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They say that it’s often lonely at the top. As a new budding entrepreneur with a year under his belt in 2013, David Brown could absolutely relate. Having started Core Real Estate Group with a vision, passion, drive, and ingenuity, Dave found himself questioning, and looking for more. Even though he had started several small companies in the past and had obtained his MBA, he longed for more real-world knowledge and experience. Knowledge on strategy, structure, and process. At the age of 33, when lots of people are trying to simply build a career, Dave was singlehandedly building and crafting an Enterprise.

Like most successful individuals, Dave not only surrounded himself with good people, but actively sought out opportunities to grow in knowledge and experience. With a firm push from a good friend and EO Member at the time, Stephen Petasky, Dave took the leap and applied into the EO Accelerator Program. As EOA is a program designed to help newer entrepreneurs scale through rich learning days, monthly peer meetings, and facilitated coaching, it seemed to be exactly what he needed and was looking for.

Although he recounts having nerves walking into the room the first day, he quickly realized within the hour that he had found his tribe. He knew that this experience and these people would be the change maker in helping him to achieve his dreams. Through EOA, Dave found peers to share experiences with, to relate to, and to gain a huge sense of belonging with. Although he admits the initial learning days were like drinking from a firehose, he managed to take home massive value and learnings on business strategy, process, people, and finances. He learned about setting goals, benchmarking, and accountability, and brought it all back to his business.

Over his three years in the program, Dave felt incredibly grateful for the coaches and entrepreneurs that he was able to share with and learn from. People like Ken Barry, Noah Jones, Jacqueline Jacek, Roger Cable, and Bryan Smith to name only a few. Dave was able to cut his teeth along side of, and guided by other great people and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs that were also in the same trenches as he was. Entrepreneurs with similar challenges, drive, and passion as he had. In implementing his learnings, Core was able to scale 6x over the same three-year timeframe. No easy feat to say the least.

Arming him with more than simply business knowledge, but wholistic life changing lessons and experiences, Dave mentions that EO Accelerator left a hugely impactful mark on his entire life. From business to personal, family and friendships, Accelerator helped gain insights on every aspect of life.

Today now having graduated from EOA, Dave has been a full out EO Member since 2017.  With a sustained spark, he continues to strive for that same growth, learning, and excellence as ever before. With his confident, passionate, and open nature, Dave continues to grow Core Real Estate Group, while also giving back to his community. With learning at his core, Dave is the current Board Chair for Junior Achievement Northern Alberta, and works to inspire kids to pursue their passions – to learn and to grow, and to explore whatever great possibilities might exist.

A past winner of a Business In Edmonton Leadership Award, Dave continues to create further good in the world, we at EO Edmonton are extremely proud to have contributed to his story and in part to his ongoing success. We’re excited to see what further impact he’ll create and bring to our city.