March 16, 2014
Student Entrepreneurs Compete for Seat at Brigham Young
A team of student entrepreneurs from Wilfrid Laurier University has won first prize at the second annual Canada’s Business Model Competition held March 14-15 at Dalhousie University’s Rowe School of Business.
Canada’s Business Model Competition is the national qualifier competition for the International Business Model Competition and is organized by the Starting Lean Initiative, a project of the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship at the Rowe School of Business. The two-day event had teams registering from across Canada to attend a panel discussion and fireside chat with Steve Blank on Friday and to compete for the Canadian finals on Saturday. The first place winner will advance to the International Business Model Competition at Brigham Young University, in Provo Utah later this spring.
The teams of student entrepreneurs competed for a share of the $50,000 Deloitte Smart Launch Award. First place Teknically from Wilfrid Laurier University received $25,000 in cash and in-kind services from Deloitte, second place Sparkgig from the University of Waterloo earned a $15,000 prize package and Santé West from the University of British Columbia a $10,000 package.
“Deloitte is proud to partner with Canada’s Business Model Competition as we present new ways of thinking about innovation and entrepreneurship. The Deloitte Smart Launch Award is one step in our journey to help clients with every size of business to transform ideas into successes, and create more value for their business and our community,” said Brian Black, Senior Manager at Deloitte Canada, Atlantic, Deloitte.
Information Contact: Colin Craig
Dalhousie Faculty of Management
902-223-3981
Background Information:
Canada’s Business Model Competition: /
International Business Competition: http://www.businessmodelcompetition.com
Steve Blank and the Udacity course EP 245 “How to Build a Startup” – https://www.udacity.com/course/ep245
A senior fellow for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Ted Zoller performs research and advises Foundation leaders on entrepreneurship strategies and programs. Zoller was director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Kenan-Flagler school of business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the founding instructor of UNC’s “Launching the Venture” course, which has increased the number of companies to spin-off from the university. Zoller is a former associate dean and a high-tech entrepreneur.
Michael G. Goldsby, PhD is the Stoops Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and executive director of the Entrepreneurship Center in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University. He teaches creativity, innovation, and design in the University’s nationally ranked undergraduate and graduate programs in entrepreneurship. Ball State University’s Entrepreneurship Program has continually earned national rankings including: Top 20 in Business Week, Success, and Entrepreneur magazines; and Top 10 in U.S. News & World Report’s elite ranking. Goldsby has produced 30 refereed journal articles. He is also the co-author of Innovation Acceleration (Prentice Hall).
Jon is responsible for the Next 36’s program marketing, media and communications, with an emphasis on recruiting the country’s top young innovators and leaders. Jon manages relationships with prospective applicants, student organizations, national partners, university representatives and members of the start-up community.
The Next 36 is a resource-rich program designed to nurture the entrepreneurial promise of 36 undergraduates with extraordinary potential each year. It was founded by a small group of entrepreneurs, business leaders and academics in response to Canada’s need for more high-impact entrepreneurs, and is championed by Founding Patrons W. Galen Weston, Paul Desmarais, Sr. and Jimmy Pattison. For nine months, 36 young entrepreneurs are mentored by Canada’s top business leaders, taught by some of the world’s top business faculty, and work to earn funding from top venture capitalists.
Dr. Francine Schlosser researches factors that affect the career transition and employment relationships of aging workers, volunteers, and entrepreneurs and has published 33 journal articles, chapters and cases and 50 conference presentations. She co-founded the Centre for Enterprise and Law (CEL) with Prof Myra Tawfik, the only multi-disciplinary experiential learning outreach program in Canada in which business and law students work in teams with innovative faculty and student inventors, and local entrepreneurs. Her collaboration with Professor Tawfik has attracted more than $1.6 million funding. She has been honored to accept multiple research and teaching awards including the most innovative course in entrepreneurial education from the Canadian Council of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (CCSBE 2010, with Prof. Tawfik). She was the Co-Chair of the CCSBE 2011 annual conference sponsored by the Odette School of Business in Windsor and is currently VP Programs for CCSBE and Associate Editor for Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
David Baxter is the guy who’s always looking around the innovation curve to support the development of new projects. For the past year he’s applied that knowledge to Fiddlehead Technology, a start-up with co-founder Shawn Carver that provides outside-in data-driven decision support for the food and beverage industry. He was most recently VP Innovation at T4G where he supported the development of Maritime start-ups, such as MedRunner, Tribenomics and xiplinx. He is the former chair and current board member of PropelICT, a pay it forward mentoring initiative empowering Launch36, the Maritimes’ ICT accelerator program. David is always up for change-the-world conversation especially when it comes with a running invite.
Mary Kilfoil led the team that brought the Starting Lean Course to Dalhousie University in the Fall of 2012. This innovative course provides an experiential approach to entrepreneurship teaching by combining Lean Launchpad methodologies, a flipped classroom, and accomplished mentors – and was listed in Academia’s Top 10 courses in Canada 2013. More recently, she has led the launch of a campus-wide Innovation course as part of Dal Vision 20/20 based on Design Thinking principles. Mary has more than 20 years experience in the private sector has authored several reports and publications in the fields of innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic policy.
