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Student entrepreneurs need mentors
August 17th, 2010 by Jesse Rodgers
The end of spring term at VeloCity marks my one full year at the residence. What a way to end it. I can’t say enough about how good the students are at the University of Waterloo but this term I got to work with a few students from the University of British Columbia and Queens. There is no question in my mind that the future for Canada is bright but we (the community) need to do all we can to cultivate the talent and encourage them to think big.
Canada has a lot of naturally talented young entrepreneurs but…
…we don’t have a big enough community to support them naturally. We have a lot of young people that need to be given the opportunity to try something. In order to try something the support needs to be there to help them accelerate quickly to either failure or success. We have a government sponsored system in Canada that can offer life support to enable a long process of building a company around a product (with tax credits, etc), what I don’t think we have is a system (or community) that can help people with the development of ideas into product. Some localities have communities that are decently strong but they aren’t big enough to meet the need that I believe is there.
Canada has lots of great young entrepreneurs that figure it out regardless but I see way too many talented U of Waterloo students that could be incredible entrepreneurs given the right community support that would encourage them away from the incredible job opportunities they have right in front of them. They don’t need money, they need a realistic chance of getting a product to a customer, receiving feedback, and trying again. They need the support of their peers and a place to meet new people with new ideas.
What is needed the most are really good mentors
My focus at VeloCity for the next year will be cultivating the mentor/student relationship. We need mentors that connect with what a particular group is doing, help them with their product, and get them to their first sale. That isn’t an easy task but if the right connection between an eager student team and a mentor happens, I am certain both the mentor and the students will learn a lot from each other.
What I want to see from a mentor/student relationship is a team given the opportunity to test their product on people that they think would pay for what they are building or service they are providing, along with help identifying when to pivot or when to walk away. As a mentor, you provide a sense of hindsight which is invaluable to any young entrepreneur. VeloCity is working towards building this student/mentor relationship through democamp style events where the teams pitch or demo their ideas, receive feedback and the mentors can get an idea of who they are and if they can help.
VeloCity will help a little to formalize the relationship but I would hope the connections happen naturally at these events. If you are interested in being a mentor please get in contact with me (jrodgers at uwaterloo.ca).
– posted on my blog as well.
Posted in Alumni
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Spring 2010 at a Glance
July 23rd, 2010 by viafrate
Bloq Software and the Crowie
With the spring 2010 semester coming to a close, VeloCity is getting ready to say goodbye to our hardworking entrepreneurs. With the Bootcamp as well as our regular VeloCity program ending off Monday evening at our end of term project exhibition, it is time to recap all of the fun we have had this semester.
A big part of the VeloCity community is having the opportunity to learn and grow from mentors and fellow entrepreneurs who have been there, done that and this semester has been no different. VeloCity students have had the pleasure of listening to mentors such as:
- Ali Azaria, CEO Well.ca
- Mike McDerment, CEO Freshbooks
- Ron Neumann, CEO Dejero
- Kevin Hood, President Market Access Corporation
- Brandon Nussey, CFO Desire2Learn
- Tim Jackson, CEO Accelerator Centre
- Carol Leaman, CEO PostRank
- John Baker, CEO Desire2Learn
- Jim Estill, CEO at Large
- Marc Castel, Regional Commercialization Director Ontario Centres of Excellence
Besides our regular speaker sessions held every Monday at the Accelerator Centre, VeloCity has also attended a regular lineup of conferences, which have proven to be instrumental in helping to spur entrepreneurship and innovation in and around the Waterloo community. VeloCity’s commitment in helping to build a strong sense of entrepreneurship in the students of today, leaders of tomorrow, is evident in our participation in the following conferences: Canada 3.0, OCE Discovery, G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit, and the Communitech Tech Leadership Conference.
This semester has also brought about a sense of entrepreneurship with the beginning of our Bootcamp program where VeloCity, partnered with the Ontario Centres of Excellence, Communitech and the Accelerator Centre, were able to give focus to the visions of three groups of entrepreneurs. If you have been keeping up with our blogs on the velocity homepage then you know all about: Bloq Software, Aetas Solutions and GroupVestor. These students have come a very long way since their journey at VeloCity began, making headline news in such places as: The Financial Post and the Montreal Gazette, UW’s very own Daily Bulletin and CTV news. For a look at the journey these 8 students have had over the past three months, check out the most recent updates for: Bloq Software, Aetas Solutions and GroupVestor.
Monday evening marked the end of our spring 2010 semester with the students of VeloCity presenting their projects and celebrating a great term here at VeloCity, closing off with a BBQ. The evening was a great success with approximately 100 attendees packed into the Accelerator Centre. The projects we have seen this semester have been innovative and highly geared towards the student market- students helping students. This night helped to provide our student entrepreneurs with confirmation, guidance and a sense of gratification of a job well done this semester.
