Emily Miller recently spent a month at the Halifax Central Library curating information on various Maritime and Ontario startups – she really wanted to work in the startup space. A political science major at St. Francis Xavier University, Miller used her research skills to prepare for her interview with Venture for Canada, or VFC, an organization that partners young people with Canadian startups to encourage entrepreneurship.

Her research paid off: Miller was accepted as a 2015 VFC fellow and the program paired her with Halifax startup Eyeread, an eye-tracking application for ebooks that measures and analyzes children’s independent reading. Today, Miller is Eyeread’s general manager.

“I’ve always had a passion for helping children learn to read—I was a tutor throughout high school, a camp counsellor, and have done several trips to India to work in schools,” Miller said in a recent email. “I realized that this product has the potential to revolutionize the way children learn to read and impact millions of children around the world.”

The application process for VFC is rigorous—just like the program. It consists of essays, transcripts, resumes and interviews. The VFC website cites intelligence, character, founder potential, ability to contribute and grit as the characteristics required of VFC fellows.

Read our Provile of VFC Founder Scott Stirrett

Danny Williams, another 2015 VFC fellow, attributes his acceptance into the program with his involvement in growing his own startup.

“The best predictor of future success is past action,” Williams said, also in an email. “If there is one consistent thread amongst all the Fellows at Venture for Canada, it’s a history of past action.”

The program begins with a five-week bootcamp, in which the cohort of 46 learn from world entrepreneurship experts about business, tech and startup worlds. It is designed to prepare them for their two-year placement at an Ontario or Maritime startup.

This year’s bootcamp featured entrepreneurs such as Shopify Director of Product Satish Kanwar and Salesforce Senior Vice President Dan Debow.

“We constantly brought discussions from the classroom back to the dorms and spent many late nights debating and teaching each other,” Miller said.

“There was never a negative ‘we can’t do this’ attitude. If a challenge arose it was ‘how do we fix this or get around this?’”

Once the fellows completed the bootcamp, they were matched with a startup based on location preference, skillset and company fit.

Williams chose to work for Norex, a global web design and innovation firm and the company from which Eyeread originated. He said he was drawn to Norex because of its competitive nature.

The company has a 20 percent innovation time policy, in which staff spend one-fifth of their time creating and innovating new products. As product and innovation manager, Williams ensures that these projects are feasible for creation and commercialization.

Eyeread, where Miller works, was one of the projects that originated from the 20 percent innovation time policy.

“We’re essentially building micro startups within the company,” Williams said via email. “It’s awesome.”

The goal of VFC is to give young Canadians the network and resources to understand the startup world for two years so that they can then create their own startups and contribute to society and the economy.

Williams and Miller both work in Atlantic Canada with Norex and Eyeread, respectively. They both expressed the importance of retaining more talent in the East.

“I do think that Atlantic Canadians can be a little too humble and scared of pushing themselves outside of the region,” Miller said. “We need a global mindset.”

Added Williams: “I would encourage Atlantic Canadians to embrace the same mentality that was ever-present at VFC’s Training Camp - that is to have the audacity to start out with the goal of changing the world.”