ELLA - Ascend - YSpace

ELLA Ascend

ELLA Ascend is an intense 4-month accelerator tailored for women-led product or service-based businesses, focused on strengthening core operations, enhancing digital readiness, and refining strategy for scalable growth.

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What to expect

Personalized mentorship aligned with your business goals to help you grow with confidence
Hands-on tactical workshops designed for immediate application and impact
Access to $60K+ in startup resources and the chance to compete for exclusive, highly-curated business advisory support worth $10K
50% matching support (up to $5K) toward Fractional Executive services, offering affordable access to senior-level expertise (eligibility and conditions apply)
Build your own marketing and operations playbook, tailored to your business model and growth stage

2024 cohort profiles

Community

ELLA gives you access to an inclusive community of women entrepreneurs who span across many backgrounds, industries, and specializations.

Entrepreneurship Education

Set yourself up for success through curated workshops and goal-focused support from experts to help you build a solid foundation for growth.

Growth frameworks

Develop the sales, marketing, finance and operations tactics needed to build traction and reach more customers.

Milestone driven

Learn how to define growth goals and milestones for you and your business. Receive expert advice during the program to work towards making these goals a reality.

Timeline

Applications open:

May 5, 2025

Applications close:

May 26, 2025

Candidates notified:

June 2025

Program starts:

July 2025

Program ends:

November 2025

Application process

Step: One

Fill out the application form using the link below.

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Step: Two

Short-listed candidates invited to interview.

Step: Three

Candidates finalized and notified.

Program eligibility

You are a woman entrepreneur with at least 50% ownership of a registered business (product or service based), non-profit or social enterprise, and you are working full-time on your venture
You had a minimum annual revenue of $100,000 and paying customers between January – December 2024
Your business is in Canada
You are open to change, push yourself, looking to step out of your comfort zone and are willing to give back to the ELLA Community with your own strengths and insight
You can commit fully to the requirements of the accelerator program (includes mandatory participation in all programming elements and working on assignments and submission (average 5-7 hours per week)

Frequently asked

Please note that attendance for all programming is mandatory. Founders who miss more than three programming elements may become ineligible to compete for the final prize of $10K worth of business advisory services. Under extenuating circumstances if you are not able to make it to a session, please email us at yspace@yorku.ca to let us in advance.

Some of the programming elements like workshops and pitch presentations have a fixed date, while check-in and mentoring will be flexible. The program schedule will be shared in advance for you to review before you accept the final offer.

For any questions related to our programs, please email yspace@yorku.ca.

Ofﬁcial ELLA programming is designed for the participants and are facilitated in such a way that creates a safe space for the participants who were accepted into the program; therefore, only ofﬁcially accepted participants can attend ELLA programming. For any external related events hosted by ELLA and community partners, external guests may attend.

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Applications are now open. Apply now!

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YSpace is committed to working with emerging technology, agrifood, products and services. Get in touch today to find out how you can become a part of our community.

Contact us

For more information, please contact us at
yspace@yorku.ca
416-736-2100 ext. 44940