VeloCity Venture Fund
The VeloCity Venture Fund is a $25 000 grant offered to current University of Waterloo students that are interested in starting their own business. Along with the grant students receive office space, mentorship, and legal support incorporating their business. You don’t have to be in tech to apply — any business ideas will be considered but only those that show how they will benefit the most from funding will be considered for an interview.
Accepting Applications for Winter 2011 term: closes September 16th at noon
In order to get this to work within your co-op term we have a very short time from filling out the form deadline of September 16th at noon to the interview day of September 19th. Interviews will be 20 min long with a panel made up of Ted Livingston (VeloCity Alumni and founder of Kik.com), David Crow (uWaterloo Alumni, funder, and founder of startups), and Jesse Rodgers (Director of Student Innovation and co-founder of TribeHR.com). Time slots will be selected by you and assigned on a first come basis.
The interview process and criteria
As anyone who has gone through the effort of funding a company will tell you, there is no set criteria for receiving funding. It is a mix of idea, team dynamics, history of the founding team, raw energy, and a bit of a gut feel from the founders perspective that all goes into making a decision. However, to get to the interview there are a few things that the interview panel would like to see:
- A clear explanation of what you are working on
- A brief overview of your team members and why they are awesome
- What problem are you trying to solve with your product or service?
ou will be emailed over the weekend before the 19th and will be asked to book a 20 minute interview slot for the Monday. The interviews will happen on campus. From there the top teams will be selected as finalists. There are up to four $25 000 grants available. This doesn’t mean all four will be given out even if only four apply, it means that up to four teams could receive this funding if they have what are deemed to be fundable teams and/or company ideas.
