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December 10, 2015

The Accelerator Centre Announces Third AC JumpStart Cohort

26 Companies receive funding and mentorship to grow their businesses

The Accelerator Centre is pleased to announce the third cohort of the AC JumpStart program. 26 companies were selected to participate in the program, which provides funding and mentorship aimed at growing their business and accelerating their sales.

CoinValue — coin valuation software and hardware developer

Digital Governance Group —real-time political engagement software platform

Dimples — customized 3D printed jewellery

Eleven-X — cellular IoT hardware and software

English Never Stops — cloud-based peer-to-peer language acquisition platform

FishBuoy — Software offering real-time water and environmental conditions to anglers

Fidget Toys — developers of a multifunctional stress-relief toy

Find BoB — online marketplace easing the transfer of financial business ownership

HealthIM — standardizing hospital admission processes for persons with mental illness

HH Development — data management solution for professional motorsports

Horizon Solutions — helping building owners improve energy efficiency

InkSmith – Manufacturing filament (ink) for 3D printing using bioplastics and 100% recycled materials

iSports Development — software platform connecting professional and amateur athletes

Kineris — wearable devices that speed recovery from joint injury or surgery

Local Line — connecting local food suppliers to customers

Massuni — allows users to easily design customized furniture that meets their exact needs

ONEIRIC — sports tech manufacturer

Palette — platform of physical input devices for improving creative workflow

Pressa — developing a water bottle allowing users to naturally flavour water

Streetcast — mobile platform that allows organizations to communicate with local residents and visitors

TaaCam — virtual reality (VR) and higher dimensional (3D/4D) digital image or video solution

Thalo — revolutionizing the way information is displayed on portable devices

UCIC — enables users to see any place in the world in real-time by connecting people.

Vidhub — platform for profs, students and researchers to have discussions in a sandboxed environment.

VIV Life Group — helps people discover meaningful experiences that are curated just for them

zpharm — medical tech company focused on smoking cessation

Through the AC JumpStart program, each company will receive $30,000 in seed funding, $10,000 worth of mentorship from the AC’s team of industry experts, as well as access to market research, investor connections, and the AC’s network of Clients and Graduates.

About AC JumpStart

Funded through an $8 million commitment from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), the AC JumpStart program is delivered in partnership with Conestoga College, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo.

The AC JumpStart program began in January 2015, with three cohorts of companies participating in the program in 2015, and two cohorts annually in subsequent years. Each cohort receives funding and mentorship over a 12-month period. Over the next four years (2015-2018) the program will support 180 companies.

December 9, 2015

Founder of SSIMWAVE Recognized with Engineering Emmy® Award

Studies Estimate Three-Quarters of Consumer Internet Traffic will be Video by 2017

Zhou Wang, co-founder of AC Client SSIMWave Inc., and Professor at the University of Waterloo, was presented with an Engineering Emmy by the Los Angeles-based Television Academy on October 28, 2015, at the 67^th Engineering Emmy Awards for his contribution to the development of the Structural SIMilarity (SSIM) Index for video quality measurement. Only a handful of Canadian (individuals or companies) have received this prestigious award.

The SSIM index family of algorithms, invented by Dr. Wang, are now the most widely used method for measuring video quality used throughout the media, telecommunications and entertainment industries. Recent studies estimate by 2017 over three-quarters of consumer internet traffic will be video. Video is the future of content marketing – quality, speed and flexibility is crucial.

“Structural Similarity (SSIM) is an algorithm for estimating the perceived quality of an image or video. Its computational simplicity and ability to accurately predict human assessment of visual quality has made it a standard tool in broadcast and post-production houses throughout the television industry. SSIM uses powerful neuroscience-based models of the human visual system to achieve breakthrough quality prediction performance. Unlike previous complex error models that required special hardware, it can be easily applied in real time on common processor software. SSIM is now a widely-used perceptual video quality measure, used to test and refine video quality throughout the global cable and satellite TV industry, and directly affects the viewing experiences of tens of millions of viewers daily.” — Television Academy

On being selected for this award, Dr. Wang commented: “I’m extremely happy to receive the Emmy from the Television Academy. It was a lot of fun when we did the SSIM work more than 10 years ago, and it was also very exciting seeing it being recognized and used by more and more people in academia and industry over the years.”

