2024–2025 Activity Report: A Necessary Evolution of Our Movement as We Approach Our 10th Anniversary of Collaboration

Nearly ten years ago, MAIN launched a movement. It was a call to come together, collaborate, and join forces to create a more vibrant, better-aligned, and—above all—more human entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Today, this movement is entering a new phase—one that is more inclusive and aims to be more determined and bolder.

She is now driven by a clear mission: we must give entrepreneurs the courage to take risks.

Because creating, taking initiative, and building something new requires courage—not just individual courage, but collective courage as well. The courage to take the plunge, of course, but also the courage to persevere, to pivot, to learn, to fail, and finally, to start over.

And to do that, entrepreneurs need an ecosystem that supports them without telling them what to do.

A mission rooted in experience

This renewed mission is built on a solid foundation: doing things well, sustainably, and collectively. Over the years, we have developed a deep understanding of support services for innovative entrepreneurship, of who holds the information, and of what we do not yet know.

We spoke with hundreds of support professionals to better guide the entrepreneurs who contact us—and who share their frustrations with an ecosystem that can sometimes be difficult to navigate.

Our new mission is based on three simple yet powerful principles:

1. First, an ecosystem centered on entrepreneurs. In a healthy ecosystem, all actions converge on a single point: the entrepreneur, whose needs must guide the priorities and structure.
2. Next, a sustainable and self-sufficient infrastructure. This infrastructure cannot depend solely on public funding: it must be resilient to political upheavals, capable of being largely self-financing, and able to serve the entrepreneurial community over the long term.
3. Finally, decentralized collective intelligence. Only a networked, decentralized approach—one that leverages local expertise while strengthening interconnections, and is driven by trust—can pave the way for true collaboration. On this front, we have a long way to go, rivalries to resolve, and wounds to heal. But this path is inevitable.

A Solid Foundation for the Future

This year, we have laid the groundwork for this transformation. The new portail.mainqc.com is the first milestone in a digital infrastructure designed to make the ecosystem easier to understand, navigate, and use. This is just the beginning—the first manifestation of what we know, transformed into a practical tool.

A committee of independent entrepreneurs is quietly coming together to speak out loud and clear on behalf of those we serve and to guide the movement’s next steps. Because, as Brad Feld—co-founder of Techstars and author of *Startup Communities* and *Give First*—often says, the true leaders of an ecosystem can be none other than the entrepreneurs themselves.

Our board of directors continues to grow stronger with the addition of two hands-on entrepreneurs, Daniel Valois (ProgressionLIVE) and Simon Boulet (Stay22), who are setting the tone for our commitment to staying in touch with the realities on the ground.

A Change in Stance

In November 2024, we officially stopped using the term “innovation accelerator movement ” in public discourse. This term, which was never intended to refer exclusively to technology accelerators, was causing confusion and no longer reflected our expanded mission.

This change symbolizes a deeper transformation. MAIN. no longer acts as a conductor, but rather as an attentive chronicler and committed advocate for our ecosystem.

A movement isn’t imposed; it is woven together. It doesn’t build itself; it brings together those who, through their actions, their convictions, their daily commitment, and their mutual trust, are already working to build a stronger, fairer, and freer entrepreneurial world.

That is where MAIN’s unique contribution lies: not in the solutions we impose, but in the infrastructure—above all, a social one—that enables everyone to find their own path.