Entrepreneurship and business competitions have and will continue to be, valuable learning experiences for student entrepreneurs. The Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business would like to acknowledge and congratulate BET (undergraduate courses), MBET (graduate), alumni, and Enterprise Co-op students on their accomplishments at the various competitions they have competed in this spring 2020 term.
Rice Business Plan Competition
In June, Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) students competed at the Rice Business Plan Competition, a prestigious and world's largest graduate-level student startup competition. LorCan, a connectivity solution for remote area data transmission, is a new venture founded by Minelli Clements, CEO. Her team includes her fellow MBET 2020 classmates; Alison Purdon, COO; Krishna Vegiraju, CTO; and Stuart Munro, Lead Product Designer. LorCan placed themselves as the only team from a Canadian university among 42 of the worlds best including MIT, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Imperial College, and Nanyang Technological.
"I am so proud of the LorCan team for what we produced and how we presented at Rice – for such an early stage company competing against companies with real tangible traction we really held our own and produced great materials to showcase our work and research and plans." - Alison Purdon, COO
Concept $5k - Spring 2020 Finals
The Concept $5k finals are a key competition for Waterloo student entrepreneurs each term. This spring 2020 term three of the ten teams competing were current or former students of the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business.
Congratulations to Citrus Co-founders Kiran Edwardson and Liam Croteau, Cloudsafari Inc. Founder Joshua D'Souza and Eight Stories of Modesty Founder Tamania Majeed. Learn more about these ventures and watch their pitches in this recent article on Concept's website.
Virtual Velocity Fund Pitch Competition (VFPC)
The stakes were even higher at the VFPC this spring as 11 of North America's most exciting pre-seed tech start-ups pitched for a chance to receive $50-100K in investments. Tutturo, a technology that helps people having meaningful social experiences in a remote world with virtual browsing and Boogaloo Beds, smart beds designed to safety, sleep and sensory regulation for people with special needs secured $50k in investments. Both Tuttturo Co-Founders Philip Scott and Ambareesh Balaji, as well as Booglaloo Founder Caleb Polley, are former BET 300 - Foundations of Venture Creation and Enterprise Co-op (E Co-op) students.
Quantum Valley Investments® Problem Pitch
The Conrad School approach to entrepreneurship is very much one of problem-solving. In addition to competing in the Concept $5k this spring term, Citrus Co-founders Kiran Edwardson and Liam Croteau also competed in the Problem Pitch. Kiran and Liam are both Engineering students currently taking BET 300 - Foundations of Venture Creation. At this competition, they pitched the problem of current testing methods for diagnosing Lyme Disease, a disease with the potential to cause the chronically debilitating condition. Learn more about this year's winners in this article on the Problem Lab website.
Pandemic Challenge
Keen entrepreneurs see opportunities everywhere and all times. During these exceptional and challenging times, Waterloo student entrepreneurs are rising to the occasion with their creative and potentially high-impact ventures. Decomp, an organic plastic waste disposal solution, is a venture team made up of two current MBET students, Gabriel Saunders and Tooba Mohtsham, as well as Caleb Seward a Master of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering. You can learn more about the Pandemic Challenge on Concept's website. Check out the Decomp pitch below.