The 9th Schulich Start-Up Night

If you happened to be in the foyer ofthe Seymour Schulich building on Thursday March 22nd, you would havefound yourself in the midst a group of over one hundred people. At first, itmight have been hard to tell what all these people had in common. Some were asyoung as undergraduate students; others were industry professionals withcountless success stories tucked under their belts. Yet the common factor thathad drawn all these people to Schulich that evening was the promise ofinnovation. Inside the auditorium, seven teams of entrepreneurs were about todemonstrate their own ingenuity by pitching their start-ups at the 9thSchulich Start-Up Night.

PITCH BREAKDOWN

            The Taking Off stage featured competitorswhose companies and products were still in the concept or development phase.The finalists in this category were HomeSnaps, Nugget, Poket, and Treasured.Winners took home $1000 in cash amongst other prizes.

HOMESNAPS – Joseph Truong, Jacob Chan, & Akash Sidhu

            In a worldwhere millennials are always on the go, ownership of big ticket items such asfurniture is often impractical and costly. HomeSnaps is a web app that providesmillennials personalized furniture rentals. Users can browse for medium to highquality furniture that suits their style and fits in their place of residencewithout the commitment purchasing that item may entail.

NUGGET – Ali El-Shayeb & Mariam Walaa [WINNER]

            After a longand arduous job search, you finally join a company with a heart full of highhopes. It seems like the perfect fit – but then, two weeks later, you realizethat this position is not what you thought it was going to be. Nugget aims toprevent situations like that by revolutionizing the way students get discoveredby employers. They are the first talent discovery program to create and launchgame campaigns to assess how a candidate performs, making it more likely thatthe person selected for the position will not only be able to do the job, butwill enjoy it.

POKET – Kamil Shafiq & James Abasifreke [WINNER of NEXT Canada Mentorship]

            Did you knowthat two billion people in the world remain unbanked, and that 75% of thosepeople are unbanked because they lack documentation? Poket is a mobile walletthat doesn’t require documentation and works on a peer-to-peer basis. Poketusers will have the chance to build a social credit rating, transfer moneylocally and internationally, and leapfrog traditional banking methods and godirectly to mobile banking.

TREASURED – Vito Giovannetti, Robert Romeo, & Nikita Varabei

            Familyancestry entails a lot more than just genetic lineage – it’s centuries’ worthof hard decisions, struggles, determination, and success. Yet today when accessto information is easier than ever, there is a clear loss of ancestral identityand family history between generations. Treasured is an ancestry trackerapplication whose most lucrative function is the story transcriber, whichallows for oral storytelling to be transcribed and stored with ease.

            The In Flight stage saw three competitorswhose start-ups are past conception and are now in the active building stage.The competitors in this category were Purpicks, Socero, and Tbirdapp. Amongstother prizes, the winner took home $4000 in cash.

PURPICKS – Jenise Lee [WINNER] http://www.purpicks.com/

            Have youever had a friend rave about a skin care product, only to have it break you outthe moment you put it on your face? Or maybe you’re looking for a newmoisturizer, but none of your friends have skin as dry as yours? Purpicks is awebsite that allows health conscious shoppers to get personalized certifiedorganic skincare, recommended by other users with similar skin conditions.

SOCERO – David J Kim, Jonathan Lam, & Jimmy Tang [WINNER of BEST/Lassonde$1000 Grant] https://www.socero.com/

            For those ofyou who have ever felt lonely or isolated in university, you aren’t the onlyone. The stats show that 64.4% of university students reported feeling ‘verylonely’ during their time at school. Socero is an event discovery platform thatfinds the right events for the user based on the users’ tastes and interests,improving both one’s social life and general enjoyment of the social events onegoes to.

TBIRD – Anna Mosiyan & Julia Onixmova http://www.tbirdapp.com/

            T-bird is anapp for travellers that allows them to negotiate or bid on accommodation,tours, or transportation which hosts can then match. It helps travellers staywithin their budget without having to compromise on things like comfort andquality, whereas hosts who are willing to be flexible with payment can haveincreased business as opposed to when they only set a fixed rate. The ratingssystem allows for additional peace of mind about the service being provided.

KEYNOTE

            Following the pitch competition, the keynote was given by Daniel Warner,who graduated from Schulich with his MBA in 2012. Daniel is no newbie toentrepreneurship or innovation, having been on Dragons Den (Season 2) and has beena part of an impressive eight start-ups. He is currently the founder and CEO ofMediSeen, and was a founding team member of SnapSaves, which was acquired byGroupon. He spoke a bit about himself, but he also gave the audience someinsight that he had picked up along the way.

            “The worstthing anyone can ever say to you is no,” he said, quoting Daniel Debow.“Ultimately, no just means not yet.” He encouraged entrepreneurs tokeep tweaking, modifying, and improving themselves and their products,reminding everyone that “there’s no such thing as the perfect product.” Hestressed how important it was for entrepreneurs to have passion, persistence,ingenuity, and resourcefulness. Daniel ended his talk with a final piece of advicefor anyone thinking about taking part in pitch competitions like Start-UpNight: “Pitch to their heart. Not their heads.”

TAKEAWAY

            At the end of thenight, present and future entrepreneurs alike gathered in the Marketplace tonetwork and talk about the innovation they had seen in the auditorium as wellas the innovation they had experienced in their own lives. Current students ofLassonde and Schulich, such as Sayem, a third year student, had come to see howthe system works and discover opportunities.

            “The dedication is inspiring,” he said. “Innovation seemsto be a hub, a positive space.”

            There were also past students present, such as SangshinJung of Jung and Associates. Jung pursued entrepreneurship after graduating,and he remembers the initial hardships of getting started. He collectedbusiness cards and arranged for coffee chats, but found that many people werequick to dismiss or ignore him. Now successful, he comes to events likeStart-Up night to learn from others and form connections.

            “It’s easy to get discouraged at first,” he said. “Iwould tell others to use their network of friends and mentors who can help. Thebiggest risk in asking is only a ‘no’.”

            Jung’s words resonated with what Daniel Warner had saidin the keynote, but another entrepreneur, Alexander Theodorou, cofounder ofOcutherapy, had a different perspective on being told ‘no’. “It’s not about the‘no’,” he said. “It’s about how you leverage a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’.” Alexander’s experiencehas taught him that there’s often a reason that someone says no, and if you canfind a way to address that, then you can turn the rejection into an acceptance.

            Schulich Start-Up night is often described as a pitchcompetition for Schulich and Lassonde students and alumni to present theirstartups, but those who come out come for so much more. They come looking forinnovation. They come to share ideas, stories, and advice. They don’t hide awayin fear of a ‘no’, but come to win a ‘yes’. This confidence, ingenuity, andpositivity is what drives one of Schulich’s most popular values: leadingchange.

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