Students enter the den to pitch deals to dragons

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Waterloo Engineering students had their chance to impress Canadian business leaders on the October 31 all-student episode of CBC's Dragons' Den.  Hongwei Liu, an electrical and computer engineering student, and Desmond Choi, a  University of Waterloo arts student, pitched their company MappedIn's smartphone application that helps people navigate through malls. 
 
Alexander Peters and Rohan Mahimker, recent Waterloo mechatronics engineering graduates, promoted their online math learning game SMARTeacher.ca, which is based on Ontario’s math curriculum, but with a fun Pokémon-style theme.

Peters and Mahimker ended up turning down the offer they received when the show was taped earlier this year. Lui and Choi made a deal with Kevin O’Leary, Bruce Croxon and Jim Treliving, but after due diligence decided not to partner with the three dragons. Instead, they have teamed up with Eris Canada, an established leader in mapping software.