Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Yes. Upon graduation, you’ll retain access to essential resources, templates, and any lifetime licenses or assets you acquired during the program. We also offer continued access to our alumni communications and business update channels to keep you connected.

Absolutely. Graduates are invited into our private alumni network—a space to share wins, exchange referrals, access exclusive workshops, and stay plugged into the Novantum community. Many of our alumni continue to collaborate, mentor, and even invest in each other’s businesses.

Yes — but it’s optional and paid. Beyond the program’s included guarantee (which covers up to 6 months of private coaching if KPIs aren’t met), alumni can choose to subscribe to our post-grad support tier. This includes quarterly business audits, one-on-one advisory hours, and exclusive access to investor readiness programs.

Yes. Our alumni services include access to vetted service providers, hiring playbooks, and strategic support packages. You can also book private consultations with growth specialists as your business scales beyond the initial phase.

Yes — and we encourage it. Many Novantum grads go on to become peer mentors, workshop leaders, or even equity partners in future cohorts. Once you’ve proven your business acumen, you’ll have the chance to give back, lead, and earn through alumni roles within the institute.

Yes. You’ll get hands-on training in all the core tools required to operate a modern service business—no tech background needed. This includes:

• Building a professional, branded website using drag-and-drop tools
• Setting up payment systems and online booking platforms
• Using bookkeeping software to manage income, expenses, and taxes
• Implementing scheduling, invoicing, and CRM systems to run day-to-day operations smoothly
• and MUCH more.

We teach the tools real businesses use so when you launch, you’re not guessing.

Most essential tools are included in your tuition or offered through our deeply discounted partner packages in case you want to use an alternative. We’ve negotiated pricing and access with platforms that are perfect for service-based businesses. You’ll know exactly what’s covered and what’s optional from day one.

You and your co-founders do. Each person on the team owns 25% of the business, and Novantum retains a 25% stake during and after the program. This structure keeps everyone accountable and ensures we’re invested in your success.

Yes — and you’re expected to. This isn’t a classroom project. It’s a living, operational business. After graduation, the business is legally transitioned to the founders to continue, scale, or sell. You can also buy out Novantum’s stake if you want full ownership.

Yes — Novantum retains a 25% equity stake during and after the program. This aligns our success with yours and allows us to provide long-term mentorship, resources, and potential investor connections even after you graduate.

There are structured legal agreements in place that allow for fair buyouts if someone wishes to exit the business. Valuations are conducted by third-party professionals, and buyouts follow transparent, pre-agreed terms to protect all parties. All of this is taught in Course 5: Grow & Expand towards the end of your program.

Yes — your name will appear on legal business documents alongside your co-founders. You’ll go through the full process of business registration, insurance, and compliance as part of the program’s first phase.

Yes. While you don’t need to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, you must currently reside in Canada with valid authorization to start and operate a business here. This includes many international students, work permit holders, and newcomers under programs like the Start-Up Visa or CUAET. Businesses built in Novantum are local, service-based ventures, so your physical presence in Canada is essential. We’ll guide you through the appropriate business registration process based on your legal status.

Absolutely. In fact, this program was built with you in mind. Many first-generation immigrants face challenges converting their foreign qualifications into Canadian-recognized experience. Novantum solves that by giving you a real, revenue-generating Canadian business — and a verifiable business track record that employers, banks, and institutions will respect.

Novantum is for people who want ownership, not overwhelm. Whether you’re a first-generation immigrant seeking financial stability or a mid-career professional looking to pivot, this program gives you the structure, support, and business model you need to succeed without gambling everything.

We don’t believe in age limits — only readiness. Our cohorts include participants in their 20s through their 60s. If you’re committed to the process and ready to build, we’re ready for you.

No degree or professional background is required. However, we do have preference for several years of work experience. What matters most is your work ethic, reliability, and openness to working with others. We’ll teach you what you need to know to succeed.

Start by filling out a short application on our website. From there, we’ll invite qualified candidates to a video interview and team compatibility assessment. Our goal is to ensure the best match — for you and for the success of the business.

We are here to support you through the process - contact us at any time with your questions.

