First Round Interviews First round interviews took place June 17 and 18 at the Communitech Hub or via Skype. Companies performed a 60-second pitch, followed by a rapid-fire Q and A session. Startups will be notified by June 20 on whether or not they have made it to the final interviews. If a startup does not make it into the final interview they will receive an email outlining specific comments that were made in regards to their application.
Final Interviews Final interviews take place June 27 at the Communitech Hub. Startups will have 90 seconds to address a point surfaced in the last interview. Afterwards there will be an 8.5 minute rapid-fire Q and A session. The judges on this panel are the HYPERDRIVE Funders and the HYPERDRIVE Team. Offers of acceptance will go out to selected...
And it’s something that moves executives into corner offices with “CEO” on the door.
The ability to think on your feet is exactly what Communitech HYPERDRIVE’s vigorous,10-minute interviews seek as mentors, coaches and investors select the next Communitech HYPERDRIVE cohort of clever startups.
"I've been telling people in the application process that we're as much looking at how you think, as whether you have the right answer,” says Doug Cooper, HYPERDRIVE’s managing director. “If you jump to the obvious (answers) right away, we know you didn't think too much about it."
Cohort 3 joins the Communitech family in Waterloo Region next month. Applications closed May 31, setting off a three-round selection process.
Expertise: Scaling companies - without alienating customers and staff. Strategy & operations. How you execute your strategy day to day, month to month… is paramount. GTM. Product Management. All super-fun stuff!
First job: Flipping burgers at a motorcycle racetrack. I whimpered my entire first week because the enormous “chef” in our itty-bitty burger shack would yell while chain-smoking cigarettes over the burgers.
Failure moment, and what you learned from it: There’s no such thing as failure. Get up. Take measure. Try again.
Best piece of advice received: Be kind. Eat well, sleep well, be active. But, be kind.
Biz tip: Aim for the top 2% in all you do…it’s a myth that its crowed at the top....
Now that applications have closed , the review process gets under way to select HYPERDRIVE’s Cohort 3.
What happens in the weeks before HYPERDRIVE introduces another batch of promising startups to the tech world in July?
Here is the rundown:
Application Selection
Starting June 10th, our Early Selection Small team will review all of the applications and choose the first batch of startups for the Round 1 interviews. Startups will be notified by June 12th whether or not they have received first round interviews. Startups that do not make it to first round interviews will receive an email outlining the general reasons why they don’t get into HYPERDRIVE.
First Round Interviews
First round interviews take place June 17th and 18th at the Communitech Hub or via Skype. Companies will be asked...
There isn't a moment to lose: Applications close Tonight! May 31 at 11:59pm
We want to help you seed, fund, and grow your business. The results speak for themselves. We've helped create 70 jobs, generate $2.5 million in investment and earn $500,000 in revenue.
What's it like being part of HYPERDRIVE? Here's what our Cohort 2 entrepreneurs told us.
If you think you have what it takes, don't miss this opportunity. We'd love to hear from you.
Here at Communitech's HYPERDRIVE, we know that starting a business is tough, and we know that being an entrepreneur is equal parts exciting and terrifying. How do we know? Because we've been there.
Communitech's Executives-In-Residence are fully committed to helping HYPERDRIVE companies reach their full potential, both during the three-month sprint and in the 21 months afterwards.
With backgrounds in investing, marketing, team-building, software development and more, this diverse team is poised to deliver the insight, expertise and understanding that will help HYPERDRIVE companies reach their full potential.
• Andrew Abouchar is a founder and partner of Tech Capital Partners, where he focuses on investment opportunities in the enterprise software and systems, semiconductor...
Don’t just sit there stewing about the next great idea. Pull up the keyboard and pitch.
There is still time to apply to Communitech HYPERDRIVE, Canada’s coolest incubator based in the Communitech Hub in Kitchener, Ont. Applications close May 31 for Hyperdrive’s third cohort.
"HYPERDRIVE was an amazing experience for Dandy,” says Matt Scobel, co-founder of The Dandy Co., a start-up that builds a crowd-sourcing community to share ideas for mobile apps.
“We met great people from the other companies, worked with incredible mentors, had access to all the resources we needed to accelerate our company."
A $30-million program, Communitech HYPERDRIVE offers clever innovators from around the world a golden opportunity: Two years under the wing of more than 100 mentors -- business leaders...
Launching a startup is exhilarating, exhausting and entirely life-consuming. We’re talking ’round-the-clock heady turmoil, where opportunity and challenge battle for supremacy.
So what difference does it make to take that built-in craziness and combine it with a program like Communitech’s HYPERDRIVE? Now that our second cohort of entrepreneurs has finished the three-month sprint, we asked them what joining HYPERDRIVE has meant to their startup’s success.
Turns out, all those late nights, mentor sessions, pizza parties and pitch contests might just have been totally worth it. But don't take our word for it. Here’s what our Cohort 2 entrepreneurs told us:
“HYPERDRIVE is incredible, it’s as simple as that. The program, the location, the mentors, and the energy of the...
With only one week left before the Communitech HYPERDRIVE Demo Day, Dandy is preparing to move its crowdsourced app-development platform from private to open beta. This will take down registration and make the site more interactive by allowing anyone to view the ideas.
On their way to a Toronto Blue Jays game, co-founders Matt Scobel and Taylor Jones were able to meet up in downtown Toronto’s Westin Harbour Castle and give us the scoop on their company’s next big move, and how they came to be one of the 11 Cohort 2 companies in the $30-million Communitech HYPERDRIVE incubator program.
The third co-founder, Karl Allen-Muncey, was unable to attend because he was busy preparing for his wedding the next day, while the rest of the team prepared for a week in New York City with the rest of...
Name: John Stix 