Over the past decade following the development of SSIM, Dr. Wang, Dr. Abdul Rehman, Co-Founder, President & CEO of SSIMWave, and Dr. Kai Zeng have made many breakthroughs and improvements to SSIM in terms of accuracy, speed, applicability and flexibility. “SSIM is just a starting point and we do not stop there. We have been making continuous effort to deliver more useful tools for automatic assessment of video quality and to help improve the visual quality-of-experience of everyone” said Dr. Wang.

In 2013, Drs. Wang, Rehman and Zeng co-founded SSIMWave, Inc., in Waterloo, ON, a spin-off company from the University of Waterloo Commercialization Office (WatCo) with the assistance of their business adviser Mrs. Ling Loerchner.

The SSIMWave team developed SSIMplus, a new set of algorithms enabling the team to develop new software solutions which are revolutionizing both the broadcasting of video (TV and internet), improving end-user visual experience, optimizing bitrate, and enhancing video streaming quality-of-experience. Video is the new document, and SSIMWave’s products for video quality of experience measurement and optimization offer crucial solutions in this rapidly expanding and competitive environment.

SSIMWave’s SQM hopes to be the Gold Standard Video Quality of Experience Monitoring Solution for file based internet video, and their SQM Live for live video – both revolutionize today’s approach to video content processing and delivery for the optimal visual quality of experience for end-users. Their optimization software includes SSIMWave’s Perceptual Bandwidth Optimizer and Smart Video Streaming for video delivery.

December 8, 2015

Magnet Forensics Announces Strategic Partnership with U.S. Intelligence Community’s Strategic Investor

Co-development of digital forensic tools will support law enforcement and national security agencies’ recovery and analysis of digital evidence

AC graduate Magnet Forensics, a global leader in the development of digital forensics software, today announced that it has secured a strategic partnership agreement with, and investment from, In-Q-Tel, Inc. (IQT). IQT is the investment organization that identifies innovative technologies to support the mission of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

“We are driven by our mission to support law enforcement and public safety organizations by providing them the tools they need to uncover the truth,” said Magnet Forensics Founder and CTO, Jad Saliba. “Our strategic partnership with IQT and, in turn, the U.S. Intelligence Community will help us better understand the evolving nature of crime and the digital evidence associated with it so we can continue to innovate and provide the tools required by law enforcement and the national security community.”

Magnet Forensics’ flagship product, Internet Evidence Finder™ (IEF), recovers unstructured data such as social media, chat, and email from computers, smartphones, and tablets, and structures it for analysis and collaboration. IEF has become an indispensable tool for forensic professionals as they investigate cases related to cybercrime, terrorism, child exploitation, and insider threats. It is currently used by 2,700 public safety organizations in 92 countries.

“IEF allows agencies to combat the rise in cyber and traditional crimes that are enabled by new technologies by streamlining investigator workflow, reducing case backlogs and getting to the facts quickly to determine what happened,” said Adam Belsher, CEO of Magnet Forensics.

“Magnet Forensics has shown itself to be an innovator in the development of tools to support recovery of critical digital evidence,” said Simon Davidson, Partner at IQT. “We are proud to partner with Magnet Forensics to expand the capabilities of its existing products for use by IQT partners, and create new tools that help keep communities safe.”

December 7, 2015

Axonify Wins Gold Award from Brandon Hall

AC Graduate wins coveted award for Best Advance in Unique Learning Technology.

The Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards Program is one of the most prestigious awards programs in the industry. Axonify’s win was announced on December 3, 2015. The winners are listed on the Brandon Hall website.

