walk away with a clear picture of where your business stands on IP — and a concrete list of next steps to close the gaps.

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Hour 2 — The Brand Battles Game
This isn't a lecture. It's a fight for a brand name.
Split into three teams, you'll compete for the exclusive rights to a trademark in a game originally designed for Georgian College. Expect strategy, negotiation, and a mock tribunal — all built to give you a practical feel for how real brand disputes play out.
Because sooner or later, every business runs into an IP moment. This session makes sure you're ready when it happens.

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📅 Tuesday, May 12, 2026 🕕 6:00 PM 📍 MBO CoWorking — 78 George Street, Ottawa

Session Breakdown
• 6:00-6:05 Intro to Fruba and what to expect from the night
• 6:05-6:20 Identifying the true differentiators (finding the secret sauces)
• 6:20-6:35 Evaluating the differentiators for competitive edge (rating the sauces)
• 6:35-6:55 Protecting and using the differentiators (cooking the sauces)
• 6:55-7:00 Reset and set up for the game
• 7:00-7:55 Trademark IP game
• 7:55-8:00 Wrap-up

How to Tell Your Story and Turn Customers into Champions
We are excited to have Jeffrey Edwards, MBA Leadership & Executive Coach
https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardsjeffrey/

Your brand is so much more than a logo, it's the story behind why you started, who you serve, and why customers should choose you over everyone else. In this session, you'll learn how to define and tell your brand story in a way that's authentic, emotionally resonant, and consistent across every platform. We'll walk through how to identify your values and purpose, connect with your target audience, and build a community of brand champions who do the talking for you.

Three things founders struggle with that we'll work through together:

• "I don't know how to stand out" → You'll learn how to uncover your unique value proposition and use it to create a brand story that makes you memorable and hard to copy.
• "My messaging is all over the place" → You'll learn how to build consistency across platforms so every touchpoint, from your social posts to your client conversations, feels like the same confident brand.
• "I don't have a big budget for marketing" → You'll walk away with a toolkit of free and freemium tools (Canva, Copy.ai, Mailchimp, and more) that let you punch well above your weight.

If you're an early-stage founder who's been putting off the "brand stuff," this is your session. Come ready to work on your business and leave with a story worth telling. Grab your free spot before they're gone.

We are really erxcited to have Pascal Laliberté is a community member and organizer of the Minimum Viable Meetup, also hosted at MBO CoWorking.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascallaliberte/

This workshop is for those who aren't sure if there's demand for their product, who find their product hard to explain and sell, or who are hesitant about sales in general.

Come hang out with other founders in this workshop that mixes some hands-on exercise and theory to help you validate when sharing about your product will be a welcome gesture to the people you want to help.

He’ll be teaching the basics of the theory of buyer behaviour called Jobs-to-be-done, and its many implications:

• Not every conversation is meant to be a sales conversation - The basics of buyer deliberation
• The one word missing from your product pitch - How situations sometimes beat buyer personas
• You're more in competition with inaction than with your competitors - How there are surprising alternatives to your product
• You should make a worse product - How adding features might do the opposite effect on your product selling
• The gift mindset - How marketing is about creating a constellation of mini struggle-solvers around your product

📅 Tuesday, June 9, 2026 🕕 6:00 PM
📍 MBO CoWorking — 78 George Street, Ottawa

Session Breakdown
• 6:05 - Intros: Tell us about what you’re building
• 6:20 - Rapid-fire exercise: Rewrite your product intro
• 6:30 - Story time: Successfully selling to a reticent “buyer”
• 6:45 - The Hard Struggle: A pairing exercise
• 7:00 - Break
• 7:10 - Tools from the Jobs To Be Done theory and their implications
• 7:40 - Final roundtable: Revisiting each our product
• 7:55 - Wrap-up