Entrepreneurship

By exploring art and science in her work, dancer Lucy Rupert (BA ’96) shines a light in the dark.

The founder of Blue Ceiling dance named her company after reading Michael Ondaatje’s novel In the Skin of a Lion. In one scene, a thief’s friends paint him blue so that he can escape from prison. He blends in with the building and the sky, and slips away.

Rosalie Brown (BA ’85) describes her childhood as one of “non-stop movement.”

“My mom said that if they’d had those calming drugs when I when I was a child, she probably would have used them,” she says with a laugh.

From chip-resistant windshields to streamlining access to education, the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 list highlights five entrepreneurs with University of Waterloo connections. Take a look at the innovators who are shaking up some of the world’s most competitive industries, one product at a time.

Chong Shen

Startup companies at the University of Waterloo's flagship entrepreneurship programs have generated more than $2 billion in revenue and around 7,500 jobs over about a decade, according to a major new report by Deloitte Canada.