The Dalhousie Starting Lean initiative is continuing to mentor young entrepreneurs this summer by hosting the LaunchPad Accelerator and providing seed funding for the teams involved.
Now in its second year, the accelerator allows young companies to develop their business models, conduct customer discovery, gain traction and pitch investors. The eight-week accelerator gave each of the participating teams $10,000 to jump start their company.
Many of the companies were developed in Dalhousie’s Starting Lean class, which allows students to learn about lean methodology and apply those lessons as they start their own business. Most of the time, the participating companies aren’t inside a classroom. They are out gathering information about their markets and discovering customers.
“It’s extremely important to us that we … give them that experiential learning component that is so important,” Dalhousie entrepreneurship academic lead Mary Kilfoil said in an interview.
However, each company has weekly assignments and must check in with the LaunchPad organizers to ensure that they are moving in the right direction with their business models.
They assemble at Dalhousie twice a week. On Tuesdays, they learn about an element of the lean canvas, the tool that LaunchPad uses to map out a company’s progress. On Thursdays, the companies pitch a group of potential stakeholders—such as investors or market experts—to receive feedback.
“To be a true accelerator, we wanted to make sure we ticked all the boxes, said Kilfoil.
The teams from last year’s cohort that applied to the Atlantic regional accelerator Propel ICT were accepted.
“We feel that we’re part of something bigger than us,” Kilfoil said. “We see this as an important piece in the stream of talent.”
LaunchPad organizers originally wanted only to accept Dalhousie students, but they decided to expand it to the broader Halifax community, as long as one company founder is a Dalhousie student.
"Expanding entrepreneurship and co-op education opportunities is one of the key ways Dalhousie is growing our contribution to Nova Scotia's economy,” said Dalhousie President Richard Florizone in an email message. “The LaunchPad accelerator is a great case in point: connecting students who have innovative ideas with the skills, mentors and resources they need to help bring those ideas to fruition.”
He and Kilfoil both believe it is part of the university’s contribution to economic growth in the region.
“We see this is as being important for not only for fostering startups, but also retention,” said Kilfoil. “Through the networks they will build through this accelerator it increases their ability to stay in the region and to build capacity for the province.”
The teams selected to the accelerator are:
- Intelligent Site Innovations, an automated traffic signal for roadside construction sites;
- Crevoke, a social network for writers;
- BacDrop, an interactive platform for restaurant’s music selections;
- EyeRead, which helps children to read by tracking their eye movement and understanding what words give them trouble;
- WorkLocal, a video interview platform for prospective employers;
- Unify, a crowdfunding platform for alumni and current members of an organization;
- Stir, a mobile app that matches people based on location and interests;
- Canada Cold Press Juices, which uses sustainable agricultural practices to create cold press juices;
- Pet Konekt, an online platform where pet owners can find pet services;
- Cinemerse, which teaches language through watching foreign films;
- and What’s Happenin’ VIP, which markets VIP passes to Halifax attractions.
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