“Brandon Hall is incredibly well-established as a market influencer and we’re thrilled to be recognized by their esteemed experts for our innovative technology that pushes beyond the boundaries of traditional eLearning offerings,” said Carol Leaman, CEO of Axonify. “Axonify has always been about integrating proven learning techniques into our technology that help employees build knowledge and apply it on the job. Our unique and complete approach gives employees the knowledge they need to perform better at work, so organizations can solve real business challenges, like poor customer service or safety issues, that can cost them millions of dollars.”

Axonify recently announced the launch of its full-scale Employee Knowledge Platform. The platform now offers everything an organization needs to ensure employees have the knowledge they require, assess if employees are applying what they’ve learned on the job, and measure the bottom-line impact.

“Our award winners are the most visionary and innovative developers of HCM technology solutions that move organizations forward in serving employees, customers and investors,” said Brandon Hall Group Chief Operating Officer Rachel Cooke, who runs the awards program. “I think everyone can learn from the achievements of our award recipients.”

“These award-winning solutions were closely evaluated by our judges for not only their innovation, but the real results they brought to the organizations,” Brandon Hall Group Chief Executive Office Mike Cooke said. “That is what makes our technology awards program special – connecting creativity and innovation to direct business results.”

A panel of veteran, independent senior industry experts, and Brandon Hall Group senior analysts and executives evaluated the entries based upon the following criteria:

Product: What was the product’s breakthrough innovation?
Unique differentiators: What makes the product unique and how does it differ from any competing products?
Value proposition: What problem does the product solve and/or what need does this product address?
Measurable results: What are the benefits customers can expect to experience as a result of using this product?

December 1, 2015

AC Grad Sober Steering aims to 'sniff' out drunk driving

This article originally appeared in the Globe & Mail

David Friend – Canadian Press

Inside a few Canadian school buses a new sensor technology is helping keep drunk drivers off the roads.

It’s part of a test project underway at Sober Steering, a Waterloo, Ont.-based startup that aspires to make the breathalyzer obsolete with a different way to monitor blood-alcohol levels that’s both faster and cheaper.

Sober Steering uses touch-based biosensor technology to monitor the person behind the wheel, essentially sniffing alcohol through their skin.

Before they start the engine, the driver must place their palm on a sensor built into the steering wheel to activate the vehicle’s ignition.

When they’re on the road, Sober Steering requires the driver to “check in” with the system to ensure they haven’t sneaked a few sips. If the driver consumed alcohol it would only take the sensor five minutes to detect the ethanol off the palm of their skin.

If it does, the system alerts a home base, which can be police or a transit system’s headquarters.

Catherine Carroll, Sober Steering’s chief operating officer, believes the technology could reshape how we monitor drinking and driving. Plans are to gradually roll out Sober Steering in various fleet vehicles, like construction machinery and coach buses.

But before that happens, the school bus industry is helping launch the concept, partly because the entire industry is a lightning rod for attention when drivers are caught intoxicated.

“Almost every week you have a public arrest of a school bus driver somewhere in North America that’s been drinking and driving with kids in the back,” Carroll said.

“Now that’s a public arrest — that doesn’t include kids calling their parents and saying the bus driver is drunk and then the (bus) company coming and handling it, or the company handling it first thing in the morning,” the next day, she added.

Sober Steering is marketing its sensors as a way to stop those problems before the engine starts. Three school bus companies in the Waterloo area are already backing the system in a pilot project.

“It’s a springboard into other vehicles, but also there’s something inherently emotional about a big yellow school bus,” Carroll said.

“It’s filled with children and that’s our most precious cargo.”

Sober Steering began with Dennis Bellehumeur, a man from Windsor, Ont., who came up with the concept.

Around that time, Carroll, who grew up in Florida, was working as a New York investment banker, but she had a change of heart during the economic crisis and changed careers to focus on financial advice to tech startups.

That’s when she crossed paths with Bellehumeur, who was looking to turn his idea into a business. The two worked together until Bellehumeur eventually left the company. He has since died.

Carroll oversaw turning the idea into an actual device with the help of her physicist father.

“Certain sensors were being used in the military where they would put chemical sniffers on the tip of a weapon, (it) would go to a specific location … and sniff the air to detect chemical weapons,” Carroll said.

