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.”
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