We’re looking for people who are ready to build—seriously, sustainably, and with others. Ideal applicants are:

• Reliable: You follow through on commitments, respect deadlines, and show up for your team. In a triad model, your consistency matters as much as your creativity.
• Collaborative: You’re willing to listen, communicate, and compromise. You don’t need to be best friends with your co-founders—but you do need to be dependable, respectful, and open to teamwork.
• Stability over hype: If you're looking to build a trendy app or pitch to VCs, this isn’t for you. We work with those who want to build strong service-based businesses that generate cash, not just clicks.
• Open to coaching: You don’t need to know everything—you just need to be coachable. If you can take feedback, apply it, and grow from it, you’ll thrive here.
• Action-oriented: We don’t care about your resume. We care that you’re ready to roll up your sleeves, make decisions, and execute—even when it’s imperfect.

You don’t need to be the loudest person in the room—but you do need to show us that you’re ready to work, grow, and build something that lasts.

We accept a limited number of applicants per cohort to ensure your team receives the support it needs. The number of spots available is listed by start date. Our system is first-come, first-served, and space is competitive. If you’re serious, apply early to secure your spot.

You don’t need perfect grammar, but you do need to communicate clearly with teammates, clients, and mentors. The program is delivered in English, and success depends on your ability to participate in conversations, follow instructions, and work collaboratively. If you’re comfortable in a professional English environment — even if it’s your second language — you’ll do just fine.

Support is built into every layer of the Novantum experience. Here are just a few of the ways that you are never left to figure it out on your own:

• Weekly team check-ins and cohort-wide workshops
• Private strategy sessions with your coach
• Online channels to connect with others in the program
• Tools, templates, and best practices for just about every hurdle that may come up

You are not going about it alone. That's the beauty of team-based entrepreneurship and this program.

That’s exactly why we built Novantum the way we did. When challenges hit, you’ll have co-founders, mentors, and program advisors ready to support you. You’ll also access a curated toolbox of templates, scripts, and guides to help you troubleshoot common issues. You don’t face business hurdles alone — you face them with our battle-tested support system.

We provide training and walk-throughs for all core tools you’ll use to run your business with the assumption that you've never used them before — whether it’s setting up a website, managing payments, or organizing operations. No tech background needed.

You get a coach assigned to your team. Throughout the program, you’ll have access to private coaching sessions to address specific needs — from financial modeling to leadership challenges. These sessions are designed to fast-track your growth and keep you moving forward. This is in addition to the group workshops and sessions.

Program fees for the full two-years is $25,000 CAD. This includes all mentorship, team formation, business frameworks, legal templates, marketing systems, alumni support, and more. Of this amount, $10,000 gets reserved for your business as seed capital. No hidden fees. No upsells. All for the same or less than a university degree.

Yes. We offer multiple payment plan spread over the course of the program. You can also apply for a deferred payment option in special cases — because we believe financial constraints shouldn’t be the reason you miss out on ownership.

While we don’t offer traditional scholarships, we do run periodic equity-based sponsorships for exceptional candidates where your fees are deferred and paid by your business' revenue. You can indicate financial need during the application process.

Our team is always prepared to support your loan and financing applications where possible.

Starting a business solo often means five-figure losses in trial-and-error. With Novantum, you skip the guesswork. You get matched with co-founders, given a proven business model, coached through execution, and supported legally and strategically from day one. That’s thousands of dollars in mistakes you’ll never have to make.

Your program fees are also reinvested into your business, covering all of the expenses — including legal fees, accounting, marketing, and more. You aren't paying for a program and then funding your start-up; it's all included in our fees.

Three-person teams strike the ideal balance of agility, accountability, and capability. Each person brings unique strengths — marketing, operations, analysis, leadership — and together, you create something far more resilient than any solo founder could. This isn’t just theory:

• A Harvard Business School study found that three-person founding teams significantly outperform both solo founders and larger teams in early-stage ventures.
• According to First Round Capital, startups with 2–3 co-founders raise 30% more funding and grow 3x faster than those with solo founders.
• Y Combinator reports that teams of 2–3 have the highest survival rates in their portfolio.

In short, it’s not just collaboration — it’s a proven strategy for success, backed by research.

