It’s obviously something about your great engineering school, combined with the resources and encouragement to start building and creating stuff while you’re still in school, that positions Waterloo founders so well to be starting companies," says Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of reddit, author and startup investor.
Alexis Ohanian was on campus November 22 to talk to UWaterloo students about his entrepreneurial experience and to promote his new book Without Their Permission. Waterloo Engineering had a chance to get Alexis' opinion on how the education here supports the development of successful entrepreneurs.
Alexis Ohanian on Waterloo Engineers: “[Waterloo] is no longer the best-kept secret. I think it was a secret maybe five years ago, and then we started noticing that the applications that were coming into Y Combinator from Waterloo were just on a different level. It's not even fair now because the reputation precedes every single one of these graduates. It's just a factory for entrepreneurial engineers, and it's amazing.
Alexis Ohanian has invested in more than 90 startups including Thalmic Labs, former resident of the VeloCity Garage.
Thalmic Labs makes the MYO gesture control band. Founders Stephen Lake, Matthew Bailey and Aaron Grant are graduates of the Mechatronics Engineering program at the University of Waterloo.