By: Sydney Thompson, Program Lead

The RBC EPIC Founders Program is currently in the second phase of selecting startups to participate in the 2019 summer Founders cohort.

Successful candidates moving from round 1 must now present to a panel of judges. Each company must strongly pitch their idea in order to be admitted into the program. The presentation will be broken down by: 10 minutes of formal presentation followed by 10 minutes of Q&A with the judges. During the presentations, each company must demonstrate what problem they are aiming to solve with their business venture and how their company will deliver value to their proposed customer segment.

The judging panel will comprise of RBC representatives; Sandra Vasquez, Commercial Account Manager, and Lauren Makaric, VP Executive Assistant, EPICentre staff; Wen Teoh, Director, Sydney Thompson, Program Lead, EPICentre mentors, Maureen Lucas and David Kirby and Dr. Francine Schlosser, Odette Professor in Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

We would like to thank everyone who applied to the 2019 summer Founders Program & we wish the best of luck to the 16 startups presenting this week.

 

The RBC EPIC Founders program is intended to teach startup founders the theory of the Lean Startup while working through the Business Model Canvas and Starting Lean methodology. Students work full-time and are paid up to $6,000 from May to August to work with mentors on their minimum viable product.