Spotlight story
June 18, 2025
HeadFirst CEO and co-founder Andrew Cordssen-David (far left) and co-founder Dr. Shazia Tanvir (second from left) with colleagues
University of Waterloo alum Andrew Cordssen-David (MBET ‘23, BSc‘22) can’t remember which hit left lasting damage while playing a junior hockey game, but the fear, discomfort, and uncertainty of post-concussion syndrome stay with him to this day.
“I thought it was my new reality. Every night you're going to bed and your head's spinning; you've got to open your eyes and can't fall asleep,” Cordssen-David says. “That scared the crap out of me.”
Cordssen-David is now working to reduce the risk of athletes playing with an undiagnosed concussion – a mistake that left him off the ice for six months. He’s the co-founder and CEO of HeadFirst, a biotechnology startup that’s developing a rapid, saliva-based test that would add a crucial layer to the process of checking for concussions.
“We're not really looking to replace the entire tool kit, ”Cordssen-David explains. “We're looking to add an objective test to the portfolio of tools that healthcare professionals can use, allowing them to make an informed decision on whether the athlete should return or should be taken out for treatment.”
Cordssen-David played at a prep school in Minnesota before continuing his hockey career in Quebec and Ontario. He knows many instances of players hiding their symptoms or their issues simply going unnoticed during SCAT6 examinations, a set of guidelines that Cordssen-David says have barely changed over six iterations since 2004. They instruct athletic therapists to check a player’s memory and concentration, and look for clearer repercussions of head injuries like dizziness and nausea, during in-game assessments.
Athletes risk developing life-changing neurological conditions without a proper concussion diagnosis, like chronic traumatic encephalopathy(CTE), dementia, or Parkinson’s. And although those problems tend to arise later in life, Cordssen-David knows how playing through concussion has affected some of his former teammates just a few years later.
“I know some guys who were in my shoes who can't skate more than 10 minutes at a time without their head feeling like it's swelling up, ”Cordssen-David says. “Just because they had something that went undetected."
He adds, “I saw a big impact in their lives - not just athletics, but their actual lives.”
This first-hand experience motivated Cordssen-David to find a solution. He began building the concept while still a student completing his master’s of Business, Entrepreneurial and Technology at Waterloo.
Fifty per cent of concussions in the United States go unreported or undetected, according to the American Brain Foundation.
Dr. Keith Yeates, a clinical neuropsychologist who chairs the Canadian Concussion Network, says there’s no reason to believe Canada isn’t dealing with similar numbers to the United States. Dr. Yeates stresses the importance of a subjective diagnosis to gather first-hand information from the person with a suspected head injury, but he recognizes the value of bringing more objectivity to the examinations.
“In some ways, one of the holy grails in concussion is trying to develop objective biomarkers, not to make the diagnosis, but to assist with the diagnosis,” says Dr. Yeates.
Dr. Shazia Tanvir, a professor at Waterloo and now a fellow co-founder of HeadFirst, heard Cordssen-David was trying to produce a medical device to improve concussion checks. Dr. Tanvir’s expertise with lateral flow tests helped accelerate the project. After meeting in May 2023, the pair managed to capture biomarkers on lateral flow assays by July of that year, and incorporated as a business the following month.
Cordssen-David stresses that HeadFirst’s rapid progress wouldn’t have been possible without the assistance of Velocity. He pitched to Velocity, the centre of entrepreneurship at University of Waterloo, around the same time he met Dr. Tanvir.
“It’s a classic entrepreneur story,” Cordssen-David recalls. “We had a back-of-a-napkin drawing concept.”
Velocity recognized the raw potential of HeadFirst, providing early financial support to the tune of $15,000 through Up Start funding and outlining the next steps in the business’ journey. That early support was crucial as Cordssen-David felt he was “dealing with the unknown constantly” in what’s his first - and Dr. Tanvir’s second – entrepreneurial venture.
“They created a lot of hype around what we're doing, just based on their network, and they also connected us with other founders,” Cordssen-David says. “We got to learn from people who have made mistakes in our space, so we can try to make sure we don't make them.
“I could go on and on, but they helped us a lot."
Currently, Cordssen-David and Dr. Tanvir are fine-tuning their product. They’ve identified which biomarkers are rapidly elevated after a concussion, and are examining these further in a range of tests. HeadFirst has conducted a pilot study with Waterloo’s Athletic Department to further validate the company’s technology. Once they’ve identified a threshold of where the number of biomarkers becomes abnormal, they can roll out a fully functional prototype for pilot programs with potential customers and for further research. HeadFirst hopes the prototype will be ready before the end of the year.
And the sports and medical worlds are taking notice. A network of various sporting organizations including Olympic committees and professional teams, as well as concussion clinics and other healthcare facilities, have signed more than 500 letters of intent.
“We're talking not just North America, there's teams and organizations around the world that have reached out,” Cordssen-David says.
Despite such huge progress in a short space of time, there’s along road ahead until the likes of Health Canada approves the product for market.
“It depends upon all the regulatory approvals and processes, which could take five to 10 years,” Dr. Tanvir says.
Although sports were the inspiration for Cordssen-David, HeadFirst’s potential reaches far beyond rinks and fields. He says that 50 to 60 per cent of concussions are suffered away from sports, with training and combat in the military and falls at home being major contributors. An accurate and early detection of concussions at home could save the cost of ambulances and hospital care.
HeadFirst’s device would also be accessible for any user without training – an especially important consideration given 50 per cent of parents, coaches, athletes and school staff have little or no knowledge about concussions, according to the Government of Canada’s public opinion research.
Cordssen-David doesn’t want people to make the same mistake – knowingly or unknowingly - as he did. He admits he didn’t appreciate that there’s life beyond sports and played on, risking CTE or other cognitive effects for the rest of his life.
HeadFirst is working toward a future where a hockey player getting bodychecked, a soccer player leaping for a header, or even a person taking a tumble gets the treatment they need instead of risking their long-term health.
