23 Local Businesses Chosen for 2026 Starter Company Plus Program After Nearly 90 Applications
/By Scott Arnold
From New Zealand hand pies and a baseball invention to a spiritual boutique and a women-owned plumbing company, this year’s Starter Company Plus cohort reflects the wide range of ideas and businesses taking shape across Peterborough and Peterborough County.
The 2026 Starter Company Plus cohort gathers for a group photo after 23 local businesses were selected for the six-week program through Community Futures Peterborough’s Business Advisory Centre. Nearly 90 businesses applied for this year’s program. (Photo by Scott Arnold)
Twenty-three local businesses are getting the opportunity to take their next step after being selected for the 2026 Starter Company Plus program through Community Futures Peterborough’s Business Advisory Centre.
The new cohort was announced Wednesday, September 16th, with nearly 90 applications received for the highly competitive program.
For Rosalea Terry, manager of the Business Advisory Centre and Corporate Communications at Community Futures Peterborough, the number of applications was only part of what made this year’s group stand out.
“The quality of applications this year was exceptional,” Terry said. “There were so many strong businesses, great ideas, and incredible drive to grow.”
She said the diversity of the businesses and the passion behind them were particularly noticeable during the selection process.
And there is certainly plenty of variety.
The 2026 cohort includes a New Zealand-style hand pie company, a ballroom dance studio, a patented baseball product, an organic skincare company, pet care providers, a women-owned plumbing company, a café, a brewery and blending business, a travel mug company, a craft supply business, a cleaning company and several other ventures.
The businesses will spend the next six weeks taking part in in-person workshops, one-on-one advisory sessions, mentorship and networking opportunities designed to help them refine their strategies, strengthen their marketing and build the skills needed for sustainable growth.
Successful graduates can also access up to $5,000 in grant funding.
For the people behind the businesses, though, the program is about more than the financial support.
MPP Dave Smith told the new cohort that while Starter Company Plus may sound like it is designed for people just starting out, many of the businesses have already done the difficult part of getting their ideas off the ground.
“What this is about is helping you grow, helping you be successful and ensuring that you can be those job creators, that you can be the entrepreneur in the community,” Smith said.
He also encouraged the 23 participants to make use of one another, not just the program's mentors.
“You have 22 other people here who are in that same step as you,” he said. “They want to do more. They want to build their company. They want to build their community. They want to be successful.”
That mix of businesses means there is plenty of opportunity for those connections to happen, even when the businesses themselves have little in common on the surface.
Smith pointed to the range of businesses in the room, noting that whether someone is working with babies, cider products or plumbing, there are still connections to be made.
“The link is you have that desire to take an idea or a concept, commercialize it, build upon it, and turn it into something,” he said.
Peterborough Mayor Jeff Leal also congratulated the 23 businesses, noting that being selected from nearly 90 applications was an accomplishment in itself.
“This year's cohort reflects a range of entrepreneurship we have right across Peterborough region, from food and professional services to manufacturing to professional care to recreation and skilled trades,” Leal said.
Peterborough County Warden Bonnie Clark also spoke about the importance of entrepreneurship in rural communities, drawing from her own family's experience in business and agriculture.
Clark said her family started a small business focused on renovations and repairs 35 years ago, which has since been passed down to her son, while her family has also been involved in a five-generation family farm.
Her message to the new entrepreneurs was straightforward: setbacks are part of the process.
“You divert, detour, regroup, and start again,” Clark said. “Never give up. That's just an opportunity to rethink what you're doing and redirect.”
From a Homemade Baseball Seat to a Business
One of the more unusual products represented in this year's cohort belongs to Peterborough's Rick Johnston, whose company Fungo Rocker has developed an ergonomic seat designed specifically around the baseball bat.
The idea has actually been with Johnston for decades.
While coaching overseas in the late 1990s, Johnston found himself trying to figure out how to stay close to the action on a baseball field while still having somewhere to sit. His solution was decidedly homemade.
“I basically ended up cutting a hole in a piece of wood, shoving it down a bat, and that became my seat,” Johnston explained.
The idea stayed with him and gradually evolved. Over the past two-and-a-half years, Johnston has worked to turn that original concept into the Fungo Rocker.
The result is a five-piece seat that uses a baseball bat as its support. It includes a base, seat with foam pad, collar, back support and a back support rib.
Johnston's extensive baseball background has given him plenty of first-hand experience with the problem he is trying to solve. He played in Peterborough before moving to Toronto, attending school in the United States on a scholarship and eventually playing for Team Canada for approximately six years, including the 1988 Olympic Games and Pan American Games.
He later coached with Team Canada and overseas.
That experience helped him see the need for something more comfortable than the traditional five-gallon bucket often used by coaches.
“It's turning into the Fungo Rocker now as it is,” Johnston said.
