Maintaining a regular amount of exercise is important to living a healthy life, yet what happens if you have the passion but not the community? Lots of people gravitate toward sports as their form of exercise, it allows you to not only keep up your fitness, but also provides an opportunity for friendships and comradery. Adulthood is often touted as the hardest phase in life to make new friends, but Coleman Ting Ho Chan and his co-founder Justin Ford have created a solution for Canadians through Javelin Sports.

What does Asian Heritage Month mean to you?

“As a Canadian, we are very proud of being a multicultural society. Asian Heritage Month gives everyone an opportunity to learn more about the many achievements and contributions of Canadian Asian descent who have done so much for the nation. It also allows us to come together and stand for Asians by going against any form of anti-Asian racism and discrimination.”

Why did you start your business?

“50% of people will not play their favourite sport again after graduating from university or college because it is very difficult to find like-minded people to play sports with. My co-founder Justin and I faced the same struggle, and we decided to tackle this issue. We developed a mobile app to help people find, join, and play in competitive or recreational sports teams in Canada. In the past three years, we helped over 60,000 Canadians play their favourite sports again.”

What’s one of our proudest moments as an entrepreneur?

“After developing the mobile app for a month in 2018, Justin and I met up with some pick-up players and joined their pick-up sports games. The joyful moments from the games were truly unforgettable. The most fulfilling moment of the venture was seeing people’s smiles when they are playing the sport that they love. This propels Justin and I to work harder every day to make playing sports more accessible. Our goal is to help increase the sports participation rate of North America.”

This piece is part of Startup Canada’s wider campaign to celebrate and honour Asian Heritage Month. Find more entrepreneur stories such as Coleman’s in our full list of Asian entrepreneurs who are shaking up Canada.