ECHO FAQs
Review our most frequently asked questions about the ECHO program.
Are only Canadian citizens and permanent residents eligible to apply?
No, you do not need to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to apply for ECHO. The only requirement is that your health technology/innovation is being developed in a Canadian institution or company.
Do you need to have a startup company around your technology to be eligible?
No, you do not need to have formed a startup company around your technology. However, you must be developing a cardiovascular or health technology/innovation that you intend to commercialize.
Should we apply to ECHO as a startup team or an individual founders? Does each member of our venture need to submit a separate application?
You apply to the ECHO program as a venture team, not as individual founders. Only one application per venture is required. The application form will ask you to list all team members. If your venture is accepted into the program, all team members are welcome and encouraged to participate in the ECHO programming.
Is there a minimum or maximum number of people allowed on a venture team?
While each venture must have at least one founder to be eligible for ECHO, there is no maximum number of team members who can participate in the program.
How many hours of workshops and webinars per week are ECHO participants expected to attend?
ECHO is a 12-month program starting October 2025. Workshops, webinars and ECHO Accelera sessions are held on Wednesdays during the 10 am – 12 pm ET timeslot. They are scheduled as follows:
Module 1 workshops: October – December 2025
During this period, 9 workshops (2 hours/session) will take place from October to December 2025. Each week will include one 2-hour workshop. The workshops will be held on Wednesdays at 10 am – 12 pm ET.
Module 2 workshops, Module 3 webinars and Module 4 ECHO Accelera sessions: January – June 2026
Module 2 workshops (2 hours/session), Module 3 webinars (1 hour/session), and Module 4 Accelera sessions (2 hour/session) will be held during this 6-month period with one session held weekly. All sessions will be held on Wednesdays at 10 am – 12 pm ET.
Module 5: Pitch development: July – October 2026
During this summer stretch, there will be no workshops, webinars or ECHO Accelera sessions. Instead, ECHO ventures will have the opportunity to perfect their pitch deck, compete in a first-round pitch competition and receive pitch training, speaker coaching and mentorship on their go-to-market strategy.
Final pitch competition: October 2026
The program culminates in a final pitch competition (ECHO PITCH), which will be held in October 2026, where select ECHO ventures will have the opportunity to compete for startup funding.
More details on the schedule will be provided in fall 2025.
Are all sessions held online?
Yes, all workshops, webinars, ECHO Accelera sessions, mentorship/coaching sessions and meetings are held online. At least one member of each selected venture must participate. ECHO PITCH, our public pitch competition is held in person in Toronto.
Do all workshops, webinars and ECHO Accelera sessions need to be taken within the 12-month period?
Yes. ECHO is strategically scheduled to build a strong entrepreneurial knowledge base for its participants and all modules must be completed within the scheduled period.
What are the attendance requirements?
To be eligible to compete in the final pitch competition for the opportunity to win startup funding, at least one team member from your venture must attend a minimum of 80% of all program workshops, webinars and ECHO Accelera sessions. That said, all team members from your venture are welcome and strongly encouraged to participate in the ECHO programming modules.
Is ECHO affiliated with the University of Toronto?
Yes, ECHO is led by the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and is funded in a partnership with the Translational Biology & Engineering Program at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research.
Is ECHO a certified program?
At this time there is no formal certification associated with ECHO.
I am interested in getting involved as a mentor or facilitator. How can I apply
We are always excited to welcome new mentors and advisors to the ECHO community! If you’re passionate about supporting health innovation and would like to work with early-stage ventures, please reach out to Soror Sharifpoor at soror.sharifpoor@utoronto.ca to explore opportunities to get involved.
Our organization is interested in partnering with ECHO. Is this possible?
Yes. We are actively exploring partnerships to expand access to our entrepreneurship training, mentorship and commercialization support for health-focused ventures. If your organization is interested in providing these opportunities to your ventures or affiliated innovators, we welcome the opportunity to explore potential collaborations. Please reach out to Soror Sharifpoor at soror.sharifpoor@utoronto.ca. We look forward to starting the conversation!
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