Building Your Dream Team: Startup Hiring, Co Founders, and Scaling Strategy
Schedule
Tue Feb 24 2026 at 10:00 am to 11:00 am
UTC-05:00Location
Innovate Niagara Office | St. Catharines, ON
About this Event
Event Summary
Hiring the right people can make or break your startup.
Whether you are a solo founder looking for a co-founder, an early stage startup making your first hires, or a growing business struggling to scale, this interactive workshop will help you build the right team at the right time.
Drawing from lessons learned building three startups and working with hundreds of founders, this session breaks down what actually works when it comes to hiring, team structure, and scaling.
No fluff. Just real world insights you can use immediately.
What You Will Learn
In this interactive workshop, we will cover:
✅ How to choose the right co-founder and the critical questions to ask
✅ Who your first three hires should be and when to hire tech, operations, or marketing
✅ Common hiring mistakes founders make and how to avoid them
✅ How to restructure your team to scale without burning cash
✅ Leveraging free and low cost tools, community, and tech resources
✅ Building inclusive teams from Day 1
✅ How platforms like BReady.ai can support smarter, values driven hiring
Expect practical examples, open discussion, and actionable takeaways.
Who Should Attend
This workshop is ideal for:
• Solo founders and first time entrepreneurs
• Early stage startup teams
• Scaling startups preparing to hire or restructure
• Incubator and accelerator cohorts
• Community based founders and underrepresented entrepreneurs
Any startup, at any stage, will gain value.
About the Speaker
Usha Srinivasan is the Founder and CEO of BReady.ai, an AI enabled talent platform connecting newcomers and underrepresented communities to meaningful employment.
She previously led the Brampton Venture Zone at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she launched and ran the incubator for five years. Usha has held senior leadership roles at MaRS Discovery District and Elevate Tech Fest.
She has co founded ventures in foodtech, retail, and music, and is an angel investor and LP at Flair Ventures.
Usha holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences, a BSc from the University of Bristol, and completed executive business education at the Stanford LEAD Corporate Innovation Program.
Why Attend
You do not need more hiring theory.
You need clarity, structure, and better decisions.
This session helps you avoid costly mistakes and build a team that grows with your business.
Where is it happening?
Innovate Niagara Office, 386 Saint Paul Street, St. Catharines, CanadaEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
CAD 10.00












