Waterloo Engineering alum and local entrepreneur Kurtis McBride (BASc ’04, MASc ’07) launched his first company, Miovision, in 2005.
The Kitchener-based company uses data-driven insights to help municipalities understand their traffic systems in real-time. It now employs 400 people, including Waterloo co-op students, and its technology is used in 63 countries. McBride, who has founded other businesses and community-focused initiatives, credits much of his success to Canada's golden age of entrepreneurship and stresses the need for Canada to once again celebrate risk-taking and job creation — or fall behind.
McBride is concerned that the public policy consensus that benefited him — the agreement that supporting entrepreneurship is key to building a dynamic economy capable of sustaining a strong social safety net — has eroded over time.
“There’s more risk aversion today, fueled by public narratives that pit wealth creation against social ideals,” he says. “This mindset threatens our ability to foster the next generation of innovators and keep them here."
Despite this, McBride is optimistic about the Waterloo region’s continued potential to model the positive relationship between entrepreneurship, economic growth and community development. Velocity, the University of Waterloo’s startup incubator, the University’s Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Technology, and the Accelerator Centre, all contribute to the local ethos, helping entrepreneurs commercialize their ideas and build businesses.
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