Having placed in the top five in the recent Techstars Startup Weekend international event, Sydney-based Rest Assured has also been accepted into Dalhousie University’s Ready2Launch program this summer.
Rest Assured, which is headed by Cape Breton University nursing students Michaela Moore and Kelsey Muller, won the national Startup Weekend competition called “Unite to Fight COVID-19” in April. In the subsequent international competitions, the team was named one of the top 5 in the world, receiving $10,000 in funding from Differential Ventures.
Now Rest Assured will join seven teams from Dalhousie University to go through Ready2Launch, a summer accelerator for Atlantic Canadian students working on an entrepreneurial project.
“We competed with almost 17,000 people locally and internationally and were picked among the five top teams globally, representing Team Canada,” Moore and Muller said in a Facebook post last week, referring to their Startup Weekend experience. “We will grow our idea and bring it to the market.”
Rest Assured is developing a web app that it hopes will automate parts of the communication process in long-term care facilities between nurses and patients’ families.
Affiliated with the Lab2Market program, Ready2Launch is a 12-week program that helps participants take their businesses from idea to launch. It is open to undergraduate or graduate students, researchers, or recent grads from any Atlantic Canadian university.
The other teams are:
Reza Rahimi, Logan MacDougall and Gordon Fenton
The team has developed an artificial intelligence application that allows civil engineers to change part of an early design without compromising the rest of the structure.
Haligone
Canberk Bal, Michelle Pellerin, Deep Dave
Haligone is making an online marketplace that connects local businesses to consumers.
3DBioFiber
John Frampton, Gurkaran Chowdhry and Samuel Baldwin
The team is producing 3D biofiber with applications in cell culture and wound-care markets.
Caldi Controls
Nathaniel King and Scott MacDonald
King and MacDonald are making a connected thermostat to decide which heat system is most cost-effective.
Nicholas LaValle, Damir Allen and Zhen Xiong
This team’s technology uses a nature-based filter to reduce effluent waste in land-based aquaculture.
Donaid
Ryan Alcorn and Serena Jackson
Donaid aims to automate "subscription style" donations to non-profits with a focus on building donor engagement.
Remote Energy Systems
Clay Bryden, Lyle Bagnell, Simon Herbinger, Ian Dexter and Andrew Nico Ortile
The team is developing solar-powered tents for outdoor events, global relief efforts, camping, and the beach.
Jared Hudson and Rod Kerr
This team aims to produce reusable containers for students’ personal care products to improve sustainability on campus.
The Ready2Launch program provides each team with $10,000 in non-repayable development funding. The programing – which will be virtual – will run until Aug. 21, and the organizers are planning a demo day for Sept. 11.
