Unique York U initiative mentors Indian and Canadian students with entrepreneurial drive

With public and private partnerships in both countries, Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Schulich School of Business runs Together Mission, making startup dreams come true for several students and recent grads since 2021

York University’s Schulich School of Business successfully concluded the fifth edition of its Together Mission, recently. More than 150 students from India and Canada participated in the unique mentoring and venture pitching competition.

A deep tech company that’s focused on transforming crop waste into sustainable carbon, a patented reusable LED bulb with replaceable cartridge, and a painless testing technology to detect oral cancer, were among the top six startups competing in the live pitching event, following a weeklong rigorous bootcamp.

 After much deliberation, the judges announced ProtonCraft, a patent-pending electrolyzer as this year’s winner of the highly successful initiative that shapes the next generation of entrepreneurs emerging from Indian universities and Schulich’s graduate programs.

Dubbed as Together 5.0 this year, the global initiative by Schulich School in partnership with Ekonnect Knowledge Foundation, Government of India’s Startup India and the Consulate General of India in Toronto, and the City of Toronto, brought together multinational organizations, leading entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and investors from Canada and India to mentor participating student teams.

“Canada and India are natural partners. We share a commitment to pluralism and to excellence in education and innovation,” said York’s President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton, at the launch event, noting that she visited India last year, to explore research, entrepreneurship and education collaboration across the country. “It's fundamental to strengthening the well-being of the communities that we serve. This shared sense of purpose binds our present and our future.”

Schulich Adjunct[MOU1]  Professor Chris Carder, the person behind this innovative initiative also spoke about his visit to India earlier, during which time he presented the idea of a startup bridge between York University and the Indian innovation economy to Schulich’s India Advisory Board members, including  Mr. Ratan Tata. Offering tribute to Tata at the Together 5.0 launch, Carder recalled that the late Indian businessman and philanthropist expressed keen interest in seeing the initiative takeoff.

Lokesh Goswami, a past winner of the venture competition shared his experience as an engineer-turned entrepreneur. The co-founder and chief technical officer of Angirus, an innovative company that takes pride in its product, wricks, developed as an eco-friendly and sustainable technology to make waterproof bricks using 100 percent recycled waste material. He highlighted how his team made of only students who were trying their hands on entrepreneurship by participating in the pitching competition and “got a trailer of a whole startup” journey by the end of Together 2021. He also offered several tips to current participants ahead of the competition, asking them to have an open mindset and be willing to share their venture ideas with mentors for best results. 

“With this year’s theme-based solutions, we aimed to improve people’s lives while addressing areas of national and global importance,” pointed out Carder, who is also the executive director of the Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship and co-director of Entrepreneurial studies at Schulich. “Increasing access to the global startup ecosystem through coaching and mentorship sessions by industry leaders, plus offering these young entrepreneurs with feedback from judges during the competition were key parts of this year’s program.”

While the startups are founded by Indian students, Schulich MBA students are trained by Schulich Instructor Cherry Rose Tan and Carder himself, to guide Indian students on how to design commercialization strategies and express their concepts to investors.

Students from sectors including e-mobility, environment and energy, health care, income security and fintech, food and agriculture, telecommunications, textiles and education were among this year’s participants. Aside from learning to be efficient entrepreneurs, participants from both countries also had the opportunity to make new lifetime connections and perhaps collaborate in the future.

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