Expert Advisor Program
The Expert Advisor Program (EA Program) matches early-stage startup companies with seasoned experts to help them achieve their business goals. This program leverages the domain expertise of advisors to help entrepreneurs work on specific challenges within a timeline. Advisors on the roster have deep expertise in the Areas of Expansive Support listed below, and use their experiences and successes to help startups avoid common pitfalls and streamline their path to success.
Access to the Expert Advisor Program is exclusive to members of Innovate Calgary hubs. If you are a member, you can collaborate with any advisor on our roster to gain valuable insights and strategic guidance. Interested in becoming a member? Download the membership brochure.
How Entrepreneurs Succeed with Expert Advisors
Expert Advisors, Expansive Support
We have experts from a wide array of industries and expertise.
Business Strategy & Development
Operations & Management
Finance & Funding
People & Culture
Marketing & Communications
Product & Innovation
Meet our Expert Advisors
How it works
Hands-on service is available exclusively to active members of one or more of our hubs. To get started, you’ll have an introductory meeting with an advisor, where a Statement of Work is outlined, detailing maximum hours, timelines, and specific deliverables. From there, you’ll collaborate with top industry experts to accomplish your business objectives.
Frequently asked questions
Access to the Expert Advisor Program is included with your Innovate Calgary hub membership. Interested in becoming a member? Download the Membership Brochure.
Select Incubator and Accelerator program participants have access to the EA Program. If you believe your program offers EA hours, please contact your Program Manager for more information.
If you run a program and would like your participants to have access to expert advisory support, please reach out to expertadvisorprogram@innovatecalgary.papercrane.ca
Please fill out this online FORM and outline the business need you have or the EA you would like to work with.
The EA Program Manager will reach out to you with next steps within 3 business days.
The program offers advisory in key areas that are highly relevant to our Members; such as business development, marketing, intellectual property, regulatory, finance etc. We are continuously striving to ensure the advice needed by our members is available, and that the advisors in the program are consistently delivering high-quality guidance.
The program is not designed to provide advisory in niche areas.
Furthermore, the program is not designed to provide service offerings. Areas such as bookkeeping, software development, grant writing and submission are not covered by the program.
Member companies accrue EA hours at a rate of 2.5 hours/month, for a total of 30 hours/year. Unused hours are carried over to the next month but not to the next membership year.
We want to ensure our Members can utilize their hours when needed most, and therefore we will assess exceptions to allow the use of hours prior to full accrual on a case-by-case basis.
If you receive EA hours through participation in a program, please contact your Program Manager for details on the number of hours included.
Please email expertadvisorprogram@innovatecalgary.papercrane.ca and request information about the number of hours you have used and how many hours you have available to work with an EA . As a Member you will also receive an email at regular intervals outlining the hours you have used and the number of hours that are still available.
Access to the program is limited to Members and program participants, and more hours cannot be granted or purchased at this time.
“EA Engagement” is the term we use to describe the work done between a Member/Program Participant and an EA through the EA Program. It begins with a Statement of Work (SOW) document to define the work you will do together, the time frame it will be accomplished in, and the number of hours allocated to accomplish the work. This is followed by the execution of the defined work, under the defined timeline and hours allotment.
Depending on the availability of the requested EA, and the schedules of all parties, it can take from 3 days to 3 weeks to book an intro call and set up an EA engagement. Please plan for it to take at least 2 weeks.
All advisors sign an Expert Advisor Service Agreement (EASA) with Innovate Calgary, which includes a comprehensive section on the non-disclosure of confidential information.
A Statement of Work (SOW) must be agreed to and signed by the Member, the EA and Innovate Calgary before starting an EA engagement. This outlines the start date, end date, maximum number of hours, and what will be accomplished.
The EA Program Manager will make sure all necessary contracts are in place.
If you believe there is an expertise gap in the program and that a certain expertise would benefit your company and other Member companies, please email expertadvisorprogram@innovatecalgary.papercrane.ca with your suggestion. Note that new advisors’ expertise must be relevant to a subset of our membership to ensure they can be utilized multiple times.
If you have an advisor in mind, please provide your referral to the EA program manager.
We only include new expert advisors after a thorough due diligence process and assessment of our Members needs, which can take up to 2 months. New advisors’ expertise must be relevant to a subset of our membership to ensure they can be utilized multiple times.
Please do not include prospective EAs in these emails – there is a structured process to be followed by the EA Program Manager, who will follow up on your email.
The intake period for applications to become an Expert Advisor are now closed. Please check back for an update on when we will re-open for new applications.
Please email expertadvisorprogram@innovatecalgary.papercrane.ca. The EA Program Manager will happily answer your questions or schedule a call to discuss.
Become an Innovate Calgary Expert Advisor
Are you ready to share your expertise and help shape Calgary’s innovation landscape? Join our Expert Advisor Program (EAP) at Innovate Calgary as a trusted Expert Advisor (EA).
Getting Started is Simple:
The intake period for applications to become an Expert Advisor are now closed. Please check back for an update on when we will re-open for new applications.
Have Questions?
If you’re a client and would like to learn more about the program or discuss meeting with an advisor, please get in touch with us. Access to the Expert Advisor Program is exclusive to members of Innovate Calgary hubs. Contact Us.