Mike Kirkup | Accelerating Startups to a Global Stage Through VELOCITY
AQ's Blog & Grill
English - May 30, 2016 17:51 - 22 minutes - 21 MB - ★★★★★ - 1 ratingEntrepreneurship Business Marketing quarry alan alanquarry alanquarryblog alanquarrypodcast aqblogrill aqsblogandgrill aqsbloggrill branding business Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Mike Kirkup has spent the last four years working as the director of the University of Waterloo’s student startup program, Velocity. He joins Alan to share stories of the amazing companies coming out of the program, including the internationally known unicorn, KIK. Velocity is a unique program that began as an undergraduate incubator and quickly grew into multiple accelerator-style programs, including the Velocity Foundry located in downtown Kitchener.
Their goal is to build successful companies while investing in future generations, in hopes of bringing startups to a global scale while attracting talent to Waterloo Region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. In addition to Velocity, Mike and Alan discuss how the University of Waterloo is driving equality as one of the few North American universities committed to the HeForShe program. They also discuss what the Waterloo Region startup landscape will look like three years down the line.
About Our Guest
Velocity is a multi-faceted incubator program based out of the University of Waterloo. Mike Kirkup became director of Velocity in 2012 with hopes to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship throughout the University and the Waterloo Region community. During his time at Velocity, Mike has assisted in boosting the success of notable companies including BufferBox, MappedIn and Thalmic Labs. Mike has a Bachelor of Science in Math and a Master’s in Management of Technology from the University of Waterloo.