Entrepreneurship

A startup founded by second-year Waterloo Engineering students just five years ago would have a market capitalization of US $5.16 billion under a proposed merger to make it a publicly traded company.

Embark Trucks, which is based in San Francisco, was launched by former mechatronics engineering students Alex Rodrigues and Brandon Moak to bring autonomous technology to the trucking industry.

Every Monday, we hand control of the @uwaterlooalumni Instragram account to an alumnus. From Youtubers to entrepreneurs, they’ve offered an inside look at their typical work days and some great memories of Waterloo. But our favourite part of these takeovers is the unique career advice they share. Here are some of our favourites.

Turning obstacles into opportunities

University of Waterloo’s alumni Calvin Choi (BA '01), who has distinguished himself in the international financial sector, and Chuck Magro (BAsc '93), a renowned business leader in Canada, will be the recipients of honorary doctorates at this spring’s convocation ceremonies.

> Calvin Choi (BA '01)
> Chairman, AMTD Group; Founder, AMTD Charity

An alumnus of Waterloo Engineering who parlayed his graduate research into a startup company that is out to solve worldwide water problems has been recognized by a national innovation organization.

Jason Deglint, a co-founder of Blue Lion Labs, is one of five winners of a Mitacs Entrepreneur Award for turning research into businesses that impact the lives of Canadians.

After a year of playing games to empty bleachers, sports franchises are beginning to welcome back fans. Yet, with COVID-19 circulating and a significant portion of the population still unvaccinated, finding ways to open safely is paramount.

Rui Su (PharmD ’18) is used to rejection. The Rx2018 pharmacy grad has worn many hats over the years, but the one that suits her best is trailblazer. Su is an entrepreneur committed to improving Canada’s health-care system. On this journey, she’s learned that rejection is part of the process.

Impressing a venture capitalist with their business pitches earned two senior-year engineering teams $50,000 each in financial backing.

The evolution of Waterloo’s entrepreneurial ecosystem over the last decade is one of the University’s most celebrated achievements.

C100’s Fellowship program highlights Canada’s most promising early-stage entrepreneurs. The 2021 cohort features four University of Waterloo connections. From Velocity alumni to chief technology officers, many of these individuals are the face of Canada's future entrepreneurial sector. The University of Waterloo fosters an entrepreneurial atmosphere, providing many incubation and acceleration programs, connection, support systems and much more.

To Dr. Louise Schaper, Amazon’s plan to start selling health-care services is a gamechanger.

“If you can afford to pay for it great, but what happens to people who can’t pay for private health care?” she asked.