Krishna Eydat
Software Engineering student and founder of Byzantium Tech
Krishna began working on websites when he was 12. He founded his first company, Kerixa, in 2005, and managed a number of international web projects before even starting his university education. When he discovered E Co-op, Waterloo finally felt like home. Since then, Krishna has spent two co-op terms in the program to date.
During his first term in E Co-op, he hired a supervisor and other team members to build his second company, Byzantium Tech. The company developed a Facebook application called Top Fans and within only a few months Krishna had close to 9 million users downloading the app. On the advice of his mentor through E Co-op, Krishna decided to sell. In May 2011, Byzantium Tech sold for $4 million and the serial entrepreneur moved onto his next project and enrolled in Enterprise Co-op for another term.
Beth Nenniger
Architecture student and designer of the Honeycomb Coffee Sleeve
Interested in product design and impacting the planet, Beth combined the two with her invention of the Honeycomb Coffee Sleeve.
After determining the design of the sleeve; which uses one fifth the material of a traditional sleeve and insulates up to 15 degrees more, she searched for programs and resources at the University of Waterloo to help her create a prototype, and commercialize the idea. She found E Co-op, and since the spring of 2011 Beth managed to test and produce the final prototype, patent the design, determine market potential in Canada and internationally with her mentor (local patent and trademark lawyer), and is currently focused on raising capital to create the machine necessary for mass production. Orders are already coming in!
At the beginning of her term, Beth received an E Launch Award ($4K), and put it towards developing and patenting the honeycomb coffee sleeve, and traveling to meet potential customers. Having access to seed funding in the form of a scholarship was crucial to her success.
Emily Peat
Civil Engineering student and founder of ItsMyEcoPlace.ca
Bursting with ideas, Emily searched for an arena to pursue starting her own business. Leaving her studies temporarily or “part-timing it” wasn’t an option – especially without a specific idea in mind. She stumbled on the E Co-op program while searching for employment opportunities to fulfill a co-op term and immediately contacted the Enterprise Co-op Coordinator to learn more.
It didn’t take long for Emily to settle on a concept to move forward with. After failed attempts to find an online resource that connected consumers to local organic products, retailers and services for sustainable living, ItsMyEcoPlace.ca was born.
Balancing her new venture with the degree expectations of her undergraduate in Civil Engineering was critical. E Co-op provided her a credit for her co-op term to satisfy her degree requirements. E Co-op space in the Communitech Hub provided access to the venture services group, speaker sessions, and as an E Launch Award recipient, she used the money to hire a developer to build her website and offset the cost of living without a paycheque.
Prem Kalevar (4a Mecatronics Engineering with Management Science option) and JS Rancourt (4a Mechanical Engineering) , E Co-op 2010,
featured in the Fall 2010 issue of Inside sCo-op (Page 5)
Their business, ResumeCards, creates enhanced business cards targeted at helping university students network more effectively and distinguish themselves when seeking employment.
