We're excited to showcase Christianna Ioannou in today's Alumni Impact Series, where we highlight the inspiring paths of our Master of Business, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (MBET) graduates.
Christianna, who graduated from the MBET program in 2023, is an entrepreneur whose journey has been defined by resilience, adaptability, and a relentless passion for tackling real-world challenges.
Pivoting and Innovation
Christianna Ioannou's entrepreneurial story began even before she entered the MBET program. Her first venture, GroupRenew, was designed to streamline the group benefits industry by providing brokers with secure, reliable, and clean data. The product leveraged technology to parse PDFs, perform complex calculations and validations, and create client-ready reports—all critical tasks in the benefits sector.
Through her work on GroupRenew, Christianna’s skills and ideas were put to the test, and she earned recognition for her entrepreneurial expertise. She won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Powerhouse Award at the prestigious Apex Business Plan Competition, taking first place in both the Graduate Track and the Elevator Pitch categories. This recognition highlighted her ability to think creatively and strategically—skills that would prove invaluable as she embarked on the next phase of her entrepreneurial journey.
As is common in the dynamic world of startups, Christianna and her co-founders had differing perspectives on the direction of the product. Recognizing an opportunity for growth, Christianna decided to pivot when it became clear that the team had different visions for GroupRenew’s future.
Enter Sensablee
Christianna’s ability to pivot is a key theme in her entrepreneurial journey. After parting ways with GroupRenew, Christianna, alongside her co-founder, launched Sensablee, an IoT solution designed to help retail stores keep their shelves stocked by providing real-time inventory data. Initially conceived as a loss-prevention tool, Christianna’s team quickly recognized that the true potential of the product lay in its ability to address a larger issue: inventory management.
By pivoting to this new focus, Sensablee began to carve out a niche in the retail industry, offering real-time insights to help stores optimize their inventory and avoid stockouts. Christianna’s ingenuity and willingness to adapt were rewarded when Sensablee earned second place at the MBET Tradeshow—a testament to the power of innovation and perseverance. While Sensablee is still a work in progress, the team continues to refine the product, proving that entrepreneurship is a journey of constant learning and adaptation.
A New Venture in Education Technology
As if managing Sensablee wasn’t enough, Christianna’s entrepreneurial spirit led her to her latest venture in the Education Tech space: Octopodi. While working as a professor at Conestoga College’s School of Business, Christianna and her business partner Andy identified a significant gap in the academic world: the challenge of grading tech-based assignments efficiently. This led to the creation of Octopodi, a platform that enables professors to easily grade assignments in a more streamlined and automated manner—saving time and improving accuracy in the grading process.
Christianna’s ability to identify real problems in a variety of industries—from benefits to retail and education—demonstrates the versatility of the entrepreneurial mindset that is cultivated in the MBET program.
The Foundation for Entrepreneurial Success
When asked about the impact the MBET program had on her journey, Christianna is quick to point to its role in helping her sharpen her skills, validate her ideas, and navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship. “I was always somewhat of an entrepreneur, but the MBET program helped me to define my skillsets through the validation process,” she reflects. “It also gave me a better understanding of who I need to speak to when bringing my ideas to the table. You can talk to as many product users as you want, but you need to get to the key decision-makers if you want it to get anywhere.”
For Christianna, courses like Professor Shavin Malhotra’s Entrepreneurial Strategy (BET 601) were particularly instrumental. This course provided her with the tools and frameworks she needed to develop a strategic lens when creating business plans and navigating the entrepreneurial process. Christianna also highlights the impact of Professor David Rose’s candid feedback, which helped her gain perspective and stay focused during critical moments of pivoting between ventures. “David’s honesty— as hard as it was to hear sometimes—was what helped to give perspective and inspiration, and added a level of determination to my plans,” she says.
Advice to Future MBET Students
Christianna’s advice to current and future MBET students is simple yet powerful: dive in. “Utilize the resources available to you, whether it's entering pitch competitions, attending events in the ecosystem, or networking. This is especially important for the full-time students. You only have one year, so make the most of it.”
She emphasizes the importance of taking advantage of every opportunity to learn and grow. “The MBET program teaches you not just the theory behind entrepreneurship, but also the practical skills that you need to succeed in the real world,” she says.
Every course is a chance to solve problems, commercialize ideas, and gain the specialized knowledge needed to succeed in a fast-changing entrepreneurial landscape.
The Spirit of an Entrepreneur
Christianna’s entrepreneurial journey is a perfect example of the spirit of innovation and resilience that defines the MBET program. Her ability to pivot, learn, and grow has allowed her to navigate multiple industries, draw from her own experiences and expertise, and build solutions that address real-world problems. Whether refining Sensablee or launching Octopotty, Christianna’s entrepreneurial spirit remains at the heart of everything she does.