We use a rigorous matching process based on personality, work style, values, and preferred business roles. You’ll complete a detailed intake and compatibility screening to ensure you're matched to a stellar team before the program even begins.

By matching you with people you don't necessarily know (yet), we find highly complimentary people that can help each other succeed. Working with friends, family members, and people you already know can be limiting and has not been shown in the research to produce any better success.

Moreover, we have a rigorous admissions process (see our FAQs). We find like-minded, goal-oriented, highly motivated people who will make this work. And even if this scares you, know that we are so confident in this approach that we guarantee the success of your business. You have nothing to worry about.

Yes, conflict is possible and that is true (even more so) if you start a business with a friend. At Novantum, we give you training in co-founder communication and decision-making. We help with clear role definitions and ongoing mentorship to work through conflict in a healthy way. If serious misalignment occurs, we have structured intervention and mediation systems to support the team and keep the business on track. By supporting you in this area, it's yet another way that we are taking risk out of entrepreneurship.

Yes, you can apply with a friend or partner. However, both of you will still need to go through the application and matching process to ensure you’re a fit for the program and for a team together.

Please know that we take the matching process seriously as it's part of our formula for YOUR success. If for any reason our metrics show that you would not be a good fit for an entrepreneurial team together, you have two options:

1. Choose to be on different assigned teams (recommended).
2. Opt to work together anyways, and while you'll get all the same, full program and support, we cannot offer The Novantum Guarantee™ in this case.

Then Novantum isn’t the right fit. This program is built around the power of team-based entrepreneurship. If you want full control with no collaboration, there are other programs that may suit you better. Here, we build businesses that are resilient, not reliant on a single person.

That said, you may want to go through the Novantum program for two years to gain the experience you need to better start your solo venture afterwards. We provide exit strategies for co-founders so you can move on from the business you started after the program. This motive is acceptable as long as you're upfront and communicative about it with your team so that no one's expectations are skewed.

The curriculum is split into three core phases:

1. Launch – Legal setup, business model alignment, insurance, and value proposition
   • Course 1: Solidifying Your Business Concept (500 hours | Months 1 - 4)
2. Operate – Systems, branding, website, marketing, sales, finances, daily operations, and staffing
   • Course 2: Operating Your Business (500 hours)
   • Course 3: Market Your Business (500 hours)
   • Course 4: Sell to Your Audience (500 hours)
     These 3 courses are taken concurrently from Months 5-18
3. Scale – Optimizing, troubleshooting, upselling, retention, and expansion
   • Course 5: Grow & Expand (500 hours | Months 19 - 24)

You’ll master everything from registering your business and securing insurance, to hiring, branding, marketing, sales, financial projections, bookkeeping, and expanding into new markets. Novantum's program is designed for real-life execution, not academic busywork.

You are required to dedicate around 20 hours per week. This includes learning, business execution, and team collaboration. You’ll have flexibility on when you work, but consistency is key — you’re not just studying, you’re running a business.

You are in no way forced to stop you previous career while at Novantum. But we need 20 hours per week to guarantee your results. Only you can know how to best manage your time in light of your current workplace expectations and life circumstances.

The core curriculum is delivered online to give you flexibility and access to top-tier mentors from around the world. Aside from delivering the curriculum and accessing resources, everything else happens in the real world.

The program combines live mentorship, recorded lessons, and project-based execution. You’ll attend scheduled check-ins, complete guided deliverables, obtain resources, and access a structured dashboard to track your progress. But you'll be spending most of your time applying everything in your local market, working with your co-founders, and serving real customers in the real world.

You’ll be part of a triad — a team of three co-founders — working together to launch and grow your assigned business. You'll also be plugged into a larger cohort for group sessions, expert-led workshops, and peer accountability.

All Novantum businesses are rooted in universal service needs — industries like foodservices, cleaning, tutoring, storage, pet care, and maintenance. These are businesses people always need, not just want, ensuring year-round demand and recurring revenue.

We understand life happens. You’ll have access to replays, templates, and team support to help you catch up. But remember: your team depends on you. This is a co-founder commitment, not a casual online course. Regular and/or excessive unplanned absences may affect your enrollment in the program especially if they are detracting from the business' success.

