Entrepreneurship

Drafting story boards, crafting the perfect shot and hanging out of a helicopter - it’s all in a day’s work for Arc Media Inc., a boutique video production company launched by two Waterloo grads.

“We typically have multiple projects on the go at once, each at various stages of development,” says Jon Lucas, who co-founded Arc Media with classmate Andrew Askes. “We’re often writing for one client while editing footage for another. We’re working with our storyboard artist in the morning and then meeting a prospective client in the afternoon.

WATERLOO, Ont. (Wednesday, July 24, 2013) – The University of Waterloo is pleased to announce that Thalmic Labs has launched from the VeloCity startup program.

Thalmic Labs is the brainchild of University of Waterloo graduates Stephen Lake, Aaron Grant, and Matthew Bailey who conceived of the idea of the MYO gesture control armband during their time in the VeloCity business startup program. 

The ten teams pitching for one of four $25,000 grants at the VeloCity Venture Fund Finals this week are a diverse group but they all have one thing in common: They all want to make your life easier.

One team is developing a wristband that will track your exercise, diet and sleep. Another hopes to help teachers plan their classes and assess students. There is a startup that will help you create your own music even if you can’t play an instrument, and another one that helps you write.

While still a business student at the University of Waterloo, Douglas Lusted is launching new technology this week that will change the way we interact with digital screens.

The company he co-founded during a Waterloo co-op term, WestonExpressions (now known as LINKETT), is accepting pre-orders for Linkett, a device that lets consumers take content from digital promotions by tapping their smartphones on display screens.

Sujay Arora is a Waterloo engineering student now but he grew up in New Delhi, a city where recent public protests have raised awareness about violence against women.

When Armen Bakirtzian watched his father replace a patient’s hip, the orthopedic surgeon explained to his son that tools used to align the joints were time-consuming and costly.

Managing your health could soon be as easy as using your smartphone along with a diagnostic tool you buy at the pharmacy.

That’s the vision for Nicoya Lifesciences, a company launched by a University of Waterloo graduate who developed a unique home diagnostic tool that may one day help screen for cancer, monitor your heart and diagnose infectious diseases.

Brian Luptak and three other students on his fourth-year design team all expected to be hungry for a full-time job when they graduated this week with a degree in mechatronics engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Just one year after graduating from the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Engineering, three young entrepreneurs have secured $14.5 million in funding for their company, Thalmic Labs. The startup has already pre-sold 30,000 armbands that control computers and smartphones with gestures.