“It was a matter of how we designed one for commercial use at a sensitivity level that would be required for the human body.”

In 2009, with the help of provincial funding, Sober Steering brought on researchers from the University of Waterloo to help develop the sensors.

However, there are a few setbacks in the current model. For example, hand sanitizers can lead the sensors to inaccurately detect an intoxicated driver within roughly a minute of application, Carroll said.

It’s also not yet ready for consumer vehicles where the driver could get a passenger to easily apply their hand to pass the sobriety test.

Those kinks are being worked out, Carroll said.

Once that happens, she hopes to bring Sober Steering into the mainstream for convicted drunk drivers who require a monitoring device such as an ignition interlock but want to remain discreet.

“It’s really hard to park in the employee parking lot because people see you using it,” she said.

“We wanted something that was very low profile, so that even the people in your car wouldn’t know about it unless you were drunk.”

Bringing those plans to market could take years of working through both technological adjustments and finding partners in the auto industry, but Carroll is hopeful that once the technology catches on, it will gain momentum.

“We’ve got gradual steps to take,” she said.

December 1, 2015

Creating Meaningful Core Values That Drive Success

This post originally appeared on Jackie Lauer’s LinkedIn page

Most leaders see the benefits of having formal corporate values. With the right investment of time and energy, corporate values lead to greater engagement, improved performance and overall success. When they’re not done properly, you end up with hollow statements that no one takes seriously.

Meaningful core values are part of a company’s DNA. They articulate what an organization stands for, highlighting the expected behavioural norms and skills. They form the core of its culture.

Your company’s core values influence the employees you hire and how your company spends its time and money. When tough decisions are needed, it’s your values that drive them.

Core values: more than “the CEO said so”

Too many times, a company’s values are determined by direction from above. “The CEO says this is what we stand for. Send it out to employees and put it up on the wall.”

Taking that approach can cause more damage than not having any values statements at all. First and foremost your leaders must be committed to upholding your values no matter what.

Being committed may seem like a no brainer, but when a situation comes up that calls for a difficult decision, it can be tempting to forget the values. If one of your values is respect in the workplace and you have a key, brilliant executive who is a well-known tyrant, are you willing to confront the issue and invite them to leave if they refuse to change? If your values include quality in your products, can you turn down a client if they ask you to cut corners for the sake of speed?

Nothing will kill your efforts faster than leaders who do not lead by example. Your values will be rendered meaningless, which creates cynicism, destroys employee engagement and reduces productivity. Bottom line: it’s bad for business.

I am blessed to be a mentor at the Accelerator Centre in Kitchener Waterloo. I am often asked by our start up clients if identifying their core values, or even their culture, matters at such an early stage. The answer I always give is a resounding YES! The reality is that the core values already exist within the founding partners but they are just not conscious of it. Somewhere in their decision to become a company and to partner with each other they were honoring some values that were very important to them. My job as their mentor and facilitator is to help them to consciously articulate their mission, their vision and their core values. Those core values are what they use to hire those first critical employees in their startup and those same values, much like big business, are used to drive behaviours, decisions, and ultimately performance.

Tips for working on your own values

Developing your corporate values takes time. The process should never be rushed. Leave room for reflection to make sure you can actually live with them.

Pull together members of your organization. Include your leadership and also involve a broad representation of your employees and members of your customer groups and partners.
Share stories to uncover what’s actually important to your company. Ask questions like why did you want to join the company? Why do you continue to work here? Why do you buy from us? Ask for tangible examples of a recent awesome moment or important decision that demonstrates what’s important to the company. Remember, values guide our behaviour and our decision-making.
As you go through the stories use a facilitator to listen for action verbs and capture the value statements.
Once all the values have been captured, identify the common ones and look for those that overlap with similar or same meanings. Get your list down to four or five key values to live by.
Now it’s time to ensure these really are your core values. Look at important decisions that were made in the past month or quarter. Identify where those values were not really honoured. On the other hand, what values were honoured when those decisions were made? Meticulously review every part of your operations to understand if there is any place in your organization where you cannot honour your values.
Now that you have your list of four or five core values, ensure your team can describe them in detail. Values must be seen as fundamental, enduring, and actionable. If they are too vague, no one will know how to follow them. The best test is to figure out how to explain them to a new employee, with concrete examples so they know what your values look like in action.

