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 Copper Bell is a small candle business based in Downtown Guelph, created by Katrina Bell. After having her daughter Katrina developed a sensitivity to scented candles. Determined to find a solution that would allow herself and others with a scent sensitivity to have candles in their home, she started creating her own candles. All of Katrina's candles are made with natural soy wax, high quality fragrance oils, cotton wicks and a fun personality. Katrina's hand-poured soy candles come in a variety of scents, each with their own funny and unique name!

David Borish, Kyle Rector, and Amanda Nguyen are co-founders of the Toronto-based sports startup, Boardball. Boardball was created as a way to make the game of volleyball more accessible, while maintaining that same level of fun and competitiveness. Boardball lowers the barriers to play, requiring only 4 players, a board, and a ball. The Boardball team is passionate about living a social and active lifestyle, and strives to connect people through a sport they love. 

Izzy's Imperfect Items is a sustainable business founded by Isabel Savransky, that makes household and beauty items purely from repurposed materials. Second-hand fabric, hair ties and buttons are used in production to create scrunchies, cutlery pouches, reusable napkins, and more! 

We sat down with Isabel to get the inside scoop on how she started Izzy's Imperfect Items and what she hopes to get out of the Hub Incubator Program.

Stewart Russell and Courtney Russell are changing the way you snack, with their company Well Baked Box! The Well Baked Box is a family-owned business created by a married couple who wanted to remove the barriers to healthy eating. Their mission is to provide easier access to snacks that not only taste good, but also leave you feeling good. Each Well Baked Box comes with pre-packaged proportioned healthy ingredients so customers are ready to bake the recipe they selected.

My name is Eryn Navarro and as a University of Guelph student, I am committed to one simple purpose and that is to improve life.

Every day, in small ways and big ways I make intentional decisions about how I can be improving life. As part of this commitment, I join groups and organizations that provide me with tools and knowledge about how to have positive impact on our world. Two groups I have become a part of are Enactus Guelph and The John F. Wood Centre.

Pearl + Pine Collective is a local jewellery business created by Kaitlin Gallant during the start of the pandemic. She is an Indigenous graphic designer, illustrator, beader and general dabbler in all things creative, which led Kaitlin to pursue her business in creating one-of-a-kind jewellery pieces. 

After struggling with different sports supplements that were either inconvenient, expensive or boring, Josh Bodenstein and David Friedman decided that there needed to be a change. This led them to start their own company, Scoops Supplements. Scoops Supplements offers customers the ability to purchase high-quality sports supplements in customizable quantities. Josh and David aspire to motivate customers towards reaching their health and fitness goals through the introduction of diversity in their assortment of supplements. 

Baylee Rubinoff and Lauren Hotchkiss are both University of Guelph Alumni who graduated with Master's degrees in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Their research and experience working as consultants have provided Baylee and Lauren with the knowledge and skillset to become co-founders of their own company, Confluxia Consulting.

Bar’kada is a restaurant and bar founded in Downtown Toronto in 2020 by Jordan Rulloda. They focus on Tapas' style dishes to share with your "barkada" (group of friends). They offer Filipino food with inspiration from cultural diversity in Toronto. They put forward delicious comfort food with dishes such as tapas, sandwiches, salads, and wine.