In her support of healthcare entrepreneurship, Edna Chosack's contributions have earned recognition. Recently, she was nominated as a finalist for "mentor of the year" category at the Startup Community Awards in Montreal. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) invited her to serve on the advisory board of their medical device research centre.
Edna's empathetic style resonates deeply with entrepreneurs. Through mutual understanding, she cultivates trust and open communication, empowering startups to overcome challenges with resilience and determination. This supportive environment enables them to grow, benefiting from Edna's guidance, encouragement, and constructive feedback.
Edna is dedicated to promoting innovation in public and preventative health by forging strategic partnerships and developing joint initiatives with ecosystem partners. Collaborations like the one with the Quartier de l’Innovation En Santé in Montreal and initiatives with the research institute of a leading hospital in Montreal (RI-MUHC) demonstrate her commitment to enhancing the Canadian startup ecosystem. She gives workshops to train clinical staff on creating a startup business model and teaches a postgraduate course called Surgical Innovation in collaboration with Concordia and McGill University and another Health Accelerator (ETS). Further, Edna recently helped to secure a $600K grant to expand the healthcare stream and collaborated with federal, provincial, and academic partners to recruit and train startup teams.

I have learned to be humble with my predictions about the potential success of early stage startups. No one can know how a business will evolve. Building a startup is a personal journey, disproving the statement that “business is not personal”. Entrepreneurs are huge risk takers and they value direct feedback. It is my role as a coach to respect their immense commitment by giving them my honest opinion, while being mindful of the impact of my words. You never know how the fleeting advice you offer will stick. One team in particular, who I met at the elevator, remembered my parting sentiment: “You’ll be back. Your journey isn't over.” A few years later, they came back to tell me I was right even though I didn’t even recall making that comment.
Staying proactive and remaining flexible are key leadership traits in the startup environment. Being tuned in to change and responding in an agile manner can help avoid major setbacks. At the onset of COVID, I called an emergency meeting to alert all startup teams to scale back and reduce expenses, offering insight from my past ‘crisis’ experiences. Afterwards, many founders told me that my rapid proactive guidance “saved them”.
Finally, in order to build a system of support that truly benefits a startup, it’s crucial to focus on a specific stream, such as cybersecurity or biotech. By centering all knowledge and resources in one area, you can attract more founders, expertise and funding to build a thriving community.

I plan to expand the reach of District 3 Health stream by continuing to build partnerships with research centers, hospitals and incubators beyond North America. These global industry collaborations will help to advance Canadian startups, while also offering a soft landing for international founders in Montreal, a gateway to North America. I will continue to work alongside my team to support researchers and students in STEM as they transition into entrepreneurship as an alternate career path. I will use my coaching expertise to design a ‘coach the coach’ training program that teaches successful entrepreneurs how to become effective coaches. By building a comprehensive support system between seasoned leaders and emerging founders, we can set a high standard for the new generation of entrepreneurs in Canada.