Meet the first cohort of Phase One

We’re pleased to announce the first cohort of the newly developed Phase One program.

“I am very excited to welcome these new companies into this incredible new program. We’re looking forward to helping them build and scale truly innovative global businesses.” says Paul Salvini, CEO of the Accelerator Centre. “It was an extremely competitive process to select these companies from the wide spectrum of applications we received, but I am proud to have this group of very talented, high-potential entrepreneurs in our first cohort.”

Companies joining the first cohort of Phase One are

Green-tech chemical processing company Advanced Chemical Technologies
Healthcare software company Aspire
Online marketplace Backpacker College
Collaboration software developers Care Connector
Neuroscience platform DeepSubconscious
Collaborative Marketing Technology iGotPro
Hardware solution for trucking Industrial Cyber Sensing
Word of mouth marketing App InstAppDeals
Privacy-centric social platform LiiV
Biomedical technology engineers MechanoSight
Digital psychology resource centre PsyAlive
Facial recognition software Vocord
ViewCommerce developer WEcord
IT and Integrated Communications Specialists Xenium

Phase One is the first of four phases within our recently restructured two-year incubation program. Customized to the needs of each company, the program offers a unique combination of expert sessions and peer-to-peer learning, blended with the traditional mentorship the incubator is well-known for.

Phase One concludes with Presentation Day; an open house event where companies present to a panel of experts and business leaders who determine whether a business is ready to enter the second phase of the program. Companies successfully entering Phase Two are automatically considered for up to $40,000 in funding and mentorship through the AC JumpStart program.

September 15, 2016

AC Co-Presents Award Winning Documentary KONELĪNE

The Accelerator Centre is proud to Co-Present

KONELĪNE: our land beautiful

The AC is pleased to partner with Princess Cinema, Sustainable Waterloo Region and Alternatives Journal to help bring the award-winning documentary KONELĪNE: our land beautiful to the screen at Waterloo’s Original Princess Cinema, Sept 16 – 22.

WINNER – Best Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs 2016

Where: The ‘Original’ Princess Cinema

When: 16-22 September (check Princess Cinema calendar for show times)

View the KONELĪNE Trailer: https://vimeo.com/159576215

Set deep in the traditional territory of the Tahltan First Nation, KONELĪNE captures an epic canvas of beauty and complexity as one of Canada’s vast wildernesses undergoes irrevocable change. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Nettie Wild, KONELĪNE is a work of visual poetry that delights in exploding stereotypes with scenes of breathtaking spectacle. Heidi Gutfrucht, both a big-game hunter and fierce environmentalist, swims her 17 horses across the unforgiving Stikine River. A Tahltan First Nation diamond driller bores deep into the same territory his elders are fighting to protect. A white hunter carries a bow and arrow while a Tahltan elder shoots moose with a high-powered rifle.

Cameraman Van Royko won the 2016 Award for Best Documentary Cinematography from the Canadian Society of Cinematographers for KONELĪNE, which is shot and projected in wide screen with surround sound.

What the critics are saying:

“Transcendent, epic spectacle. […]She lets the camera hunt for art in every frame, mining veins of abstract beauty rather than sharp nuggets of political narrative. She allows every image an ecumenical gaze.”
– Brian D. Johnson, Maclean’s

“Astonishing, stunningly beautiful. […] Equal parts sigh, song and cry.”
– Linda Barnard, Toronto Star

“Breathtaking, gripping. […] Finds beauty in unexpected places.”
– David Perri, The Northern Miner

“A feast for the eyes […}in the hands of an expert storyteller. I urge you to see it.”
– Marc Glassman, POV

KONELĪNE: our land beautiful is a Canada Wild production, produced in association with Telefilm Canada and the Rogers Group of Funds through the Theatrical Documentary Program; Super Channel; Canal D, a division of Bell Media Inc.; Knowledge Network; The Canada Media Fund; developed in association with The National Film Board and Creative BC; produced with the participation of Rogers Documentary Fund; the Shaw Media/Hot Docs Completion Fund; the Canadian Film or Video Tax Credit; and the Province of British Columbia Film Incentive BC.

September 12, 2016

Accelerator Centre announces its largest graduating class to date

Four graduates, four unique business stories

The AC is excited to announce our largest graduating class in our ten year history. The graduation of Ecopia, InTheChat, Trending.info and Knowledge In Development brings the total number of companies to successfully complete the AC’s intensive multi-year business commercialization program to 55. The occasion also marks the AC’s first graduate from our facility in Stratford, Ontario.