VeloCity, along with our Bootcamp students attended DemoCamp Guelph this past Wednesday evening. The crowd was tough but Bootcamp team, Bloq Software, walked away with the ultimate DemoCamp Guelph prize that night- a broken Guitar Hero guitar named: The Crowie. This was a huge success for Mark, Avi and David who have now brought the Crowie home to VeloCity for the first time ever. If you are interested in attending or presenting at the next DemoCamp Guelph or DemoCamp Waterloo, be sure to stay tuned for the dates of these two events!
Overall, this semester has been a huge success and one unlike any other! In looking to the future and in preparation for our fall 2010 semester, we are currently looking for mentors in the Waterloo community who can speak to any of the following topics:
The program:
If you are interested in speaking to one of these topics please email VeloCity at: velocity@uwaterloo.ca to sign up! 
Thank you,
The VeloCity team
Here’s Looking at You VEB: GroupVestor Update
July 20th, 2010 by viafrate
Here is what VeloCity Bootcamp team, GroupVestor have been up to over the past couple of months:
A lot has happened since our last update. We have been able to tweak our business model, sign a customer, and launch a product. We have taken a route that sees us helping small businesses raise capital for expansion. Recent economic reports from the ECB and stats Canada show that there is a definite growing need in this sector, and we are very excited to be part of the change.
We were able to sign a local business names “Mel’s Diner” as a launch partner. The diner was an icon in the community, and was tragically destroyed in a fire in April of this year. We are happy to be helping the diner raise funds for expansion. In return for funds, community members are being offered the opportunity to have their message engraved in a tile, that will be placed in the diner when it re-opens.
The campaign has been going great. We have received a lot of support from the community as well as the media. We were recently featured on CTV news. We are well on our way of raising 10,000$, and encourage everyone to visit www.groupvestor.com and check us out.
As a whole, the BootCamp program has been great. We have been given opportunities and built relationships through this program that would have taken years otherwise. We have learned from the best, and are confident we can keep up our pace and grow the business.
Moe Adham,
GroupVestor Inc.
VeloCity attends the Communitech Tech Leadership Conference
July 20th, 2010 by viafrate
This past Wednesday VeloCity along with nearly every company in the Waterloo region and beyond, attended Communitech’s Tech Leadership Conference.
The day provided some mixed responses among the student attendees from VeloCity, but overall proved to be a beneficial day. Here are some student responses on what they liked, disliked and took away from their experience at the conference:
“I’m really glad I went yesterday. Clayton Christensen, the morning Keynote speaker, made some very good arguments for taking a strategic approach to the start-up process. The idea of disruptive innovation is something that everyone in VeloCity can benefit from.”
“Although very well presented, the breakout session centered around seed communities (by Jen Evans), was somewhat disappointing. To me, it seemed like more of an introduction to the idea of communities. I was expecting something more advanced considering it was a tech conference where most of the audience practically lives on the internet.”
“Favorite Part: The breakfast (most hated part: the lunch)
Favorite Speaker: the Harvard Professor keynote about the job products do.
Lineup: pretty good, but was only there half the day (community person wasn’t that great).Wasn’t the best conference I’ve been too.”
“For me, the most interesting part was the first keynote speaker, Clayton Christenson. I’m a business student, so I immediately tuned in when he mentioned “the things we teach in business schools that are wrong”. I thought his findings on competing against established competitors were compelling and especially relevant for start-ups.”
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Here’s Looking at You VEB: Bloq Software Update
July 16th, 2010 by viafrate
Here’s what VeloCity Bootcamp team, Bloq Software has been up to this past month:
It’s been a while since the last update, and boy has it been a whirlwind of a ride.
Thanks to VEB, we’ve had the chance to network and demo at the Young Entrepreneur’s G20 Summit and Startup Camp Waterloo, making some great connections and getting a lot of feedback and advice.
With our apps, recently we bit the bullet and found ourselves a graphic artist. We call the result “King’s Cup HD: Party Edition”, which is now in the App Store. Our framework is going strong, too. In a recent stress-test, we developed and submitted “Ride the Bus” — all in a day. But the thing we’re most excited about these days is our poker app, “Poker Table: Texas Hold’em”.
Our goal was to get rid of the mess without compromising how many people can play. Our app lets up to six players in on the game. Actions on the iPad mimic real life: players hide and peek at their cards, and can push their chips in or throw away their cards. They can even connect their iPhone or iPod Touch to act as their hand.
The game is progressing really well, and we’re excited to see what people think of it. We’re heading into a closed beta, so if you have an iPad and would like to give our app a try, follow us on Twitter (@bloqsoftware) and get ready for the call!
Mark Ally,
Bloq Software
