About Scott Stirrett

A picture of Scott smiling with buildings in the background.

My career has been focused around one question: how do people and communities grow and thrive in a volatile world?

I am the Founder of Venture for Canada, where I spent over a decade building a national platform that helps early career professionals develop the skills, networks, and judgment to move forward in messy, fast changing conditions. Since launching in 2013, Venture for Canada has supported over 10,000 young people and raised more than $80M to expand entrepreneurial opportunity across Canada, working with partners like Employment and Social Development Canada, RBC Foundation, TD Bank, Mastercard, and leading Canadian foundations.

I learned this the hard way. Early mistakes scaling Venture for Canada nearly broke both me and the organization. Hiring too fast, overpromising, and underbuilding systems forced me to rethink how growth actually works when the future is unclear.

A big part of that work became helping people stop trying to pick the perfect path and start building useful skills that travel. At Venture for Canada, we focused on real work, real responsibility, and learning by doing, not prestige or perfect plans.

I am also the author of The Uncertainty Advantage, a practical guide for people at the start of their careers who feel stuck between too many options and too much pressure. It is built from my own mistakes and from watching thousands of young people try to find their footing in a messy economy. The core idea is simple. You do not need a perfect plan. You need good rules for making decisions when the future is unclear.

I grew up in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, which shaped how I think about community, dignity, and opportunity. It made me care about how towns and cities create real opportunity through local businesses, local leaders, and real places.

Before Venture for Canada, I worked at Goldman Sachs in New York and studied at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. I have been recognized as a TELUS LGBTQ Innovator of the Year, a Globe and Mail Changemaker, and an Ashoka Fellow, among others.

My writing and commentary has appeared in The Washington Post, Forbes, The Globe and Mail, CBC News Network, and BNN Bloomberg. I currently serve as Co Chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights and sit on the Board of the Speech and Debate Canada Foundation.