“The companies graduating from the Accelerator Centre today represent the diversity of industry segments and founder backgrounds that characterize the AC’s client base,” says Paul Salvini, CEO of the Accelerator Centre. “Within just this graduating class we have mature business executives, tenured professors, and serial entrepreneurs — all realizing their dream of starting and building a world-class business. We are also very excited to have our first graduate from our Stratford facility represented today. Trending.info was in on the ground floor with us when we expanded our programming to the University of Waterloo campus in that city. It is fantastic to see the company leave today a graduate.”

Ecopia
Millions of geospatial images are collected by satellites, airplanes, and vehicles every day. With large amounts of data becoming available at an increasing rate, efficient retrieval and organization of useful information from this data has become a large issue. As a result, much of this information is not accessible to those who need it most. Ecopia Tech creates intelligent systems that vastly improve the process of analyzing geospatial imagery through the employment of computer vision techniques.

Knowledge in Development
Founded in 2008, by University of Waterloo professor and researcher Dr. Daniela O’Neill, Knowledge in Development (KID) Inc. publishes and distributes the Language Use Inventory (LUI), a unique assessment of early pragmatic language development, to professionals and researchers. Knowledge in Development’s online platform now allows users to administer the LUI fully online with parents, in house or via email.

IntheChat
InTheChat (ITC) is an industry-leading digital customer engagement platform that enables large-scale enterprises to serve their customers via today’s preferred communication channels: text messaging, social media, web and mobile chat, email and messaging apps. Global leaders in the banking, telecommunications, retail and other industries are using ITC today to free their customers from phone calls to their call centres, while also simplifying contact handling for the company’s front-line teams.

Trending.Info
Trending.Info provides social media solutions for businesses, services and associations, allowing them to harness the power of online marketing while building communities of social interest showcased in one place. Founded in 2013 by Randy Huitema, the company today becomes the Accelerator Centre’s first Stratford-based graduate.

August 17, 2016

Applications now open for Phase One

We’re excited to launch our new four month, cohort-based program

Applications are open for the first cohort of our newly developed Phase One program, launching this September!

Phase One is an intensive four month program focusing on market validation and investment readiness.

I am very excited to launch this new program because it offers a truly unique combination of expert sessions and peer-to-peer learning, blended with the world-class mentorship the AC is known for. The select ten companies we accept into Phase One will also have access to our newly developed Advisory Network; a group of incredibly talented advisors from industry.

— Paul Salvini, CEO, Accelerator Centre.

This new program is the first of four phases within the our recently restructured two-year incubation platform, which is tailored to the unique needs of each company as they scale.

The first phase culminates with Presentation Day; an open house event where companies present to a panel of experts and business leaders who determine who is ready to enter the second phase of the program. Companies successfully entering Phase Two are automatically considered for up to $40,000 in funding and mentorship through the AC JumpStart program.*

The deadline to apply to the Accelerator Centre is Sept. 9, 2016.

Apply now

About the Accelerator Center
The Accelerator Centre (AC) is dedicated to building and scaling sustainable, globally competitive technology firms; and to commercializing advanced research technologies emerging from academic institutions. The AC offers an intensive, milestone-driven program to help Clients gain traction and establish early growth; begin to scale and prepare for global expansion.

*About AC JumpStart
AC JumpStart provides eligible companies with $30,000 in seed capital (to be matched by recipient firms), $10,000 in mentorship, and access to market research and connections to investors. The program is funded through an $8 million commitment from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) and delivered in partnership with Conestoga College, Wilfrid Laurier University, and the University of Waterloo. Companies considered for AC JumpStart must meet the eligibility requirements posted at www.acjumpstart.com

June 3, 2016

Knowledgehook named BNN’s Top Disruptor of Season 3

TORONTO, Ont. (June 2, 2016) – Knowledgehook was today named Top Disruptor of BNN’s original series about tech innovators, The Disruptors.

Knowledgehook, a software company that analyzes the academic performance of math students in real-time play to recommend alternative teaching practices, was one of 38 companies to this season pitch their business concept to hosts Bruce Croxton and Amber Kanwar.

“We’ve been watching The Disruptors since founding Knowledgehook in 2014 and following many of the companies they report on,” CEO Travis Ratnam says. “We’re excited and humbled by this acknowledgement.”

Startups profiled on each segment of BNN’s The Disruptors, a weekly, half-hour program that airs at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, compete each season for the Top Disruptor title.

Following tonight’s appearance, Knowledgehook will be given the opportunity to pitch Croxton’s investment company, Round 13.