Living those values in the day to day

It will take time and effort to weave your values into everything you do, from your hiring methods to customer service. They will impact performance management, how you reward employees and dismissals. Your values will be at the heart of what you promise customers and how you react to complaints. You’ll witness a definite connection between your internal culture and the brand you present to the world.

When a company is operating according to its values, it’s like a well-oiled machine. There’s a surge of energy. It’ll be reflected in your employees, they’ll feel connected and proud of their work. Productivity can improve dramatically as teams and departments are aligned to the right priorities that support common goals. Conflicts are quickly mitigated and even prevented.

You’ll stand out against organizations that make empty promises. Your customers will see it too, making it easy to feel good about choosing you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jackie Lauer is a Corporate Culture Guru and founder of Heart of Culture, a passionate leadership coach and often invited keynote speaker. She is also the Accelerator Centre’s Leadership and Culture mentor. Known for her no BS approach and sense of humour she’s here to help you transform your company’s culture into a thriving workplace.

November 24, 2015

Miovision Celebrates 10 Years of Innovation and Success

Looking back at the success of the AC’s first Graduate

It’s been almost 7 years since Miovision became the Accelerator Centre’s first graduate and started down the path of defining what the next generation of tech companies looked like in Waterloo Region.

The company came into the AC when three students were looking to commercialize an idea that would change how cities think about tracking and managing traffic flow. CEO, Kurtis McBride had spent one too many days sitting in a chair at an intersection with a clipboard counting cars – he knew it could be done better.

Since then Miovision has evolved as a pioneer in city planning technologies, allowing planners to map the flow of traffic at key intersections and make better decisions about how to create smart cities.

The AC is extremely proud to see our first Graduate celebrate their 10th anniversary, marking them as a leader in smart city engineering and a pillar in the Waterloo Region tech community.

“I knew when Kurtis and his Co-Founders first applied they were ideal candidates for the AC,” said Gary Pooley, CFO and initial board member of the Accelerator Centre. “They were truly engaged with the program and showed tremendous focus and dedication to building a great business. It is a great pleasure to see how far they have come and an honour to celebrate their success.”

“The Accelerator Centre has played a huge role in Miovision’s success,” said McBride. “They provided us with the mentorship, guidance and resources that have helped us build the company we are today.”

Miovision has also played a tremendous role in the success of the AC. During their time here the founders were always focused on giving back, sharing knowledge and acting as advisors to other AC Clients. Today that tradition continues with McBride sitting as member of the AC Board helping to guide the success of the AC itself.

The AC Staff and Mentors congratulate the team at Miovision on continuing to raise the bar and define success for Waterloo Region!

November 18, 2015

Highlights from the AC Client Showcase

This past September we brought the Region’s business, academic, and technology community into the AC to connect with the brightest and most promising entrepreneurs in Waterloo Region and beyond. The 2015 AC Client Showcase was a tremendous opportunity for people to plug-in and learn about the big ideas and game-changing technologies that will shape the future.

From nanotech to big data; smarter cities to a smarter world, the Clients at the AC have always pushed the barriers of what we thought possible and sparked change across the globe.

Here are some highlights from this year’s AC Client Showcase.

November 18, 2015

AC JumpStart Client Suncayr Plans Broader Product Line

This post originally appeared on entrevestor.com

By Peter Moreira

Suncayr CEO Rachel Pautler sums it up best when it comes to the obvious appeal of her company’s skin protection product, joking that her team initially wondered, “Why has no one done this before?”

