Keep an Eye on These 36 Student Entrepreneurs

Nine teams will build a business in the mobile environment

The pool of 1300 students has been trimmed to 36.

The Next 36 is a national program that aims to increase Canadian entrepreneurship by rewarding young and ambitious achievers. It’s described as a cross between The Rhodes Scholarship and Y-Combinator.

The program has two parts. The first breaks the students into nine teams, then give them $50,000 and industry guidance to build a business in the mobile environment. The second phase is a four-month summer residency at Massey College where they get to learn from noted Canadian entrepreneurs, while working on their mobile businesses.

The 36 students come from all over Canada and study at universities such as:

• University of Western Ontario
• University of British Columbia
• University of New Brunswick
• University of Toronto
• Bishop’s
• Dalhousie
• Ryerson
• Thomson Rivers
• St. Mary’s

“The outpouring of support I have received since being selected as one of The Next 36 has been overwhelming, and only days into the program, it has already opened more doors than I could have imagined,” says Ryan Brideau, a fourth year physics and economics student at The University of New Brunswick.

“I used to be just a kid from Miramichi with a lot of ambition. Today, I have access to a network of driven peers and experienced mentors to help me turn my ideas into results.”

The Next 36’s four co-founders are:

Tim Hodgson, Special Advisor to the Bank of Canada
Ajay Agrawal, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School
Claudia Hepburn, social entrepreneur and education policy expert
Reza Satchu, University of Toronto Professor, and winner of the “Top 40 Under 40.”