Winning the Top Disruptor title comes less than a month since Knowledgehook received Google’s Game Changer Award at the tech giant’s annual Demo Day in Silicon Valley.

To date, more than 6,000 Ontario math teachers have begun zeroing in on each students’ key misunderstandings after reviewing predictive insights which Knowledgehook software generates.

Early results from Knowledgehook suggest that at least 1 in 6 Ontario students in Grade 9 Applied Math are struggling to understand ratios. Knowledgehook unpacks their misunderstanding and suggests how teachers can address it.

The finding, which echoes those of Ontario’s 2015 standardized tests, is based on analysis of more than 2,400 anonymized users between September and April 2016, accurate to within 95% confidence, and a margin of error of 2.5%.

Knowledgehook was founded by Travis Ratnam, Lambo Jayapalan, Arthur Lui and James Francis.

The team is grateful for the support of mentors from Communitech’s Rev and the Accelerator Centre’s AC JumpStart programs.

June 2, 2016

AC Grad Intellijoint Surgical wins the Shopify Grit Award

TORONTO (May 31, 2016) – At today’s Action Entrepreneurship Canadian Summit in Toronto, Futurpreneur Canada and Shopify announced Intellijoint Surgical Inc. as the winner of the Shopify Grit Award. The award celebrates the kind of business success that comes from having “true grit” – creativity, ingenuity and resilience when faced with challenges.

“Futurpreneur has helped launch thousands of businesses and we are honoured to be 1 of 3 recipients of the prestigious 20th Anniversary Awards,” said Armen Bakirtzian, Co-Founder and CEO, Intellijoint Surgical Inc. “Business owners across this country face countless challenges, and we are humbled and extremely proud to represent the hard work and determination it takes to succeed.”

The team at Intellijoint Surgical started out as three graduates from Waterloo University with no medical background or entrepreneurial experience who set out to undertake a major challenge – creating a medical device and putting it on the market. They overcame many obstacles to create a surgical device that is FDA-approved, has a Health Canada medical device license, and has been used successfully over 350 times across North America. In just six years, they’ve gone from one desk at the Accelerator Centre in Waterloo to 10,500 square foot facility and have hired 22 people.

“Starting a business takes dedication, hustle and a desire to succeed. We’re excited to support the next wave of entrepreneurs, especially the incredibly talented team at Intellijoint Surgical,” said Harley Finkelstein, COO of Shopify.

“Starting a business can be challenging for anyone without entrepreneurial experience, but putting a medical device on the market is a huge test of resilience,” said Scott Bowman, Senior Director, Ontario, Futurpreneur Canada. “The team at Intellijoint Surgical have proven that determination and persistence are one of the greatest contributors to entrepreneurial success.”

The Grit Award was one of five awards that Futurpreneur presented today. Other awards included the Clearwater Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the BDC Mentorship Award, the Youth Business International Beyond Borders Award and the RBC Community Partner Award. These awards are one way the organization is celebrating its 20th anniversary, by recognizing top Futurpreneur-supported entrepreneurs and the people and organizations that support their success.

May 15, 2016

Paul Salvini on the future of innovation and TheNEXT10

The Accelerator Centre’s CEO reflects on what it takes to build a truly innovative business

What do a successful startup and a Hollywood blockbuster have in common? According to Accelerator Centre CEO, Dr. Paul Salvini, each one is a blend of business, technology and creativity — and the best businesses can do all three very, very well.

“Innovation happens in every part of an organization. People often don’t understand why an innovative business model can be as important as anything else. For instance, if you look at a company like Uber, there’s technology involved, but the real innovation is the customer experience.”

His philosophy of uniting varying disciplines is grounded in his own life experience. If you had asked a young Paul Salvini what he wanted to be when he grew up, he would have said a photojournalist. However, as a summer student at small, local newspaper, he developed a program to help simplify the sizing process for images.

Building on his strengths in programming, he went on to earn a BMath in computer science from the University of Waterloo and MASc and PhD in engineering (computer simulation) from the University of Toronto. In order to balance his technical background with formal business knowledge, he also completed an MBA from the University of Toronto Rotman School of Business.

Whether by serendipity or intent, he managed maintain a connection to visual arts in his professional career as he guided innovation as CTO at Toronto-based Side Effects Software, makers of Academy Award-winning 3-D animation and visual effects software, and Waterloo-based Christie Digital, provider of world-leading digital projection and display technologies.

