Students, founders and recent alumni will receive funding and access to resources to build a business through Up Start, a program developed by the Waterloo Commercialization Office (WatCo) and Velocity.
Up Start guides innovators through market discovery and the process of commercializing ideas into a venture that will disrupt the marketplace and create a positive impact on society.
Once teams apply and are accepted to Up Start, they will work closely with Velocity and WatCo advisors to conduct market research, develop a business plan, and will receive funding to help.
Successful applicants are actively building their business plans through customer discovery and validation while getting coaching and support from their fellow student teams, Velocity coaches, founders, and WatCo business advisors. The goal is to learn what it takes to be a startup founder through experiential market research to gain enough traction to attract further investment before graduation.
Funding from the Government of Canada’s Incremental Project Grant created the capacity for Velocity and WatCo to design and launch Up Start with the first cohort of nine teams slated for Winter 2023 and a second cohort of 11 teams in Spring 2023.
August 2023