The Next Generation of Science-Based Startups Selected by the University of Toronto's Creative Destruction Lab

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Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

Dec 16, 2014, 12:50 ET

TORONTO, Dec. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With more than $130 million in aggregate equity value created among ventures graduating from its first two cohorts, the Creative Destruction Lab at the Rotman School of Management is back at work with its third cohort.

Founders of eighteen newly selected start-ups will spend the next eight months building businesses powered by cutting-edge science and the Lab's unique style of milestone-based mentoring that prioritizes the maximization of equity-value creation.

Ventures are guided by the Lab's Group of Seven Fellows (the G7), an elite group made up of some of the most accomplished entrepreneurs in North America. Four new high-profile additions to the G7 this year include:

David Ossip is Ceridian HCM's Chief Executive Officer and the driving force behind the company's innovation, vision, and leadership. Dayforce, a highly successful SaaS-based company founded by him, was acquired by Ceridian in 2012. He previously founded Workbrain, where he served as CEO and President and was responsible for the company's overall product and market direction.
Michael Hyatt is Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Bluecat. Michael co-founded Dyadem, a software company that was acquired by IHS in 2011. He is an active investor and advisor and also serves on the Advisory Board of Georgian Partners.
Michael Serbinis founded Kobo Inc., a global eReading company that he spun off from Canadian bookseller Indigo in December 2009. He sold the company to Japanese Internet company Rakuten for $315M in 2012. Prior to founding Kobo, Michael developed search engine technology at Zip2, which was sold to Altavista for $300M, and founded and sold DocSpace for $568M to Critical Path in 2000.
Tony Lacavera founded WIND Mobile in 2008, raised $1.5 billion in capital, and built the company into the leading facilities-based challenger wireless company in Canada. In 2014, WIND Mobile had $350 million in revenue, 1,200 employees, an advanced wireless network covering more than 14 million people, and a retail network of 300 stores and dealers.

The Lab also has added two new mentors as G7 Associates:

Boris Wertz founded JustBooks in 1999 and later sold it to AbeBooks, which was subsequently acquired by Amazon. In 2012, Boris founded Version One Ventures, an early-stage fund investing in consumer internet, SaaS, and mobile. In 2014, he joined Andreessen Horowitz as a Board Partner.
Johann Koss founded Right to Play in 2000. Right to Play is a not-for-profit that now employs 600+ international staff and oversees more than 13,500 volunteer coaches across 20 countries affected by war, poverty, and disease in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America. A four-time Olympic gold medalist in speed skating, he is a graduate of the Rotman Executive MBA program.

The start of the third cohort also marks the beginning of the second year of the Creative Destruction Lab MBA course taught by Prof. Ajay Agrawal, the Peter Munk Professor of Entrepreneurship. The course received an overwhelmingly positive reception in its first year.

"This course has been without a doubt the most impactful and interesting learning experience I have had in my entire academic career," says Hayley Angus, MBA'14, who was part of the inaugural class.

Another graduate, Nicolas Mayer, MBA'14, was hired this summer by the CDL venture he was assigned during the course. "My experience has been a transformative one. I came to Rotman with the intention of pursuing a high-achieving, yet more traditional career path… I am no longer bound by this mental constraint," says Mayer.

The popularity of the CDL MBA course has led to the design of a second course built around the Lab, which launched in September 2014 and focuses on "entrepreneurial strategy." The course is taught by Prof. Joshua Gans, who holds the Jeffrey Skoll Chair in Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School, and will serve as an important complement to the original CDL course.

Founded in 2012 by Professor Ajay Agrawal, Co-founder of The Next 36 and Peter Munk Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School, the Creative Destruction Lab leverages Rotman's leading faculty and industry network, inventions and talent from world-class, technology-oriented faculties at the University of Toronto and other Canadian universities, and its location in one of the world's most culturally diverse cities and North America's largest financial centre, Toronto. The Creative Destruction Lab takes no equity and charges no fee for participation – the only tuition for founders to get into and stay in the program is performance. For more information, please visit www.creativedestructionlab.com. For real-time updates, please visit Creative Destruction Lab on Facebook, Twitter, and subscribe to their blog.

The Rotman School of Management is located in the heart of Canada's commercial and cultural capital and is part of the University of Toronto, one of the world's top 20 research universities. The Rotman School fosters a new way to think that enables our graduates to tackle today's global business challenges. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

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SOURCE Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto