What is the outlook for the role of support professionals in 2026?

A Few Lessons MAIN Learned from the NACO (National Angel Capital Organization) Summit for Business Support Professionals

To begin with, let’s highlight a statement by Pierre Chadi, a member of the NACO Board of Directors.

"[The supportsupport professionals] are often underpaid, and they do this work out of passion. This role must be recognized as that of ‘true builders’ of the ecosystem.”

This isn’t a matter of politeness, but rather a structural observation that the investor invited us to consider—and, above all, a call to acknowledge that it is truly people who are doing the work of coordinating between angel investors and seed funds on one side, and incubators and accelerators on the other.

Transfers: The Overlooked Link

The “handover”—that moment when a startup moves from an angel investor to a seed fund, and then to a VC—is one of the weakest links in the Canadian venture capital continuum. Alex MacBeath, managing partner at Island Capital Partners, and Pierre Chadi, an active angel investor with Anges Québec, spoke candidly about it.

According to them, there is no formal mechanism for orchestrating these transitions. What works is the relationship—built on time, trust, and a deliberate commitment to working beyond regional boundaries. Alex MacBeath regularly co-invests with funds from Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta to connect his startups to a broad network before they are tempted to move to the United States. He believes that Canada loses its companies early on, not later. However, if they are firmly rooted in their local ecosystem, they stay in the country.

For support professionals, it’s a matter of approach: are we actively preparing our companies for these transitions, or are we leaving them to fend for themselves?

Founder Syndrome: Putting a Name to What We See

According to Alex MacBeath, we should be wary of “founder syndrome.”

This is the founder whose entire identity is fused with his or her original idea—the one who is convinced of being the only one who understands the problem, who cannot escape his or her “ founder’s mindset ,” as MacBeath puts it. He calls this the HIPPO effect, referring to the highest-paid person in a company who ends up stifling the entire dynamic.

His concrete solution is as follows: it is essential to emphasize the establishment of a board of directors from the very beginning. It is important not to view this as a mere formality, but as a tool for accountability—one that helps set clear expectations, establish metrics, and create a framework that allows for difficult conversations without placing the entire burden on the professional coach.

This is a practical tip for anyone who has to deal with this stress on a daily basis!

Proximity as Infrastructure

Pierre Chadi shared an example from Quebec that is worth emulating: the Espace CDPQ has a space where fund managers and angel investors share the same floor. Physical proximity fosters relationships that Zoom calls simply cannot.

His belief is that this model should be replicated across the country. Calgary is doing it, and other regions are starting to do so as well. Beyond the budget issue, isn’t this really a matter of organizational will?

For us, as support professionals, the challenge is the same: Do our physical spaces truly foster an environment conducive to connection and trust? Or do we find ourselves in well-intentioned silos?

Inclusion and New Tools: Expanding the Table

Bobbie Racette, founder of Virtual Gurus and Tapwi, highlighted a surprising statistic: Indigenous women are starting businesses at a rate ten times higher than non-Indigenous women. And they aren’t securing funding. The networks aren’t tailored to them, but that doesn’t mean they lack ideas.

She also highlighted the SILE agreement as an alternative investment model: a business angel provides mentorship in exchange for a share of profits, without equity dilution. This model is designed for founders for whom taking on equity represents a real cultural and psychological barrier.

For support professionals, this may mean diversifying the types of people invited to join the company’s support network, as well as diversifying the financing tools they are familiar enough with to recommend.

Note: MAIN has deliberately excluded from this article topics related to defense, the BSRD, sovereign contracts, and lessons from Quantropi. Since these raise specific challenges for Canadian startups, we will address them in depth in our next article.