Collaborative Bootcamp for Young Entrepreneurs
Waterloo launches new bootcamp for young entrepreneurs to build future economy
If you know of a student entrepreneur that would be interested in this, please don't hesitate to pass it on.
We'd like to take this opportunity to advise you of an exciting initiative that Ontario Centres of Excellence's Centre for Commercialization of Research is undertaking in collaboration with the University of Waterloo to launch a new type of collaborative training camp for young entrepreneurs.
The University of Waterloo recently issued a news release announcing the VeloCity Entrepreneur BootCamp (VEB) which will allow some of the most promising young entrepreneurs in Canada to learn how to help create the country's future economy. The University of Waterloo is drawing on its widely acknowledged strengths in innovation to launch the boot camp along with some funding from Ontario Centres of Excellence's Centre for Commercialization of Research.
Waterloo joined forces with the Ontario Centres of Excellence's (OCE) Centre for Commercialization of Research to set up VEB. Other key partners include the Accelerator Centre; Communitech, which will provide programming and access to their network of mentors; and the Impact Entrepreneurship Group, which will help promote VEB on campuses across the country.
The initiative, which runs from May to July, will be based in Waterloo's VeloCity, a trail-blazing hybrid student residence and high-tech incubator which in less than two years has spawned several strong start-up companies in mobile communications and digital media through its teamwork approach.
The VeloCity Entrepreneur BootCamp (VEB) will enable top student entrepreneurs to fast track the launch of their technology-based startups. Selected students will be mentored by some of Canada's most experienced and successful entrepreneurs. They will live rent-free at VeloCity and will work out of office space provided at no charge by the Accelerator Centre in Waterloo's research and technology park.
The students will each receive $3,000 (up to a maximum $9,000 for each team) and own 100 per cent of their intellectual property. As well, they will attend seminars and workshops on important business-related topics. It is the first nation-wide, residence-based program of its kind in North Americ a.
At the end of the bootcamp, students will be ready to launch their products or services for the benefit of the Canadian economy. They will also be eligible for additional seed funding through OCE's Centre for Commercialization of Research's new entrepreneur program.
We are very pleased to be part of this pioneering initiative. In aiming this program specifically at students we are helping to create a culture of entrepreneurship among young people which is critical to the long-term development of innovation.
Student applicants have to email their proposals to velocity@uwaterloo.ca by Feb. 14. Besides a resume, students must submit an overview of their start-up outlining its novelty and marketability as well as a YouTube video promoting the idea. Velocity Entrepreneur Bootcamp is open to any post-secondary student in Canada.
Applications will be reviewed by an expert panel and decisions made and communicated by the week of Feb. 22.
For further details about VEB, go to www.velocity.uwaterloo.ca.
February 4, 2010