Matthew Stiver is a University of Guelph Alum who graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Program. Matthew has a keen eye for detail, he loves understanding how things work and is passionate about doing research.

Matthew has leveraged these skills to become the founder of his own company – Lifestyle Lab, a research and content creation brand whose main goal is to combine very high production quality, with reviews that aim to give complete and unbiased opinions on the products people are researching most.

The John F. Wood Centre is excited to announce that Jessie Kennedy has joined the John F. Wood Centre for Business and Student Enterprise as the new Program Coordinator: Marketing, Events and External Relationships. Jessie has a passion for innovation and helping entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life! 

It is with great pleasure that we get to congratulate our winner, Well Baked Box, of their success in winning the Warren and Deborah Jestin Impact Award!  This award is given to a business in the Hub Incubator program that demonstrates the highest environmental, community and social benefit along with a sustainable and profitable business model. 

Co-founded by Josh Dhanapala and Ben Brunt, RentASkill provides busy households with a simple and efficient way to meet their “Help Wanted” needs by connecting them with motivated local workers! With the introduction of its new app, RentASkill connects local youth in search of work with members of their community who have household-oriented tasks or work to be completed. RentASkill has incorporated and has most recently launched its App on the Google Play Store and the App Store!

Founded by Sheila Boudreau, SpruceLab is a Toronto planning and landscape architecture social enterprise that focuses on nature-based solutions for vibrant and resilient communities, and to support Indigenous-led initiatives and emerging professionals. Building on over 25 years of professional experience in the private and public sectors, they connect with others to form strategic and unique collaborations for place-based work, grounded in caring for the land, waters, and all creatures.

Cats Cider Co. bridges together the collective experiences of farmer Keshia Krucker and brewer Zach Vernon. Together they turned a year of excess apple production on Keshia’s family farm, Manorun, into a creative endeavour. Their philosophy is quality, sustainability, and community. Three Cats Cider company focuses on sustainability from sourcing ingredients directly from her family farm, to responsibly packaging and using environmental cleaning solutions. Their business will launch with a bottle shop and expand into a taproom offering on-farm experiences.

The Wood Centre is pleased to introduce you to our new Business Incubator Services Manager or more commonly known as our Startup Coach Extraordinaire, Kiran Bains!  Kiran will be fearlessly leading our startups through the Hub Start and Hub Build Programs and overseeing our prototyping workshops in the MakerSpace. We are thrilled to have Kiran on the team and look forward to our community getting to know her. 

Domenique Mastronardi is the founder of the recently opened The Happy Era, an online food company that delivers homemade frozen waffles to a growing list of customers. She is a UofG entrepreneur and graduate of the Wood Centre’s incubator program.

Two UofG entrepreneurs and graduates of the Wood Centre’s incubator program will receive $5,000 in funding as part of their startups focus on advancing the Canadian oilseed sector.

Jonah Greenberg’s (BComm ’13) startup Grand Finishing Systems and Domenique Mastronardi (BEng ’21) of the Happy Era will receive the funds through the Oilseed Innovation Partners (OIP) entrepreneurship fund.