Current students

The Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business is delighted to announce that professorMarc Hurwitz has been appointed associate director, Professional Graduate Programs. In this leadership role, Hurwitz will help guide the continued growth of the School’s professional graduate offerings, including the Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) program, while enhancing student learning, strengthening industry engagement, and supporting the Conrad School’s ongoing evolution as a leader in entrepreneurship education at Waterloo. 

Tuesday, November 18, 2025 5:45 pm - 7:45 pm EST (GMT -05:00)

Capstone Catalyst Program

Capstone Catalyst: From Problem to Pitch
Want to jump-start your capstone and win up to $4,000?

Funded by the Esch Foundation, Capstone Catalyst helps you turn big problems into high-impact projects using early market insights and entrepreneurial tools. This week’s fast-paced session will show you how to validate assumptions, explore real market needs, and design projects with social impact, all while using the Lean Canvas to shape your value proposition and customer focus.

4A students: Attend the workshop and submit your idea for a chance to win $2,000–$4,000 in seed funding to launch your capstone next term.

Don’t miss out! This is your chance to get ahead and get funded.

Tuesday, November 18, 5:45 PM

Second Floor, Ideas Clinic E7

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Building Coeurage, Community, and Change

Nicole Troster (MBET ’18) is helping women-led service businesses scale with clarity, confidence, and customer-centric strategy. After more than 15 years supporting entrepreneurs and co-founding ELLA, Nicole launched Coeurage Labs to fill a growing gap in Canada’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Inspired by her own family’s journey and driven by a commitment to empowering founders, Nicole combines evidence-based frameworks with deep customer understanding to help entrepreneurs build sustainable, scalable companies. 

Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Remembering Professor Wayne Chang

The Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business joins the University of Waterloo community in remembering Dr. Wayne Chang, an inspiring teacher, mentor and entrepreneurial champion whose optimism, creativity and compassion shaped generations of students and founders.

An associate professor and coordinator of the Enterprise Co-op (E Co-op) program, Wayne was known for his infectious positivity and unwavering dedication to helping others realize their potential. His influence continues to define the culture of creativity, collaboration and confidence at the Conrad School.

Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business research faculty member Professor Shavin Malhotra has co-authored a paper accepted to the Journal of Management, one of the Financial Times (FT) Top 50 journals. 

 
The paper, titled “Risk Sharing in Government Contracting: Strategic Alliances as Safeguards in Government Supplier Relationships,” explores how firms that rely on U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contracts manage the unique risks of doing business with powerful government buyers. 

When Hayley So, a Kinesiology student in the Faculty of Health, competed in the Spring 2025 Problem Pitch competition, she walked away with $7,500 in R&D funding to advance her startup,ClickNShare. The platform aims to make creative equipment like cameras and devices easier and more affordable to access, helping students and creators alike share their tools and talents. 

Monday, October 6, 2025 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Capstone Catalyst Program Workshop One: Understanding the Problem

The Conrad School is excited to launch Capstone Catalyst, a program funded by the Esch Foundation to help you design innovative, high-impact fourth-year capstone projects. Workshop One: Understanding the Problem, hosted by the Problem Lab where innovation starts with understanding, not solving. Learn how to uncover and analyze problems with the potential for disruptive economic and social impact.

The Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business is proud to host and sponsor the Problem Lab’s Fall 2025 Problem Pitch Competition Finals, where Waterloo students showcase their research-driven approaches to tackling today’s most pressing challenges.

Unlike traditional pitch competitions that focus on solutions, the Problem Pitch challenges students to dig deeper, spotlighting their ability to understand the root of a significant problem. This emphasis on problem analysis is what often sparks the most transformative innovations.

Finalist teams will present their research to a panel of industry leaders and alumni for a chance to win $7,500 in prize funding.

The Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business is proud to announce the launch of the Academy of Research Commercialization (ARC), a new initiative designed to empower University of Waterloo doctoral students in turning deep-tech discoveries into investor-ready ventures.

When Covid-19 hit and students started losing their co-op placements, two Conrad School BET 300 students and Problem Pitch alumni Holden Beggs and Jackson Mills teamed up to give their peers experience anyways.

That idea changed everything. It became The Zero Experience, an all-online program that has now reached over 5,000 learners worldwide and been recognized in Forbes 30 under 30 Class of 2025.

“Zero was born from our experiences with the Problem Lab, entrepreneurship at Conrad, research across national labs, and too many side projects to count,” says Holden. “We saw common threads in successful innovation, but also a big gap: there was no true first step for students who didn’t yet have ‘a great idea’ or didn’t feel like innovators.”