As a third-generation immigrant from India Sophia Noreen feels a responsibility to help those that came to Canada after her.
The registered physiotherapist, whose grandfather immigrated in 1974, says that she wanted to share some of her family’s traditions and holidays with her two little girls, but couldn’t find decorations at an affordable price point.
“I went to the local store and there was nothing,” she says. “So I went on Amazon, and they were selling Eid balloons for $30 for a 10-pack.”
Surprised by the lack of affordable options available in Mississauga, one of the most culturally diverse places in the world, Noreen decided to make her own.
“I knew that my community didn’t have those funds; we came 50 years ago, but most immigration happened in the last 20 years,” she says. “They may not have the luxury of even attempting to do something like that, but I did.”
In 2018 Noreen started making more affordable decorations celebrating her cultural heritage as a side hustle, but the business grew quickly thanks to some big-name retail partners.
“Our biggest distributor is Walmart; they come back every year, and we did expand into another season, Diwali for our Hindu faith community, and eventually Holi,” she says. “We now have over 100 SKUs [unique products], we add to the collection each year, so at this point I would say it’s more of a brand.”
By the summer of 2024 that brand, Also Sophia, was becoming too big to balance alongside a full-time job, but Noreen says she still didn’t feel ready to take the leap into entrepreneurship.
That’s when she discovered the EmpowHER Tech Launchpad, a 6-week program jointly offered by IDEA Mississauga and YSpace that offers female entrepreneurs education, training, one-to-one mentorship and networks to take their businesses to the next level.
“I heard about it in September at a YSpace networking event, and they suggested it as a good way to transition from a side-hustle to more of a full-time role,” Noreen says. “I left my position on October 20, then I went to Dubai to launch the brand over there, and this started in November, literally the week I got back.”
“For someone in a product-based business to stand out in big retailers while only working part time was incredible, and we knew that she had the potential to scale,” says Marlina Ramchandran, the manager of special projects at YSpace and program lead for EmpowHER. “She was willing to learn, and we knew that given the right guidance, mentoring, knowledge and support, the sky was the limit.”
Noreen wasn’t the only participant in the program’s inaugural cohort of 12 female-run businesses seeing massive success after sharing their familial culture with Canadians.
After nearly eight years as a regional manager for a major restaurant chain Chanée Dowdie decided to pursue her lifelong dream of starting her a business of her own. Rather than buying a franchise of the established brand, however, Dowdie decided to start a restaurant of her own, both to further explore her creativity, and to further her aim of ending generational poverty.
“I knew I wanted to open up a restaurant, but I wasn’t sure what kind of a restaurant,” she says. “When I found a location, after I signed a lease, I was standing in the space and I was just like, ‘what’s gonna go here?’ and I decided on soul food.”
Dowdie’s restaurant, Honey Soul Food, opened in 2021 and quickly became a viral hit. Pretty soon the entrepreneur found herself serving up her signature Po Boys, Cajun shrimp, fried chicken, mac and cheese, and other southern comforts at her restaurant and corporate events.
“We cater for the Raptors often, Warner music, the Elementary Teachers Federation of Canada, lots of corporate clients, and I love that, because it allows us to push our message and our dream of ending generation poverty further,” Dowdie says.
Those early successes lead to an opportunity to open a pop-up café at STACKT Market in 2023. Rather than recreate Honey Soul Food, however, Dowdie decided to focus on one of its most popular items, and established the Cornbread Café, a concept she had developed with her dad prior to the pandemic.
The six-month contract at STACKT saw lines snaking down Front Street and was quickly followed by another six-month pop up at Billy Bishop airport.
“We want to focus on franchising Cornbread Café, but we want to have our first permanent location up and running first,” Dowdie says, adding that the franchise model is designed to be very affordable to help franchisees escape generational poverty. “We want to just make sure that everything that we’ve done at STACKT Market and Billy Bishop is doable at a location before we start franchising.”
As someone who loves learning Dowdie says she was eager to enroll in the EmpowHER Tech Launchpad, adding that the experience helped expand her professional network and inspired her to refine her brands’ marketing strategy.
“Whether it’s Caribbean dishes like the iconic cornbread or festive decorations for Eid and Diwali, it reflects the growing need for immigrant communities to share their cultures with others, enriching spaces where these traditions were once absent,” says Sneha Punwani, the Supervisor of IDEA Square One. “Sophia and Chanée, both are extremely resilient and passionate, yet still eager to listen and learn.”
Those interested in joining the waitlist for the 2025 EmpowHER cohort this fall can do so by clicking here.
