Conrad School 2019 Review

Thursday, January 23, 2020

2019 was a busy and successful year for the Conrad School of Business and Entrepreneurship! Here are some highlights from the previous year.

Winter Term 

  • In January, Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) students won the Entrepreneurial Powerhouse award at the Apex Business Plan Competition at University of New Brunswick, along with Prefection Labs taking home Best Business Plan, and place second overall.
  • The 2018 Hult Prize competition wrapped up with international regional competitions, including PulseHome in Melbourne, Better Bail for America in Mexico City, Emergency Response Africa in Toronto, Wormo in Boston, and Grid It in Bogota. Better Bail for America came first in the Mexico City Regional competition. Read more about the Hult Prize competition here.
  • MBET students represented the Conrad School at the Stu Clark Investment Competition at University of Manitoba, winning best Canadian team, second at the pitch competition and second overall. Read more about student competitions here.

Spring Term 

  • In April, Richard Yim, an MBET alumnus, launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000 for Demine Robotics, a company whose mission is to remove land mines and UXOs safely and efficiently. Demine Robotics achieved their Kickstarter goal of $50,000 and has used this funding to continue working toward their goal of eliminating landmines in Cambodia and other areas. 
  • CataLight, a social impact startup from MBET wins the largest and richest student startup competition, the 2019 Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) competing head-to-head with students from the world’s top schools. Read more.
  • We were excited to host students from Mexico and Chile to participate in the Conrad School Summer Entrepreneurship Program for the month of July. Students participated in a variety of workshops, providing them the framework to develop a venture. The program concluded with a pitch competition where the participants presented a five minute investment pitch to industry experts and faculty members to compete for MBET scholarships.
  • Emergency Response Team (ERA) had a successful summer, starting off by winning second place in the Conrad School MBET Year-End Pitch competition with their video entry at the end of June. Next, ERA continued their success by winning $5,000 at the Velocity 5k Pitch Competition. 

Fall Term

  • Enterprise Co-op students pitched for prizes of $5,000 at the Ignition Week pitch competition. The E-Launch and the Norman Esch E Co-op Awards were awarded to BeBlended, Tic Toc Go, Circular Farm, Avro Life Sciences, and Ox Head Studio. Read more.
  • In October, NERv Technology Inc., an innovative medtech venture, was able to secure $1 million CAD in pre-seed funding. NERv was co-founded by a number of University of Waterloo alumni and an MBET alumni. They are working to create a device that will reduce the risks of undetected post-operative complications. In addition to this success, NERv also emerged victorious through three days of pitching against a group of 100 finalists at the Entrepreneurship World Cup Global Finals in early November. 
  • The 2019 Hult Prize competition began in the beginning of October with a kick-off event at the University of Waterloo. The challenge this year is to build startups that have a positive impact on our planet with every dollar earned. Teams in this challenge went through different levels of competition leading to the finals at the beginning of December. Taking third place SheCycle, second place was Prokaryo and first place was Decomp - a fungi-based plastic digestive that will tackle plastic waste recycling developed by MBET students. Watch the video to learn more.
  • We were excited to announce BET 580: Consulting. BET 580 is a new course designed for undergraduate and graduate students who are considering working as a consultant, either internally within an organization or for a consultant firm. Read more.

  • We welcomed a new Sessional Lecturer, Tatiana Astray and introduced a new course to the Conrad School near the end of the Fall term. Tatiana will be teaching BET 460: Business Negotiations, starting in the Winter term. Tatiana is a negotiations expert whose research focuses on Professional Relationships, Emotional Expressions, Negotiations, Trust and Reputation. 

  • We also welcomed a new Sessional Lecturer and industry expert, Michelle Lennox CPA, who will be teaching BE 601: Introduction to Financial and Managerial Accounting 

2020 is off to a great start and we are looking forward to another successful year!