SUV Pathfinder

As part of North Forge’s commitment to each Start-Up Visa applicant we support, all founders are required to participate in Pathfinder: the first stage of the Founders Program. Pathfinder is a 10-week course focused on market validation. The objective of the course is to help founders identify critical assumptions they have about their target market in Canada, and to equip them with the skills to test and validate those assumptions.

Issued on 06 Oct 2025 by

North Forge Technology Exchange

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Criteria

This certificate holder completed a 10-week program, including 7 online modules and 10 online classes. They have been given the skills to conduct effective customer interviews and developed a market-validated value proposition.

Intended Outcomes

Through the market validation training in Pathfinder, North Forge SUV participants learned important techniques to help de-risk their business endeavors as they transition to Canada. Graduates received the resources and support required to fulfill the following course expectations and outcomes:

Complete all modules and coursework within the online curriculum.
Attend weekly masterclasses with subject matter experts and mentors to solidify learning objectives.
Schedule regular meetings with their designated mentor provided by North Forge.
Utilize customer discovery methodologies to identify assumptions about their target customers in Canada.
Develop an interview script designed specifically to investigate the pain points their customers experience.
Use their script to conduct primary research on their Canadian target market. If a founder was unable to interview people in Canada, they were instructed to practice the interview technique with customers in their region.
Present interview results and analysis to North Forge staff and mentors, outlining what they learned from primary and secondary research, their improved value proposition, and their conclusion as to why there is a market for their product in Canada.

Performance Indicators

The certificate holder has:

Learned the process of customer discovery to help build a validated value proposition.
Revised and refined customer interview questions to ensure that they are open-ended, non-leading, not solution-oriented, and flexible.
Tested assumptions about their target customer by conducting customer interviews and/or secondary research.

Assessment

This certificate is awarded after each startup presents their market validation, highlighting what they learned from their research and how their understanding of the customer problem has changed.