• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Techcouver.com

 
  • News
  • Events
  • Interviews
  • Thought Leadership
  • Web Summit Vancouver
  • Jobs
  • About
    • Contact Us

Vancouver Entrepreneur Returns to Roots with New Fund for University Students

November 7, 2022 by Knowlton Thomas Leave a Comment

In 1979, Wes Graham and Ian McPhee launched the University of Waterloo’s first startup—WatCom, which became Sybase before being acquired.

In doing so, they “started an entrepreneurial tradition in the Faculty that remains strong today,” according to the university, whose Faculty of Mathematics claims the origins of more than 500 startups—including OpenText, Maplesoft, RapidNovor, and Faire.

And this number is apt to increase in years ahead thanks to Ian MacKinnon, who recently made a $100,000 gift to launch the school’s new Math Entrepreneurship Fund.

A graduate of Waterloo, MacKinnon joined the Launch Academy Incubator in Vancouver in 2014 to co-found Latergrammne alongside Cindy Chen, Roger Patterson, and Matt Smith in 2014. The startup known as Later.com launched in 2016 and earlier this year was acquired by Boston-based Mavrck, an influencer marketing platform for enterprise consumer brands.

The Math Entrepreneurship Fund will empower students by creating entrepreneurship programs and supports, including pitch competitions, hackathons, conferences, and one-on-one mentorship, according to Robin Morden, senior communications officer for math advancement at the university.

MacKinnon told Morden that he hopes the Fund will “encourage more math students to consider entrepreneurship as a career path” as the university looks to establish a “vibrant and supportive environment for student entrepreneurs within the Faculty of Mathematics.”

“There’s a lot in the startup world that seems very simple once you already know it, but you need someone to tell it to you,” MacKinnon explains. “Entrepreneurs really require a community to get started.”

The entrepreneur says he is looking forward to seeing “what kind of hackathons, prizes, capstone projects and conferences happen as a result of this fund.”

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Later, Mavrck

 

About Knowlton Thomas

Knowlton Thomas is Editor-in-Chief of The Midway Advance and Senior Writer for Techcouver. Over more than a decade of journalism, he has penned thousands of articles and dozens of essays on technology, health, and culture across a variety of publications.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

 

Stay Connected

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Community Partners

About Us

Techcouver provides real-time reporting and analysis of emerging technology news in Vancouver and throughout British … READ MORE... about About Us

Copyright © 2025 Incubate Ventures | Techtalent.ca · Decoder.ca · Calgary.tech · Fintech.ca · CleanEnergy.ca | Privacy