Purpose-driven Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses will gather online from Sept. 22 to 24 for a free three-day summit organized by Filipino Canadian entrepreneur Gelaine Santiago through Founding Possibilities.
The Build Ecosystems, Not Empires™ summit will feature 20 speakers, 15 pre-recorded workshops and eight live events covering business growth, marketing, money, healing, community building and wealth redistribution.
Santiago, founder and CEO of Founding Possibilities, said the summit is designed primarily for early-stage Black, Indigenous and other racialized entrepreneurs working toward six-figure businesses while trying to create a positive impact in their communities.
“They may be growing already and have momentum, but they’re still stuck doing everything themselves,” Santiago said.
Without enough revenue to hire a team or access other forms of support, Santiago said entrepreneurs can become caught in what she calls a “capacity trap,” where running the day-to-day business leaves little room to plan for sustainable growth.
The summit aims to offer another approach through Santiago’s Build Ecosystems, Not Empires framework.
The idea developed from her experience building Cambio & Co., an ethical Filipino fashion accessories brand she co-founded that worked with artisans in the Philippines.
Santiago said people sometimes described the company’s growth as “building an empire,” a description that did not reflect what she wanted the business to become.
“We’re not building an empire. We’re building ecosystems,” Santiago recalled telling people.
“Instead of scaling up and trying to become more powerful, as an emperor would, how do we scale deep?”
For Santiago, that means developing deeper roots in communities and pursuing gradual, sustainable growth that benefits the people connected to a business.
That philosophy shaped the summit’s programming, with workshops addressing topics ranging from money mindset, ancestral connection and finding purpose to content marketing, public relations, hiring and developing a financial road map.
Most sessions are pre-recorded, allowing participants to watch them around their own schedules from anywhere with internet access.
Eight live events will also take place over the three days, including coaching sessions and a founders panel.
The final day will turn toward wealth redistribution and re-circulation, exploring how entrepreneurs can use growing businesses to support their communities in tangible ways.
Santiago said she intentionally selected speakers who could provide practical strategies based on their own experiences building purpose-driven businesses.
“The tangible takeaways I want people to walk away with from the summit are just new and exciting ideas to grow their businesses that are not going to require them to burn out,” she said.
She also wants participants to reconsider assumptions about what entrepreneurship is supposed to look like.
Those include ideas such as growth requiring aggressive competition, constant work or marketing tactics that do not align with their values.
Making the summit free was part of that effort to reach entrepreneurs who may already face limits on their time and finances.
“We are trying to reach founders who, again, are at capacity,” Santiago said.
“They are struggling probably with some cash flow and might not have the resources right now to be able to invest financially.”
Participants who want additional support can purchase a Six Figure Ecosystem Pass, which includes continued access to workshop recordings, a week of live co-working and office-hour sessions with Santiago and additional resources from speakers.
For Santiago, the three days are also about giving entrepreneurs a different perspective on what is possible when building a business.
“There are so many ways to do business,” she said.
“We don’t need to be following the usual playbooks that are harming us at the end of the day too.”
Luis Miguel De Castro is a Changing Narratives Fund-Local Journalism Initiative reporter at Mabuhay Canada and a journalism graduate at Humber Polytechnic in Toronto. Originally from the Philippines, he is passionate about community storytelling, multimedia journalism, and amplifying Filipino voices through meaningful local coverage.
