1:1 Coaching

The best way to learn about building a startup is from those who have done it.

Our network of coaches includes a variety of individuals including founders and early employees of successful startups. They are available to meet on-on-one or in a small group to discuss your startup ideas and aspirations and help guide you to turning your concept into a reality.

In addition to these fantastic coaches, we have close relationships with the other entrepreneurial support units on campus. To provide the best resources possible, you may be referred to one of our partners whose expertise best match with your needs.

Henrique coaching a university of waterloo student

“Henrique was easy to talk to and every meeting was like a small step towards a bigger outcome. Coaching helped me understand the problem in detail and figure out a pathway to fulfillment!”
aishwarya Bansal, Engineering student

“My favourite coach so far is Lichen. She listened thoroughly while I explained my idea, played devil’s advocate by bringing up reasonable concerns, and offered to help me set milestones to keep me accountable.”
Anonymous, Mathematics student

“Rachel Figueiredo provided invaluable information and resources about industry performance, market competition, emerging technologies, and on-campus groups.”
Venay Banga, Engineering student

Please Note: In order to help combat the spread of COVID-19 all coaching sessions will be virtual sessions until further notice.

Check out our roster of experienced coaches below. Determine who may be able to best meet your needs and help with your entrepreneurial journey. If you aren’t sure, speak with a Concept representative to schedule a session and/or point you in the right direction.

If another entrepreneurial resource would be most beneficial, we will be sure to make the connection and help guide you.

Think you would be a great coach to students? We’re always looking to add to our network. Learn more about becoming a coach and apply if you think you’re a good fit.

Book a 1:1 coaching session

Please Note: Students who miss more than two sessions without at least eight hours notice will no longer be eligible for coaching sessions. If you need to cancel an appointment with a Coach, please make sure to do so at least 24 hours in advance by using the link in the invite or through a direct email to the Coach.

They’re Friendly, We Promise

Our Coaches

Abdallah El-Falou

Abdallah loves strategizing to validate ideas, assess feasibility, create minimalistic prototypes, and find product-market fit. He’s also trying to perfect a pour-over cup of coffee.

Expertise: Problem/idea formulation, pitch coaching, hardware, science, prototyping, IP & patenting, sales

Eric Blondeel

Eric is passionate about entrepreneurship in medicine and biotech and solving real-world problems. He has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering, is a Y Combinator alum and co-founded ExVivo Labs where he was previously CTO.

Expertise: Science, problem/idea formulation, customer discovery, hardware development

Kevin Li

Kevin Li is a researcher/student coach at UWaterloo’s Problem Lab. He enjoys helping student entrepreneurs understand and articulate the problem they are trying to solve and challenging them to think beyond the obvious.

Expertise: Research, problem/idea formulation, pitch coaching

Nicole Troster

Nicole manages an award-winning accelerator program. She enjoys helping entrepreneurs to use business model innovation as well as market and user research to create opportunities for disruption.

Expertise: Service design, regulation, IP & patenting, customer discovery, pitch coaching

Lichen Zhang

Lichen is passionate about using design to improve systems that promote privacy and data security and building delightful user experiences.

Expertise: Problem/idea formulation, pitch coaching, design

Matt Neill

Matt was the co-founder of POET, a digital signage startup for three years. He is also experienced in UI design and front-end development.

Expertise: Software, prototyping, design, customer discovery, problem/idea formulation

Pablo Eder

Pablo has founded 3 payment startups in the areas of 3D printing, FinTech and content creation.

Expertise: Software, fundraising, sales

Pat Martinson

Pat has co-founded or been an early employee at four hardware startups. He’s worn many hats including roles in recruitment, project management, and supply chain.

Expertise: Hardware, prototyping, problem/idea formulation, pitch coaching, customer discovery

Rachel Pautler

Rachel has spent the past 5 years in startups, starting from being the CEO of a Capstone project turned company, to marketing and product management.

Expertise: Science, IP, legal/incorporation, customer discovery

Youssef Helwa

Youssef is the CEO of NERv, a medical device startup. Prior to founding NERv, he worked on another startup in the entertainment space.

Expertise: Science, IP, problem/idea formulation, legal/incorporation

Cole Powers

Cole is passionate about the people side of entrepreneurship. He is the co-founder of IntelliCulture (an agriculture tech startup) and has a mix of experience in pitching, customer discovery, and building tech.

Expertise: Pitch coaching, problem/idea formulation, customer discovery, prototyping/mockups

Amr Abdelgawad

Amr is passionate about entrepreneurship and medtech. As COO at NERv, he wears multiple hats allowing him to gain experience in fundraising, pitching, business strategy, and operations.

Expertise: Sales & biz dev, customer discovery, pitch coaching, legal & IP

Paul Heidebrecht

Paul directs an incubator program for peace-focused start-ups, and also supports our campus entrepreneurship ecosystem by facilitating participation in Oxford’s annual Map the System challenge and Conrad Grebel University College’s PeaceTech Living Learning Community.

Expertise: Problem & idea formulation, social impact, political engagement

Ramin Shaikhi

Ramin loves taking big problems and dissecting them down into more manageable and less scary chunks. He is the co-founder of IntelliCulture and has a strong experience in prioritizing objectives to maximize growth.

Expertise: Problem & idea formulation, pitch coaching, hardware & software development, prototyping

Ryan Chiu

Ryan enjoys working with passionate entrepreneurs who are raising capital to build their innovative ideas. He has helped founders develop best practices when pitching to VCs.

Expertise: Problem & idea formulation, early fundraising (seed & pre-seed), customer discovery

Christine Moffatt

Christine is the Entrepreneurship Librarian here at the University of Waterloo.

She can teach entrepreneurs how to research new markets, identify customer needs, and uncover valuable and unexpected information resources.

Expertise: Pitch coaching, research, talking to users

Judy Chang

Judy loves helping founders in the food and education space. She is known for her practical and empathetic approach in problem identification, user discovery, and personal growth. She has two teenage daughters, loves teaches Leadership and Entrepreneurship at Seneca College, co-founded York Region’s Food Accelerator, and is a certified Life Coach.

Expertise: Leadership skills, Food CPG industry, problem/idea formulation, pitch coaching

Eric Wu

Eric is currently Revolut’s head of financial crime technology, and is actively building and operationalizing solutions for tackling financial crime covering a global customer of over 10 million customers. He is a 2015 Waterloo math alumni.

Expertise: Fintech, process creation/improvement, organization structure, software development & prototyping,

Keyma Prince

Keyma is passionate about health technology and medical research. She’s co-founded a health tech startup and held industry positions focused on human factors/usability and systems engineering for medical device development.

Expertise: Research, problem/idea formulation, customer discovery, medical device development