According to eMarketer, there were more than 77 million millennial digital video viewerso in 2015, representing 92% of all US millennial Internet users. Video is the preferred communication platform for this demographic, used for everything from entertainment, to personal communication. It is also increasingly being used for online learning, as more educators turn to video as a simple and intuitive way to better engage learners.

Shub Sengupta and Adam Zmenak are co-founders of Vidhub, a simple to use video review and collaboration tool. The two met back in 2013 at a 24 hour startup event hosted by Communitech, and felt that instant chemistry that happens when two entrepreneurs are destined to work together.  “I think we placed second or third in that competition. But more importantly, we knew we worked really well together as a team,” says Shub.

Shub, a video producer by trade, was quickly able put a new business idea on the table for the team to tackle — a platform that would allow clients to provide better, more accurate feedback to video production teams. He explains, “the video production process is not particularly collaborative. Producers typically need to set up and share footage using a video sharing platform such as YouTube or Vimeo. Then clients provide feedback via email, identifying the changes they want – for instance, I’d like to edit this section out, around five minutes into the video. But the process of collaboration is slow and it is usually really inaccurate. To give good feedback, you need to zero in on a precise second, and frame. So often, there’s a lot of back and forth between the producer and the client to get clarification. This slows down the editing time, affects both the video company and the client and often drives up costs and pushes out deadlines.”

Shub describes his brainchild, Vidhub as ‘SoundCloud comment meets Google Docs for video.’ Simply put, it lets people discuss videos online just as you would in person. Video is uploaded to Vidhub directly or from any video platform (Vimeo, YouTube, Dropbox are all supported). Everyone on the team is automatically notified, and is invited to comment. When a person begins typing a comment, the video is paused so the information can be tagged to a frame and specific time. Everyone can see all comments and can collaborate. Comments can also be exported to a PDF, subtitle or text file. A visual heat map running underneath the video allows people to view footage uninterrupted, but exposes where comments are located in each frame.

Initially, the Vidhub team focused its attention on the video production world – a market they knew well and understood. After building a solid footing, with customers using the product around the world, they are now expanding into the higher education market. “Video is now heavily used by faculty for online and blended learning, and we began getting inquiries from professors, who wanted to encourage student participation and improve learner engagement,” says Shub.

A focus on the education sector also demands more commitment from the two co-founders, who until recently have run their startup in parallel with freelance work. “We’re beginning now to gear up for buying cycles in schools leading into the fall of 2017. The education market is more hands on, and takes more focus and effort. It is a market that makes very big decisions, but not often. So we felt it was time for us to go full time on this venture.”

The move to full time has also allowed Shub and Adam to take more full advantage of the programming and mentorship offered through the Accelerator Centre to allow them take the business to the next level. The company also landed $30,000 in AC JumpStart funding, made possible through FedDev Ontario, which provided the critical fuel for growth. “It was the JumpStart funding that enabled us to finally go full time on our venture,” says Shub. “We had enough revenue to validate but not quite enough to pay the bills. JumpStart made up the difference.”

Oneiric Scores Big Success in HockeyTech with Help from AC JumpStart

Take two ambitious but coachable founders, an innovative product and a heavy dollop of hard work and you get, Oneiric, one of Canada’s up and coming hockey tech success stories.

The brainchild of Wilfrid Laurier grad Emily Rudow, the inspiration for Oneiric’s innovative base layer pant grew out of her own hockey-playing experiences.

“I’ve been playing hockey for 20+ years and when I was a kid, I hated the long process of getting dressed and leaving games with bruises at the back of my leg from areas left exposed,” says Emily. “Shin pads were always sliding around all over the place, and there was definitely a need for more safety in equipment to protect players from harm — for instance blade lacerations.

“The idea for our base layer pant came to fruition in my fourth year New Venture creation class at Laurier while completing my Bachelor of Business Administration degree. Drawing on my playing experiences, I developed an enhanced base layer with features to address both dressing and safety challenges. For instance, our pant includes shin pad pockets that allow player dress quickly and more easily, while keeping shin pads more secure. We also added back of leg padding and a cut-resistant ankle to protect those vulnerable areas currently left unprotected by today’s hockey equipment.”

After hearing from her classmates, past coaches, and old hockey friends that the base layer pant was indeed a good idea, Emily decided to pursue the business opportunity post graduation.

While working at a marketing firm in downtown Toronto, she met Kayla Nezon, who eventually became her business partner and co-founder.

Since launching Oneiric’s base layer pant for youth in the Spring of 2016, Rudow and Nezon have been hustling big time to create exposure and open sales channels for their product. The two have competed in multiple pitch competitions, winning RIC Centre’s “Unlock Your Big Pitch,” GTAN|Start, and the Ignite Capital Award, and coming in as a runner up in the Fierce Founder’s Pitch Competition. They also were awarded $30,000 in JumpStart funding through the Accelerator Centre (AC), offering them access to the AC’s team of expert mentors. They have landed 17 retail store partnerships across Canada, and signed a vendor agreement with Source for Sports to distribute their product. They’ve been featured in the Waterloo Record, Canadian Business, the Globe and Mail, and the Financial Post. And, the year culminated with an appearance on CBC’s The Dragon’s Den, where the co-founders were offered deals from several Dragons.

In the face of all this success, the mentorship provided through the AC JumpStart program remains a stand-out for the Toronto-based Oneiric founders.

“The JumpStart program has helped our business tremendously,” says Emily Rudow. The funding helped to bring us to the next level by allowing us to assemble our first order of inventory and fuel marketing and awareness efforts. However, the coaching from the AC’s incredible mentors has provided us with the most benefit. The Accelerator Centre community is warm, supportive, and full of entrepreneurial spirit and it is fair to say that we wouldn’t be where we are today without the program and the mentors’ amazing support.

ACJumpStart is made possible by and investment from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) and is delivered in partnership with Conestoga College, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo.

“We’ve achieved incredible traction with the help of our amazing mentors. If we could stay in the program forever, we would.” – Emily Rudow