Anthony Lau helped build the first BlackBerry, now he’s helping TMU students build their businesses
Zone Learning's mentorship program offers entrepreneurs invaluable advice and helpful resources.
For Tyrenny Anderson, becoming a mentor at the Social Venture Zone (SVZ) was a no-brainer.
The business operations manager and strategist, who runs her own consulting and training business, was drawn to helping people in their early careers as they navigate the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
Tyrenny Anderson is passionate about getting the best from people to spur change and coaching others to help them find solutions to complex challenges.
“Young people starting their first businesses haven’t failed multiple times yet,” says Anderson. “They are just starting to explore which skill sets they need to refine or which ideas have potential. My goal as a mentor is to create a space for them to learn and fail, while building confidence in themselves as entrepreneurs.”
Anderson is one of the many mentors at the SVZ who help businesses confront the challenges they are facing in their entrepreneurial journey.
The SVZ is one of 10 incubators within Zone Learning, a network providing Toronto’s entrepreneurial ecosystem with an accessible first step for early-stage startups and entrepreneurs, as well as support for the growth of their ventures.
At any time of year, there are more than 300 startups on campus and each incubator provides a suite of support for the entrepreneur – coaching, a community of thousands of entrepreneurs and industry leaders, access to customers and access to funding.
Mentor helps business acquire new partnerships
“The connections within the Zone Learning network are invaluable and being part of the SVZ has provided us with a huge network of resources,” says Daniel Copeland, co-founder of SpotWork (external link) , a staffing company linking potential workers with socially minded companies.
Spotwork team from left to right: Asher Lichtman, head of sales; Gurliv Singh, customer success manager; Daniel Copeland, co-founder; Darren Perlman, co-founder; Ryan Chalmers, head of software development.
Copeland says it has been incredibly helpful to have Spotwork incubated in the SVZ as they continue to grow. Copeland and his team worked with Zone advisors who helped them review their business plan by understanding their market strategy and learning how to structure their company.
As Copeland and his team discovered new ways to improve their business, they realized that building partnerships was one major challenge they were still trying to overcome. The company needed to build meaningful relationships with community organizations that would offer opportunities to individuals seeking jobs.
The advisors at the SVZ connected Copeland’s team with Ali Taiyeb, the director of industry innovation at the Vector Institute, a globally renowned research institute focused on artificial intelligence. Taiyeb made the Spotwork team realize that they were spreading themselves too thin, focusing on acquiring new partnerships without building out the relationships they already had. When they switched their approach and narrowed their focus, they were able to deepen their relationships with community partners and differentiate themselves in a crowded market.
“Ali has a wealth of experience and he brought a completely different perspective to the problems we were trying to solve,” says Copeland. “It was also very useful to have an external consultant like Ali keep us accountable and offer us the advice we were looking for.”
Anthony Lau started his career developing hardware and software and moved to the business side of product sales.
TMU student shares how mentor helped him scale products
Anthony Lau has been an expert-in-residence at the DMZ since 2020 and brings over 20 years of experience in product sales for global software and hardware companies – most notably, building the first Blackberry phone.
Lau became a mentor at the DMZ because he has always loved the fast-paced, challenging world of entrepreneurship. As a self proclaimed startup addict, Lau has experienced the ups and downs of himself and is eager to guide others through the process.
He met one of his mentees, David Raveenthrarajan, through a nationwide program cofounded by TMU and run by Zone Learning that helps STEM students turn their passions into viable ventures called Lab2Market (external link) . Lau was interested in Raveenthrarajan’s company that speeds up the process of making spirits through organic chemistry principles.
“I thought David’s idea was something a lot of people can get behind,” says Lau. “I was interested in helping David figure out how to scale his products.”
Leveraging his background in sales and product development, Lau guided Raveenthrarajan through many aspects of the business from forecasting revenue to determining a sales pipeline. When Raveenthrarajan didn’t get a grant he applied for, Lau was there to help support him through it.
“He helped me calm down a lot,” says Raveenthrarajan. “When we didn’t get the grant, Anthony told me not to worry about it and to look out for other opportunities that would be coming down the pipeline.”
Raveenthrarajan’s advice to budding entrepreneurs looking to get the most out of their mentorship experience at TMU is to drop their egos and soak up as much as they can, while also thinking about how the mentor can help their business thrive.
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