When Kamal Lutfi entered the Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) program, he was emerging from a difficult but formative experience: the closure of his first venture during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Newly arrived in Canada, without a business foothold in the local market, and aware of the gaps that limited his first venture’s scalability, he chose MBET as a deliberate reset; a structured path from uncertainty to informed entrepreneurial leadership.
A strategic pivot into Canada’s innovation ecosystem
For Kamal, MBET represented more than a graduate program. It was a necessary foundation for relaunching himself as a founder in a new market. He sought clarity, community, and a deeper understanding of Canadian entrepreneurship.
His goal of entering MBET was direct: validate a second, more resilient venture while replacing instinct-driven execution with evidence-based strategy. The Conrad School’s integrated curriculum and ecosystem provided the environment he needed to rebuild confidence and capability.
Skills that rewired his approach
Kamal describes MBET as the turning point that reshaped how he thinks, leads, and builds. Some examples of this include:
Kamal Lutfi, MBET
- Resilience and leadership: Courses such as Leadership strengthened his ability to navigate uncertainty and communicate with intention, skills that now anchor the culture of his company.
- Customer development discipline: Through the MBET program’s emphasis on customer-centric experimentation, he adopted a rigorous validation mindset. Structured interviews, low-fidelity testing, and the principles captured in The Mom Test moved him from assumptions to data-driven insight.
- Ecosystem leverage: Being immersed in the Waterloo innovation network taught him how to use academic research, partner support, and community input to pursue ideas that are both feasible and disruptive.
Identifying opportunities through a new lens
MBET shifted Kamal from a product-first mindset to one rooted in solving meaningful problems.
He learned to recognize market signals, test ideas quickly, and treat each iteration as a hypothesis, which was an approach that now guides every strategic decision in his venture.
The program transformed my relationship with failure. Failure stopped being catastrophic and became a data point. MBET gave me the tools and resilience to operate under uncertainty and focus on building long-term value.
Guidance for future founders
Kamal offers three concise lessons for those considering or beginning the MBET journey:
- Embrace the pain: Use setbacks as raw material for growth. Analyze previous failures with honesty and structure.
- Talk to strangers: Seek conversations with customers and experts. Real insight lives outside the classroom.
- Prioritize the people: Your cohort, faculty, and alumni become long-term collaborators. Invest in those relationships.
Looking ahead: building global impact
Kamal’s long-term ambition is to scale his venture into a global industry leader as one that addresses complex challenges and creates enduring economic and social value. MBET’s influence continues to guide his approach to leadership, financial discipline, and strategic growth. As he advances, Kamal plans to reinvest in the ecosystem that shaped him:
- Mentorship: Supporting students navigating early-stage entrepreneurial uncertainty.
- Experience sharing: Offering candid case studies and real-world insights.
- Opportunities for students: Creating internships and early roles as his company grows.
Kamal’s journey reflects the purpose of the MBET program: empowering founders to turn setbacks into strategy, ideas into validated opportunities, and ambition into sustainable impact.