Tell us about yourself! What is your role in the life science sector and/or Hamilton ecosystem?

Hi,

I'm an MBA student at Rotman, and a life science PhD with 10y+ as researcher at Dalhousie and McGill Univ. I absolutely enjoy bridging science and business, while working as an advisor to startups at CDL, promoting innovation roadmap at Sinai Health, and consulting on projects at SickKids Foundation. I'm very interested in the life science entrepreneurship space.

Thank you so much for holding this event today. Look forward to reconnecting at future events.

I work with Mohawk College's IDEAWORKS, which is the college's applied research division. Through MEDIC (our mHealth and eHealth Development and Innovation Centre) and our Medical Technologies Innovation Centre, we leverage government grant funding (great ROI for companies!) to provide expertise that can help bridge the gap between idea and commercialization. In other words, we provide critical R & D support for companies that are getting ready to scale. Our Additive Manufacturing Innovation Centre has also done some work in the healthcare sector as well- they print industrial-grade prototypes. Right now we're beginning project scoping and grant preparation for projects with partners who are looking to begin in September- you can see if we have in-house expertise for your project here: https://www.mohawkcollege.ca/form/project-concept-description

I'm a serial entrepreneur and have successfully started and exited several startups. Today, I assist startups that primarily have a hardware or hardware+software focus. I offer sales, marketing, business development and investment consulting services to my clients. Further, I am a strong believer in partnering. So we look to gain economies of scale by partnering one client with another. No, we are not an incubator. We are very much hands on and only take on a maximum of 2 clients per associate.

Currently, we are focusing on clients in the bioelectronic space. Should you fit this category, we would love to speak with you. If you have a strategic customer already and you're struggling with how to get your venture funded without having to give up too much equity, we can fund projects up to USD $5M through one of our development partners.

Feel free to contact me at howard@tekstart.com

Hello everyone! I am an MBA candidate at McMaster University and also working for the Ministry of Economic Development as an Advisor in the Competitive Analytics Unit. Part of my role involves independent research and analysis to push Ontario forward (one focus is analyzing our strengths and competitiveness within Life Sciences among other areas I am tracking). I have also worked as employee #1 at a growing AI startup (Savormetrics) and I am pretty involved in the startup ecosystem especially innovations that have a real impact. This is my interest in learning and growing myself more within the life science sector as I believe a lot of real impact can be done through life science innovations!

Was also involved as a student participant on Nanology Labs part of the Synapse competition which was great experience to provide my expertise while gaining more knowledge on a specific sector! Hope that wasn't too long of an intro :)

Hello everyone, my name is Alex Muggah, and I'm the Director of the Synapse Consortium - which was established by leading life science anchor institutions in Hamilton (representing +25,000 employees) with the goal of supporting the commercialization of health innovation.

Founding members include Innovation Factory, Hamilton Health Sciences, St. Joseph's Healthcare, McMaster University, Mohawk College, McMaster Innovation Park, Bay Area Health Trust, and the City of Hamilton.

I'm extremely interested in learning about discoveries and commercialization that is happening in Hamilton and across the region - and in particular helping you engage with members of the Consortium to catalyze the development, deployment, and adoption of novel health innovation!

Please feel free to get in touch with me (alex.muggah@synapseconsortium.com) to explore how Synapse can support you.

Hi everyone! I work for Innovation Factory - if you are interested to find out more about the work we do, or opportunities to collaborate with us, please do get in touch with me!