The DMZ: Where Innovation is Forged
On October 17th, I’ve had the opportunity to tour the DMZ at Ryerson University, North America’s top university business incubator, and the world’s third best. While not an official part of the Product Development and Commercialization course, this was an excellent chance to consider how one could take the course theory beyond the classroom, through the services provide from an incubator like the DMZ.
From the heart of Toronto, the DMZ boasts impressive stats from it’s start in April 2010:
- 260 startups incubated and accelerated
- 2407 jobs created
- 190 alumni startups
- $206 million in funding raised
So, what does an incubator do exactly? Not just a source for potential funding, the DMZ provides invaluable connections to investors and industry contacts, as well as mentorship and coaching. As well is an open, collaborative workspace, where the atmosphere is more of one of coopetition rather than competition.
Here is just a sample success story from out of the DMZ:
Being DMZ’s only non-for-profit company, Rumie is a software-based company, that morphed into its current form from a hardware company about after 14-15 business model iterations. The idea behind Rumie is to provide education to children without internet access through low cost tablets pre-loaded with educational content. In an era where information has great costs, Rumie takes advantage of the ability to crowdsource content from the internet, and adapts the content according to the needs of each geographical region it serves.
Interested in launching your own tech startup one day? Read more about the DMZ!