Nolan Karuta knows what it takes to be successful in soccer and it's more than fundamental skills, footwork and passing. It's about having the right mindset coupled with a passion for the game. The same can be said for the entrepreneurial game of business.
Karuta, a 2023 York University Glendon Campus graduate with a bilingual degree in business economics, is not short on passion. "I played soccer my whole life and stopped for a couple of years," he says. "I came back to it when I went to York University because they were known as the best soccer program in Canada. I played and trained with them and played semi-pro for about seven years."
He wasn't just passionate about playing soccer, he had an entrepreneurial spirit and an abundance of ideas for businesses, from preventing package theft at front doors to print-on-demand. "I was always kind of entrepreneurially minded. I was always ready to take a leap of faith," says Karuta.
But discovering which business venture best suited his unique set of skills, strengths and connections came after graduation when he joined the entrepreneurial incubator of the Glendon ENtrepreneuriat et Innovation A L'international (GENIAL) Initiative at the suggestion of Glendon Associate Professor Angelo Dossou-Yovo. Through GENIAL, Karuta was able to focus his passion. "I think it's a great program, something that's really unique," he says.
Dossou-Yovo, the management and entrepreneurship professor who developed the initiative in 2017, agrees. "It's the only business incubator in Ontario that I'm aware of that focuses on the process of discovering business opportunities. In addition, we offer a bilingual program, both French and English, and that makes us different. We don't just have participants develop a business model. At the outset, you really need to make sure you're starting the right business because there is no point developing a business model for a venture that would not gain any market traction or end up not surviving within one to three years."
Through the process, Karuta soon realized what was there all along - a business that drew from his extensive knowledge, experience and skills at playing, teaching and coaching soccer. That was what first sparked the idea for Karuta Futbol Academy to train young players in both English and French by focussing on technical fundamentals and defensive intelligence, a skill set he says is often overlooked in grassroots Canadian soccer.
"It seems natural in hindsight, but it took some time to realize it. I had a strong football (soccer) network, was a trainee, and coached and played with an ex-Arsenal player towards the end of my career. I thought, I can do this. Without the GENIAL Initiative I don't think I would have had the same confidence. It helps develop resiliency and provide a support system," says Karuta. With more than a decade of coaching experience, he continues to be asked by pro players to help coach, such as at FC Bayern Münich's summer football (soccer) camps. He traveled with them for four weeks and underwent coaching from their philosophy under the Bayern world squad head coach Christopher Loch.
Dossou-Yovo acknowledges that Karuta had several earlier ideas, but this one was "really in line with his passion and is a testimony to the initiative, that it actually helps. We try to create an entrepreneurship mindset by focusing on the early stage of the life cycle of a business. We look at how to identify and develop business opportunities." It begins with problem solving and learning how to discover and identify business opportunities that offer a higher probability of success.
"We're in the business of helping would-be entrepreneurs and those interested in entrepreneurship to develop entrepreneurship skills," adds Dossou-Yovo. Within the bilingual GENIAL initiative is a 15-week Entrepreneurial Skills Passport Program, which recently started offering modules to professionals. Once they complete all the modules, they receive a digital badge. The initiative has also grown and now accepts francophone students from other universities and colleges.
A research program in entrepreneurship and innovation within GENIAL is now also developing a crowdsourcing platform to help test business ideas, what might work or not, and what are the opportunities. Something that is especially useful for participants that don't have deep experience and knowledge in a particular business they're interested in.
There is also an annual Student Entrepreneurship Competition where students can pitch their ideas, learn how to communicate the value of their business to potential partners and hopefully attract seed funding to launch and scale their business. Karuta took second place in the competition last year and won the public choice award.
This year's competition on Oct. 2 is once again presented by Glendon GENIAL and Desjardins Financial Group, which has donated to this initiative and a second initiative, YSpace's ELLA for women entrepreneurs, to expand both.
That gift helped not only with infrastructure needs for the GENIAL incubator and its Entrepreneurial Skills Passport program (ESP), but also resources for the experiential education component of the courses, specifically in social enterprise design, as well as the entrepreneurship project course. In addition, it allowed more modules to be added to the ESP program and provides seed funding to the student entrepreneurs.
The future vision for the Karuta Futbol Academy is to expand and have a non-profit affiliation to hold community pick-up events, drop-in clinics and have a more affordable price point for high level training. Karuta aims to have multiple hubs (North York, York Region, Durham, downtown Toronto) as part of a franchise model by 2026-2027.
Karuta continues to refer to what he learned through GENIAL to grow his academy training an increasing number of players ages 10 to 16. Beyond the skill level, Karuta is looking to see if the young players are teachable. "Can I develop a love of the game and help them be a better person?" That is most important. The rest of it, he says he can train. In fact, he loves working with some of the more challenging kids and helping them develop, not just their footwork, but as well-rounded athletes.
"With the youngest players, it's more about developing skills, but as they get older, that changes and it becomes more about mindset and game IQ. You need the right mindset to succeed."