As Accelerator Centre CEO, a role he assumed in 2014, he now combines his business experience, technical background and 23 years of teaching, first at Ryerson University then the University of Toronto. He will leverage these skills as he helps further the organization’s vision to develop strong, scalable, globally competitive and potentially disruptive businesses.

“In the next 10 years, we will focus on helping to build holistic companies. The future isn’t just about interesting technologies, it’s about building strong businesses that innovate across all areas of operation from product development and market validation to growth strategy and culture creation.”

A cornerstone of this philosophy is the AC Momentum Program, targeted at early-stage companies in the process of identifying their business strategies. With the opening of the Reactor Space in August, 2015, the Accelerator Centre now has space to welcome an additional 30 companies into the program.

“There’s a rich ecosystem of entrepreneurship in the Region of Waterloo. As a whole, we need to work on enhancing this environment so that entrepreneurs can think and dream even more boldly.”

Bio

Family: He and his wife, Julia, have two children, Lindsay and Kai. The family pet is Penny a petite golden doodle.

Wishes he could have lunch with: Walt Disney

Best business book: Creativity Inc. by Pixar CEO, Ed Catmull

Who he admires: Anyone with a clarity of vision for what they define as success and who has worked hard to achieve it.

Three things people don’t know:

He’s a licensed, instrument-rated, commercial pilot with an interest in aerial photography.
He’s a devoted hockey dad and unofficial team photographer.
He also owns a Ducati

May 13, 2016

Armen Bakirtzian of Intellijoint looks back on the journey from Startup to Scale-up

For most people, hip replacement isn’t something that crosses your mind until later in life. But for Armen Bakirtzian and co-founders, Andre Hladio and Richard Fanson, developing a solution to help improve the outcomes of these surgeries became a launchpad for starting their company, Intellijoint Surgical Inc.

Together they presented their idea and won the pitch competition at the 2010 Ontario’s Next Top Young Entrepreneur Pitch Competition. That same year they were welcomed to the Accelerator Centre.

Looking back, Armen Bakirtzian, now CEO at Intellijoint, notes that when he and his co-founders first walked into the AC, they were all grinning ear-to-ear. After working in their basements, garages, kitchen tables or any space they could find, having an actual office gave them a tremendous boost in confidence and focus.

“It was an incredible experience. We met great people, got inducted into the ecosystem and took advantage of all the resources. To this day, we all feel that it was one of the best decisions we made.”

He added that as technical co-founders, they came into the program only having the experience of working on a school project. They hadn’t hired anyone or gone through any of the steps of establishing formalized business practices. However, they’ve come a long way since then.

On the day we spoke with Armen, Intellijoint was moving into a larger office. While staying in their current location, they were more than doubling their space. Since graduating from the AC in June, 2014 they’ve gone on to receive nearly $550,000 in FedDev investment.

Their flagship product, intellijoint HIP™, a surgical tool designed to enable orthopaedic surgeons to more effectively meet their surgical objectives and improve patient outcomes, earned them the 2015 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Enabling Technology Leadership.

They’ve made significant inroads in the Canadian and American markets and they recently entered into a strategic partnership that will provide access to the Australian market.

With success, comes responsibility. Rising to the occasion, Intellijoint is dedicated to remaining in Waterloo Region. Armen firmly states, “Our focus to build ourselves here, to draw talent here and give back to the ecosystem — it all ties back to our time at the AC.”

THE RUNDOWN

Family: He is married to Garod Bakirtzian.

Business hero: His father.

Person he’d like to have lunch with: Carey Price

Guilty pleasure: Nutella

The best piece of advice you’ve ever received: If you’re going to fail, fail quickly and move on to something else.

Three things most people don’t know:

He’s from Quebec.
He has a scuba diving license.
He’s a godfather. (The mentoring kind, not the mafia kind.)

May 10, 2016

Matt Stevens of FleetCarma talks lessons in technology and leadership

How AC Grad FleetCarma is charging ahead with electric vehicles

It’s not easy to get in the front door at the FleetCarma, (formerly CrossChasm), offices. Seriously, the front door is really hard to find. But that’s okay, because their primary focus isn’t foot traffic anyhow. And they’re working on some big changes inside.

The Accelerator Centre Graduate, and recent recipient of $430,000 from the Sustainable Development Technology Canada’s (SDTC) SD Tech Fund™, has just made a major strategic pivot. With the electric vehicle industry at a tipping point, they have decided to focus on developing solutions targeted at overcoming the challenges of buying and operating electric vehicles, especially in fleets.