The product is designed to allow coaches to sit at a more natural 90-degree angle while still being able to move and rotate as they coach. Johnston also sees uses beyond the baseball diamond, including around fire pits and in backyards.
His immediate goal through the Starter Company Plus program is to move from prototypes toward production.
Johnston has several prototypes completed and is waiting for samples that he plans to test before sending feedback back to the factory.
“We'll be beating them up a little bit, if you will,” he said.
From there, he hopes to place the first order and get the product onto the market.
Bringing a Taste of New Zealand to Peterborough
For Lauren Cameron, the idea behind Kia Ora Pie Co. came from a food she discovered while living in New Zealand.
Cameron makes savoury New Zealand-style hand pies, something she became familiar with while travelling, working and, in her own words, eating plenty of pies.
“I thought we should bring them to Canada,” she said.
The business didn't begin immediately after her time in New Zealand, however.
It was several years before Cameron started making the pies again, initially for herself, friends and family. As a Red Seal chef, she already had the culinary background to develop the idea, but the business really began to take shape during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After being temporarily laid off from her job, Cameron returned to making the pies and eventually turned that into a business.
Kia Ora Pie Co. has now been operating for almost six years.
Customers can find the pies through curbside pickup, festivals and markets, as well as at One Fine Foods and Nanaberry's.
At Wednesday's announcement, Cameron brought along two of the company's popular varieties: steak and cheese, along with chicken, brie and cranberry.
The eight-ounce pies are designed to be hearty, with meat, rich sauces and cheese at the centre rather than the vegetable-heavy filling associated with a traditional pot pie.
For Cameron, being selected for Starter Company Plus is an opportunity to figure out what comes next for a business that has already established itself locally.
“It was a bit nerve-wracking,” she said of the application process. “So definitely kept myself lucky to be one of the select 23.”
She's now looking forward to seeing what can come from the mentorship and support offered through the program.
Building a Community Around Lavender Moon
Bethany Telford is taking a different approach with Lavender Moon, her downtown metaphysical and spiritual boutique.
Telford says the business is intended to be more than a place where people purchase spiritual products.
“We don't just sell you a product, but we actually teach you how to utilize that product to your best advantage,” she said.
Lavender Moon offers workshops, classes and events, including a monthly gathering called Tea and Talk, where people can discuss spiritual and metaphysical topics.
Telford said the idea for the business grew from her own experience and a desire to create a stronger sense of community for spiritually minded people.
She opened Lavender Moon in 2021 with a business partner after moving back to her hometown from Kingston.
The timing was significant.
Coming out of the pandemic, Telford said she saw a need for people to reconnect and find a sense of community.
“So many people feel isolated,” she said. “They feel alone. They feel like they're going through everything by themselves.”
That sense of community is something she wants to build into the future of Lavender Moon.
Through Starter Company Plus, Telford hopes to expand the business by bringing in more practitioners and creating what she describes as a one-stop spiritual shop, with services ranging from tarot and Reiki to mediumship, astrology and general guidance for people exploring their own spiritual interests.
At the announcement, she brought along a large amethyst crystal, which she said represented the kind of community she hopes to create.
“If there's a fracture in the circle, if there's a little bit of a break, it's not as strong,” Telford said. “But when all together, super strong.”
Meet the 2026 Starter Company Plus Cohort
The 23 businesses selected for this year's program are:
City of Peterborough
Lauren Cameron, Kia Ora Pie Co.
Courtney Carter, PTBO Ballroom
Jason Christopher Rose, Pneuma Systems Inc.
Madhu Gahalot, Melange Organics
Rick Johnston, Fungo Rocker
Bee Pratt, Owl Fix It Plumbing
Melinda Szilagyi, My Time Studio
Daniel Taro, PuzPuz Media
Bethany Telford, Lavender Moon
Angie White, B&B Craft Supplies
Holly Wilkinson, Begin with Baby
Brittany Zarobiak, Birch + Bloom Consignment Boutique
Peterborough County
Lisa Cantelon, Studio Eighteen (18), Selwyn
Carolyn Carr, Serenity Lane Café, Asphodel-Norwood
Dan Ellis, Ferm Farm Brewing & Blending Ltd., Otonabee-South Monaghan
Riley Gillespie-Friesen, Millbrook Pet Care, Cavan Monaghan
Cullen Groome, Rescue Sector Innovations, Douro-Dummer
David Manning, Cozy Days Travel Mug, Inc., Trent Lakes
Lois O'Neill Jackson, The Pantry Cupboard, Trent Lakes
Karen Parker, Parker Frames, Otonabee-South Monaghan
Jeannine Thumiah, Quantum Understanding, Otonabee-South Monaghan
Amanda Willett, The Ritual Cart, Cavan Monaghan
Curve Lake First Nation
Melissa Gray, Reliable Home Cleaners