The product—a marker that tests the effectiveness of your sunscreen using ink that only becomes visible when your skin is exposed to UV rays— has a literal pain point, allowing users to avoid sunburns and skin damage. Pautler says it is also more precise than competing products like the Netatmo June wristband and Goodlux Sunsprite lapel clasp, which measure the overall amount of UV exposure received, but cannot gauge sunscreen coverage.

Pautler and fellow co-founders Derek Jouppi, Andrew Martinko and Chad Sweeting are nanotechnology engineers who began working on the idea as a senior class project at the University of Waterloo in 2013. Development started in Waterloo’s Velocity Science accelerator program before half the operation moved to the Velocity Foundry, a hardware incubator. It has also received mentorship at Communitech.

In the span of about two years, Suncayr’s innovative technology has already started turning heads internationally. In 2014, the company was the only Canadian team shortlisted for the prestigious James Dyson Award. Most recently, Suncayr was named one of the Kairos Society’s K50 companies, an international network that spotlights companies that have founders under 25 and a revolutionary, market-ready product.

At the K50 Global Summit held this month in Hollywood, Suncayr was selected out of the group as one of the most promising 13 startups, receiving a resource prize from the NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center which includes a week of retail space in San Francisco for consumer testing.

Pautler says that while getting the Suncayr marker to market is their chief focus, the medical implications of their technology reach far further.

“Our core technology is not really the UV sensing at all,” she said. “It’s more so how we keep it on the skin. Sun screen has a lot of solvents– it dissolves a lot of things– so we developed our technology to keep a very thin film on the top of your skin.”

Future applications of their technology, Pautler says, could include better skin-contact drug delivery for things like nicotine or birth control, and use as an alternative to surgical tape.

“We’re hoping to build out the company to a whole suite of skincare products.”

For now, the Suncayr marker is still in the process of going through Health Canada’s regulation process. Once the company gets the greenlight they will be able to start pre-sales this spring, in anticipation of a full launch in to the Canadian market by July. Pautler says the company’s first round of funding could occur as early as this December.

Learn more about Entrevestor.

November 18, 2015

Two AC Grads Named to Deloitte’s Fast 50 list

Magnet Forensics and Miovision continue to show incredible growth and impact

This article originally appeard in The Record

Six firms in Waterloo Region are on this year’s list of Canada’s fastest growing technology companies.

Magnet Forensics, Miovision Technologies, Aeryon Labs, Dejero Labs, eSentire, and Igloo Software are on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 list, which is based on revenue growth over the previous four years.

Magnet, a Waterloo provider of digital forensics tools, is eighth on the list with four-year revenue growth of 1,154 per cent.

Miovision, a Kitchener company that develops traffic data collection and analysis systems, ranks 32nd with revenue growth of 305 per cent.

Waterloo drone maker Aeryon ranks 10th with revenue growth of 1,032 per cent.

Dejero, a Waterloo firm that provides a platform for live-to-air broadcasting, is 18th with revenue growth of 590 per cent.

Cambridge-based eSentire, a provider of cybersecurity tools and services, is 42nd with revenue growth of 202 per cent.

Igloo, a Kitchener firm that develops social networking software for businesses, ranks 45th with revenue growth of 159 per cent.

Topping this year’s list is Frank & Oak, a Montreal-based menswear brand and online retailer. It had revenue growth of 18,480 per cent.

Deloitte said the companies on the Fast 50 list achieved average growth of 1,293 per cent.

Ontario is home to 23 of the companies on the 50 list. There are 13 from Quebec, 10 from British Columbia, two from Alberta, and one each from Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan.

TrustPoint Innovation Technologies [another AC Graduate], a Waterloo startup that develops products for secure machine to machine communications, is among 12 firms on Deloitte’s companies to watch list.

This year’s survey of Fast 50 CEOs indicated that securing talent is a significant issue for two-thirds of the companies on the list.

“Young Canadian tech companies from coast to coast are experiencing staggering growth,” Robert Nardi, Deloitte’s technology, media and telecommunications managing partner, said in a news release.

“However, for these firms to maintain their trajectory they need to have the right talent mix. For today’s fast-growing companies, finding and attracting talent is of great importance.”