Bottom line: it's all about commitment and communication.

Starting alone means no safety net. At Novantum, you get a pre-vetted business model, a team of co-founders, expert mentorship, and a roadmap built around financial benchmarks. You’re not gambling on your own or trying out some wild business idea — you’re building with structure, support, and strategy baked in.

Novantum Institute is a two-year, part-time business education program where you don’t just learn about entrepreneurship — you become an entrepreneur. Through a bold, team-based model, we guide you in building a real, registered service business with revenue, clients, and stability that will be replacing your salary by the time you graduate. Think of it as the real-world alternative to any college or university degree, where the end goal isn’t a certificate — it’s ownership.

You’ll build a stable, high-demand service-based business. These aren’t side hustles or passion projects. We assign you a proven business model based on real demand — like cleaning services, tutoring, storage rental, marketing support, or personal care — then guide you step-by-step in making it real, profitable, and yours.

No — and that’s a good thing. Most people get stuck trying to find the "perfect idea" and never start. At Novantum, we eliminate that risk by assigning you a proven business model with built-in demand. This removes guesswork, speeds up launch, and ensures that you'll graduate with a fully working business that can replace your current 9-to-5.

That said, you will certainly put your own spin on your business. We will guide you in discovering how to make your business stand out from competitors in your community, how to make solid branding decisions, and how to customize everything for your audience. As much as we give you the idea so that we can guarantee your success, the business itself will be modelled by you.

We aim for each business to reach at least $60,000/month in total revenue by Month 24, supporting a take-home pay of $75,000/year per founder. This is based on stable, recurring contracts and optimized margins. It’s not a fantasy — it’s a concrete benchmark built into our curriculum and that's why we feel so confident in guaranteeing it.

It means the 3 things that the modern-day worker like you wants most:

• An income-generating business that can replace your salary (or more)
• A stable business with stable demand that doesn't eb and flow with the economy
• A career where you have control over your time

Success isn’t just about owning a business. Many struggling business owners will tell you that they have freedom and control but never know if they'll be able to pay the bills. Or that they are racking in the cash, but at the cost of their health, family, and personal life.

At Novantum, success is owning a business that pays you without grinding you down. We don't just show you how businesses are run like in a traditional education program, we help you start and run your business efficiently, profitably, and sustainably. And all this within just 2 years.

We don’t grade on theory. We measure outcomes. Success means your business hits three critical KPIs by Month 24 (2 years):

• ≥ $75K/year take-home pay per founder
• ≥ 60% of revenue locked in recurring contracts
• ≤ 25 hrs/week of frontline work (the rest is spent strategizing and delegating)

If your business doesn't meet those KPIs, you get six extra months of private growth coaching for your team for free. That's the Novantum Guarantee™ and there is truly no other program that can guarantee these results.

The business is yours to continue, grow, or even sell. You can keep growing your business, keep benefitting from our alumni coaching program, or keep receiving dividends while someone else manages operations. The best part is we teach you how to do all this during the program (we call it Exit Strategy) so you're left with a clear path by the time you graduate.

For more information about what happens after the program, see our FAQ section.

Not in the traditional academic sense — and that’s the point.

We’re not an accredited university or college and we've built ourselves like this on purpose to offer what schools can’t: direct, documented business results. Many graduates use their Novantum experience as a launchpad to bigger ventures or leadership roles because the outcomes speak for themselves.

So while an employer may not recognize Novantum like they would Harvard, your experience as a VP & Business Owner of a highly successful venture will mean far more than a degree in today's workplace.

A business degree teaches business theory. Novantum builds businesses with you.

Instead of writing papers and taking exams, you’ll launch, operate, and grow a real business with real revenue. We replace lectures with coaching, group projects with co-founding, and case studies with clients.

It's 100% experiential. Yes, you learn, but you learn by doing it.

No. Novantum is a structured, immersive 2-year experience. It combines expert mentorship, accountability systems, collaboration, legal business formation, and revenue targets. You don’t consume content to grow your knowledge. We are completely against that.

You execute — and the result is a business that lives beyond the classroom.