Lean Rhino

Food is a current that runs through every aspect of Lean Rhino owner Michael Sidra’s life. From growing up in Sudan, where food was so scarce that his father waited in line for three hours before work just to get two loaves of bread, to arriving in Canada, where food was abundant, Michael continually found himself working with and around food. And for him, food is intrinsically linked to the immigrant community: It’s a unifying force, a cultural comfort and the gateway to entrepreneurship. Michael believes that many immigrants are attracted to entrepreneurship. “[They] think that if they start their own business, they can be their own boss, that they can hire someone to sit at the front and interact with customers [for them],” he says. “But that never works, because you do have to interact with your customers.”

As a food inspector for more than 15 years, Michael often saw people starting up restaurants without any business planning or foresight. “I’ve had conversations with people who came into this country and invested their entire life savings into a food business and then they were in tears when they had to close [without] anything to fall back on,” he says. Heartbroken after seeing so many immigrant families fail, Michael created the first arm of Lean Rhino to give back to new Canadians by developing business plans for aspiring food related entrepreneurs.