Learn → Plan → Connect → Pitch → Launch
From an idea to something real.
A free, practical entrepreneurship program for anyone in Ontario with an idea worth building. Learn how business actually works, build the plan, get in front of experienced businesspeople, pitch to judges who tell you exactly what they think — then launch it. 5 stages. No fees, no equity, open from age 12.
Not just a business plan
A plan matters. A plan is not a business.
Launch League teaches participants how to validate a problem, create an offer, find customers, understand the economics and explain why the business should exist — before asking them to fill pages with forecasts.
In practice
What you'll actually do
Real actions, each producing something you can show a judge, a teacher or a customer.
Talk to potential customers
Real conversations about a real problem, before anything gets built.
Pressure-test the problem
How painful, how often, and what people already do about it.
Build an offer
Who it's for, what they get, the price, and why it's worth it.
Choose acquisition channels
Two ways the right customers will actually find you, and one action taken.
Calculate the economics of a sale
Price, costs, margin, and how many sales it takes to break even.
Map the customer journey
From first attention to a review and a referral, and where it leaks.
Set a 90-day priority
One thing that matters most, three numbers to watch, one process written down.
Build and record the pitch
30 seconds, 60 seconds, and a five-minute briefing for the judges.
You can start anywhere.
Already know your idea cold? Go straight to the competition. Never thought about a customer before? Start at Business 101. The stages work in order, but nothing stops you from skipping ahead.
Stage by stage
The 5 stages
Each stage stands on its own and each one is free. Together they take you from “I have an idea” to standing in front of judges with something real.
Stage 1
Learn
Free · self-paced · 8 modules
Business 101
How businesses actually work, not just how to write about one. 8 practical modules take an idea through the real mechanics: problem, customer, offer, customers, sales, numbers, systems and pitch. Every module ends with a real-world action and something written down. Useful whether you're 12 or 52.
- Find Something Worth Solving
- Know Who You're Building For
- Build an Offer People Want to Buy
- Get Attention & Find Your First Customers
- Sell, Deliver & Earn Trust
- Know Your Numbers
- Build a Business That Can Grow
- Tell the Story & Pitch It
Stage 2
Plan
Free · one page, or a full plan
Build the business plan
Turn the work from Business 101 into a plan you can take to a lender, a landlord or a judge. The one-page builder is free and takes an evening. If you need a full nine-section plan for financing, the Elite Business Plan Maker is available separately.
- Free guided one-page plan builder
- Prompts tailored to your category
- Download or print when finished
- Optional full 9-section plan for lenders
Stage 3
Connect
Free · Recruiting founding advisors
Advisors & business community
Business owners, accountants, marketers and operators across Ontario who volunteer their time. We are signing up founding advisors now, so this stage opens during the 2027 season. The other stages are live today.
- Founding advisors being recruited now
- No fees, no commission, no equity
- Practical help, not a sales funnel
Stage 4
Pitch
Free to enter · deadline March 31, 2027
Competition & judging
Submit a written summary and three short videos: a 60-second elevator pitch, a five-minute plan briefing, and a walkthrough of your slides. A phone camera is genuinely fine. Everything is submitted online, so where you live never limits whether you can enter.
- 12 categories, open from age 12
- Three videos, submitted as links
- Judged on a published 100-point rubric
- A $500–$2,500 prize per category, raised from sponsors
Stage 5
Launch
Feedback by June 15, 2027 · then launch
Launch Sprint
Every complete entrant receives written judge feedback, and winners are announced at Awards Night on May 31, 2027. Then comes the part that matters most: a 30–60 day Launch Sprint of practical steps — validate the offer, set up the basics, and get your first customer. Founders record milestones as they go, and can list their business on the Young Founder Marketplace.
- Written judge feedback for every complete entrant
- Finalist coaching before Awards Night
- Launch Sprint: from plan to first customer
- Founder milestones and the Founder Marketplace
AI, properly
They'll learn to use AI like someone who runs a business
Not to finish homework. To get ahead.
Most young people use AI to write an essay the night before. That is not the skill that will matter to them. The one that will is using it the way a working business does — to research a market properly, draft an offer, price a job, write the email they have been avoiding, and check their own numbers before a customer does.
This is taught by someone who uses it every day to run a real business. Nick Gonzalez built the Launch League platform, the course, the plan builder and the systems behind all of it with AI, for real customers, with real deadlines. Not theory from a course someone bought — the actual workflow, including the parts that did not work.
That means the honest half as well. AI is confidently wrong often enough that trusting it blindly is worse than not using it, and knowing when to check it, when to argue with it and when to close it is most of the skill. A young person who learns that now is years ahead of people twice their age.
Straight answers for parents about AI and kids — including whether they should be using it at all.
Outcomes
What you leave with
Whether or not you win anything.
- A problem you've tested with real people, and an offer built around it
- The economics of your business, and a written plan
- Written feedback from experienced business people on your actual pitch
- Practice presenting your idea on camera and in public
- Connections to other founders across Ontario, and to advisors as that network opens
Deadline:
Stage 1
Start with the first module
Running a chamber, economic development office, or school? Bring the program to your community.
Related
Keep going
- Business 101 — free, practical 8-module courseBuild a business, not just a business plan: problem, customer, offer, customers, sales, numbers, systems and pitch.
- Enter a competitionFree to enter, no equity taken, and every entrant gets written feedback from a judge.
- Youth entrepreneurship programs in OntarioWhat's open at 12, 15 and 18 — and the eligibility catch on every funding program.
- Find a local advisorOntario business advisors by region, for the questions a template can't answer.