While it’s a complete change from consulting with manufacturers to design and prototype next-generation electric vehicles, they feel it’s a move in the right direction. Now that more electric vehicles are being made, people need the tools to help make the most of this technology.

In the midst of all these transitions, we caught up with CEO, Matt Stevens to discuss the AC’s 10^th Anniversary and reflect on his time as one of the first 10 companies to participate in the newly created development and commercialization program.

Matt became interested in electric vehicles during his time at the University of Waterloo, where he earned a PhD in engineering. He met his co-founders in the University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT) when they participated in a smart car challenge developing a hybrid fuel cell for the Chevy Equinox. Even better, they won!

After graduation, mentor John Bell referred Matt and his colleagues to the Accelerator Centre in 2007. Upon entering the program, he recalls that he got a huge lesson in humility. “Going in, I thought that good technology was 90% of the equation. In reality, it was more like 5%.”

To demonstrate this point of the role of technology on its own, he provided this visual.

He also learned that “As the CEO, you’re not the quarterback or the coach, you’re probably the general manager. Your job is to put the right people in the right places and get out of the way.”

According to Matt, one of the most influential aspects of their time at the AC was working with the in-house mentors. They helped him and his company in the areas that needed the most attention, like sales and marketing as well as public relations.

Since graduating in 2011, they have participated in the development of many electric vehicles, including a stealth snowmobile and mining equipment. Due to the length of the development timeline, the world will continue to see vehicles they helped design well into 2020. But, with FleetCarma’s new focus on helping industries adapt their fleets, we will also see more of these vehicles in real-world applications.

THE RUNDOWN

Family: He and his wife, Amanda, have a 17-month-old daughter, Blake and will welcome a second daughter in May.

Business hero: Seth Godin

Person he’d like to have lunch with: His daughter, Blake

Guilty pleasure: Peanut M&Ms

The best piece of advice you’ve ever received: Build a not-to-do list.

Things most people don’t know:

He was one of three kids to help at the groundbreaking of the Canadian Tire Centre.
He still plays hockey.
As a kid he rode dirt bikes and had a special talent for landing in rivers.

May 2, 2016

Racing the Dream

How AC Client HH Development is making Formula 1 Racing into a data driven sport

J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, wrote, “Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.” For some this might seem like a flight of fancy. For others, like Andrew Hall, Director at HH Development, it’s a way of life.

He’s been fascinated by motorsports since he was a child. Now, through his company’s acceptance into the Accelerator Centre in September, 2015, his day job is his dream job.

HH Development currently has two business models. The first, HH Timing, provides endurance racing teams a consistent, accurate and graphical way to track metrics, like speed, fuel consumption and even the number of pit stops — details that matter when tenths of a second stand between a victory lap or going back to the drawing board.

The second, yet to be named venture, is a two-pronged system of inventory management and performance tracking that they are currently developing for a major European tire manufacturer. Through the use of an RFID device, it can track a shipment of tires from delivery through to how each tire performed during the race.

Commenting on his Accelerator Centre experience so far, Andrew states, “It’s like I’m going to business school. But, instead of doing case studies on imaginary companies, when I graduate, I’ll have my own business.”

With a PhD in Systems Engineering from the University of Waterloo and Bachelor of Aerospace Electronics and Systems Engineering from Carleton University, Andrew is rightfully confident in his technical abilities.

However, he noted that even the process of applying to the Accelerator Centre was educational. “We literally didn’t know what we didn’t know about our business. Rightly or wrongly, we hadn’t made the time to develop a comprehensive business plan.”

During their first month in the program, the lessons that the members of HH Development learned were transformative. Andrew credits mentors Kevin Elop, Steven Fyke, Kevin Hood and Bob Rushby with helping his company evolve from operating in a young, ad hoc manner to adopting more more mature and viable processes, “We looked at our structure, our finances, our markets and basically everything.”

Recently when Kevin Hood stopped Andrew to ask why they hadn’t sat down to talk in awhile, Andrew answered, “Because I’m still addressing all of the things you opened our eyes to in our last meeting.”

Where would he like to be 10 years from now? He’d like to doing exactly what he’s doing right now, but on a larger scale, serving more clients. “We love what we do and we’ve only just gotten started.”

The Rundown

Business philosophy: There’s no substitute for the value of hard work.

Business heroes: All of the AC mentors.

Person he’d most like to have lunch with: Any of his clients or colleagues.

Things most people don’t know:

His attempted career as a racecar driver was woefully short-lived.
He’s lived in four countries (Canada, England, Austria and the United States).
He’s terrified of flying.