Mississauga accelerator helps founders survive the 'messy middle' and stay in the city

A local answer to the scaling gap

A Mississauga program built to help early-stage startups grow past their first customers is wrapping up its latest cohort this month, and organizers say it is keeping companies from leaving the city for Toronto, Waterloo or the United States.

The Step-Up Program, run by IDEA Mississauga, the city's business and innovation hub, targets revenue-generating, mostly pre-seed companies earning between $100,000 and $2 million in life sciences, advanced manufacturing and tech. The current cohort is set to finish in June with a Pitch and Showcase, where founders will present to investors, partners and the broader business community, according to a BetaKit feature on the program.

The program launched five years ago to fill a gap between supports for first-time entrepreneurs and later-stage scale-ups. Donna Heslin, Manager of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Innovation at IDEA, told BetaKit that founders used to leave to find that next level of help. "We were losing companies," she said.

From product to systems

Step-Up focuses on what its lead calls the "messy middle" — the point when founders shift from building a product to assembling the strategies, teams and processes that growth demands. Alieu Jallow, Entrepreneurship & Innovation Specialist at IDEA Mississauga and the program's lead, told BetaKit that founders often know what they need only at a high level.

“It's not about advising them. It's working with the companies to fix their systems,” said Jallow.

Cohorts are deliberately small, about 10 to 12 companies, and designed to feel like working sessions rather than classes. "It's not workshops. I call them conversations," Jallow told BetaKit. Through an Executives-in-Residence stream, senior leaders work directly inside the businesses on financials, sales and hiring, while founders are connected to investors. Participating companies can access up to $200,000 in resources, support and perks through the program.

A Mississauga success story

The program points to Food Mamba, a corporate catering tech platform founded by husband-and-wife team Ali Shahid and Hira Malik, as an example of its impact. After six months in Step-Up, the company crossed the $1-million revenue mark, according to IDEA Mississauga. It now serves more than 300 corporate clients, works with 200 restaurant vendors and employs five full-time staff in Canada and four in Pakistan.

The program has also redirected founders. Jallow described a founder offering event-based drone services whose growth was limited by how many events she could book. Through strategy work, she pivoted into defence and advanced manufacturing, and Sheridan College's Centre for Intelligent Manufacturing is now piloting her autonomous drone prototype.

Step-Up alumni have collectively raised about $15 million over the past two years, according to IDEA Mississauga. Jallow told BetaKit that each cohort has arrived stronger than the last, with better engagement and better support available.

Anchoring growth in Mississauga

For Heslin, progress also means keeping those companies, and the jobs they create, anchored in Ontario and Canada. She pointed to the local workforce as a key advantage.

“We have a highly educated talent pool in Mississauga, with so many newcomers in the region, over 50 percent born outside of Canada. We want to make sure we're tapping into that,” Heslin told BetaKit.

Christina Kakaflikas, Director of Economic Development for the City of Mississauga, told BetaKit that "Invest Mississauga's Path to Prosperity 2030 charts a bold course for a globally competitive, inclusive and future-ready economy, and Step-Up is a clear example of that vision in action."

The latest Pitch and Showcase, titled From Momentum to Millions, marks the end of the current cohort's six months of work.