The gap between finishing a degree and building a company full-time can be when early ventures stall. Rent needs to be paid, job offers are on the table and the realities of life mean a promising idea rarely survives the pressure of taking a safer path. It is a predictable moment of startup drop off and one that Intellectual Property Ontario (IPON) and the partners for the 2026 Velocity Summer Accelerator decided was worth addressing.
This past summer, IPON provided $12,000 fellowships to 30 teams participating in the immersive 2025 Velocity Summer Accelerator program, which accepted 55 recent and soon-to-be graduating Waterloo students to help them make the leap from the classroom to full-time entrepreneurship.
The partner support bought more than time --– it also offered structure. Over three months, participants attended weekly programming targeted at getting each team to reach milestones including securing letters of intent, launching first pilots and making first sales. The program culminated in investor pitch meetings and a demo day where participants who completed the program showed off their innovations, talked about the progress they had made and shared what’s next to an audience of program partners.
“At Intellectual Property Ontario, we are committed to strengthening Ontario's innovation ecosystem by helping entrepreneurs develop the intellectual property and commercialization capabilities needed to bring new ideas to market,” says Nikki Romano, Senior Manager, Post-Secondary Education Strategy and Innovation at Intellectual Property Ontario. “Through our support of the Velocity Summer Accelerator, we are investing in promising founders at a pivotal stage of their journey and helping equip them with the knowledge, skills and resources to turn innovative ideas into protected ventures with real-world impact. We are encouraged by the talent emerging from incubators like Velocity and are proud to support the next generation of innovators as they contribute to Ontario's continued leadership in innovation and commercialization.”
Support for the program was also provided by presenting sponsor RBCx and supporters Employment Hero, LaBarge Weinstein LLP, Macro, InsurePlus, Checkpoint Research Inc., Hyperagent, and SRJ Chartered Professional Accountants (Canada).
“Having the support of IPON's funding and the program sponsors is a gamechanger for helping students successfully transition from school to full-time entrepreneurship,” says Krysta Traianovksi, associate director of founder development at Velocity. “The Summer Accelerator offers a bridge from graduation to launching new ventures at a critical time for their career development.”
Participation in the accelerator program was wide-reaching, with participants representing all six faculties at Waterloo. Additionally, more than 45 per cent of teams in the program had female founders. Ashley Juraschka (MASc in progress, BASc ’24) entered the Summer Accelerator with AllioHealth, a femtech focused company that is currently building AllioGo, a revolutionized breast pump that is more human for the mother and baby. “Current breast pumps in some ways work against a woman’s body,” Juraschka says. “We want to incorporate how a baby naturally feeds into the device in order to have better like milk yield and experiences for women.”
Juraschka cites Waterloo’s renowned reputation for entrepreneurship and access to the Velocity incubator as part of the reason she chose to attend the school for her undergraduate degree. She got interested in femtech during Velocity’s Fall 2024 FemTech Innovation Challenge, and that seed turned into the business she entered the Summer Accelerator with.
In addition to participating in the Velocity Summer Accelerator, Juraschka attended the Cooperathon powered by Desjardins program, and ultimately travelled to the finals at Startupfest in Montreal where AllioHealth won a $5,000 Innovation Award as well as the People’s Choice Award last month.
AllioHealth, along with many of the cohort’s teams, will keep building with Velocity, moving into coaching and follow-on programs like Velocity Northstar, where founders get three months of weekly, in-person accountability on customer discovery, product-market fit, sales and fundraising programming.
“Velocity has been great because of the programming, but also the community,” Juraschka says. “I was able to meet so many new people and hear different people's perspectives, and it really made me feel like I was in a community that is uplifting and supporting of each other but also will be there to challenge you when you need to be challenged."
For students starting at Waterloo this fall, Juraschka encourages them to expand their horizons beyond the classroom like she did. “Velocity is the best place to foster entrepreneurship,” she says. “So just put yourself out of your comfort zone and try it. The resources are amazing, and if it's not your cup of tea, that's okay. But if it is your cup of tea, it's the best place to build and grow.”
The article was originally published on UWaterloo News.