Waterloo-based 1Mentor’s recent acquisition by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the world’s largest global higher education network, underscores the urgent need for better data collection and use in higher education institutions.
Waterloo Engineering and Math alum Esteban Veintimilla (MBET ’22, BMath ’18) co-founded 1Mentor in 2021. The company’s artificial intelligence (AI) enabled technology sifts through employers’ job postings to provide insights into employers' needs and identify skills required for success. It also equips higher education institutions with the information they need to adjust programming to address the skills gap.
Veintimilla’s passion for entrepreneurship was ignited by taking an elective course at Waterloo Engineering’s Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business during his math and business dual degree undergraduate program.
“From the outset, I was able to apply what I was learning to the real world. This experiential component had me hooked, and I took as many entrepreneurship elective courses as I could for the remainder of my undergrad.”
By the time Veintimilla built 1Mentor, he was a part-time graduate student in the Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) program. “Everything I was learning had real and tangible outcomes — and I could really see immediate results.”
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) works towards serving and empowering the global educational community, their ethos is a perfect match for 1Mentor. Veintimilla and his co-founders, Martin Serrano and Diego Robles, couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome. QS has acquired the entire company and staff, and 1Mentor will grow as a new business unit for at least the next five years.
“Being able to continue the 1Mentor journey with our entire team is fabulous, I’m really happy we can grow with the people who have trusted the vision from the beginning. That’s important to me and my co-founders.”
Go to Higher education analytics giant acquires Waterloo-grown 1Mentor for the full story.