Entrepreneurship

After a full career with IBM, Brian Hyodo (BASc ’74) retired at the age of 55.

“Then I found out that I hated retirement,” he explains. “I sat at home thinking, ‘I have got to do something.’”

Five years later, he began an unexpected second career as a farrier, placing shoes on horses and donkeys and helping to straighten their crooked legs. It’s a rewarding career move that also tapped into his engineering background.

Taking things to an extreme is something that I have always enjoyed.

Before heading to university, I spent a year learning basic stunts, jumping out of four-story buildings, and learning how to skydive, all well before YouTube was popular. While spinning through the air is entertaining, as a performer I was going to need to learn much more. I enrolled at the University of Waterloo as my career seemed to have no real path unless it was directed by gravity. 

We often hear from entrepreneurial alumni who cite their communities and networks as an important component of their journey, whether that community was found in the Velocity program or elsewhere. Below, you’ll find four great examples of entrepreneurs who benefitted from Waterloo’s entrepreneurial community and Velocity program, and see how they give back through the Startup Pledge.

Marc Lafleur (BSc ’14) can’t tell you how he went from earning a degree in Health Studies to founding a successful meat subscription business.

Even though Martin Basiri (MASc ’13) had a bachelor’s degree in engineering and held a couple of patents, coming to Canada for his master’s degree was a difficult task.

Finding and applying to the right school took him a more than a year and a half. Finally, in 2010, he came to the University of Waterloo as an international student studying mechatronics engineering. Luckily, he landed a research assistantship, giving him the financial assistance he needed.

Velocity decided it was time to reach for a new speed.

For the first time in the history of its marquee pitch competition – one that has helped shape dozens of winners whose combined value now exceeds $1 billion — leaders of the University of Waterloo’s flagship entrepreneurship program brought the event to Toronto.

The way humans interact with machines has fascinated Calvin Chu for years.

“Interface is essential, yet it’s often overlooked,” he says.

He took courses on the subject as an undergraduate student in the Faculty of Engineering, looking at a wide range of interfaces to see what made them successful. The best ones, he says, were made for very specific tasks like music production and nuclear power plant operation. However, there were many other jobs that relied on imperfect hardware — most often the standard mouse and keyboard.

It was the fairy-tale ending that came true.

After securing a top place finish at this year’s Hult Prize Startup Accelerator located in an English castle, a Waterloo team will compete this week at the United Nations in New York City for $1 million.

The University of Waterloo’s flagship startup entrepreneurship program, Velocity, is bringing its pitch competition to Toronto.

Morteza Ahmadi PhD'13
PhD Alumnus, Faculty of Engineering
> Co-Founder, Qidni Labs 
> Velocity Garage

When Morteza Ahmadi visited a dialysis clinic he saw what kidney dialysis patients endure.