A healthy ecosystem is a living ecosystem

How has our ecosystem evolved over the past few decades? What are our current strengths and weaknesses?

Nathaly Riverin and Véronique Buisson discussed our collective ability to support innovative entrepreneurship in Quebec. Read on for a summary of their discussion and learn how this topic is relevant today.

Profile of our speakers:

Nathaly Riverin is a serial entrepreneur and strategist, the creator of the educational model for the École d’entrepreneurship de Beauce, the founder of Rouge Canari, the Entrepreneurship Think Tank, and the Persévérance Entrepreneuriale program, and a pioneer in strategic coaching and mental health support for entrepreneurs in Quebec.

Véronique Buisson is the Executive Director of CEADS and the Shawinigan entrepreneurial community; she is an expert in community management, strategic guidance, and the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems. She is convinced that entrepreneurship is a powerful driver of transformation.

Véronique Buisson begins. An ecosystem, she says, isn’t something perfect. It’s something alive! It’s a place where things grow, connect, and flow—a bit like potting soil.

"For a population to feel capable of entrepreneurship, it must learn how to do so."

So, in Shawinigan, they took a gamble: not only to attract businesses or support projects, but also to instill a culture of entrepreneurship from the ground up in schools and throughout the community.

She looks at Félix-Antoine Huard, a few minutes after he’d been there, and says it almost as if to prove a point: “That’s what happens when an ecosystem takes root.”

Nathaly Riverin then elaborates: Yes, there is vitality and effort. But she points out a harsher reality: it’s never over.

An ecosystem isn't a project—it's a process. It's an ongoing effort driven by teachers, mentors, elected officials, and entrepreneurs themselves.

"It takes 25 years to change a culture."

And even then, nothing is a given. She adds something that cuts right to the heart of the matter: a number. Or rather, a sign: there are fewer and fewer entrepreneurs.

"When an entrepreneur tells me he feels lonely… he might be right."

What if the problem wasn't with the harvest… but with the gardening?

You might think that it all starts when a company succeeds and grows, when it attracts capital, talent, and attention!

But that moment, in reality, does come eventually.

There's something else before that, such as:

• teachers who plant the first seeds.
• environments where we learn to try.
• communities that make entrepreneurship visible, possible, and accessible.

An ecosystem nurtures people who are capable of creating.

And sometimes, even when the garden is there… and even when the trees have grown… something else is happening elsewhere. An ecosystem must not only give rise to businesses; it must give rise to entrepreneurs. The issue isn’t the 50,000 businesses for sale; it’s the retirement of more than 50,000 entrepreneurs.

If we want business succession efforts to succeed—if we want the transition to take root—we must not simply highlight the supply of businesses for sale or seek buyers at any cost. We must continue to foster entrepreneurs, retrain those who have tried before, and encourage them to start over—potentially by taking over an existing business. We must also be able to help them sustain their businesses and even give them a second lease on life.

And that may be where the next challenge begins.

When companies don't go out of business… but wait to be taken over

The Quebec government has just taken a bold step: appointing a “chief business acquirer,” Nathaly Riverin. 

Within five years, 50,000 businesses will have to relocate or risk going out of business. This is a silent but massive wave that directly affects Quebec’s economic fabric.

Minister Samuel Poulin speaks bluntly of a “mass exodus.”

And Nathaly Riverin puts into words what this really means: “We’re reaching the end of this cycle, which is accelerating the decline of entrepreneurship.”

At the MAIN Summit, she had already put it another way: nothing can ever be taken for granted. An ecosystem, even a vibrant one, can run out of steam, and entrepreneurs can become scarcer. What the current crisis in business succession reveals is a blind spot: what about business succession?

This fragile capital is now being taken into account.

We wish Nathaly the best of luck in this new venture. As she put it, “talking to entrepreneurs and finding solutions” is important.

Taking over a business is like gardening: it takes nurturing.