I had to take a step back
During my second year in the Computer Science program, I worked as a merchandiser at a local drug store. During my shifts, I loved solving problems I saw customers facing and coming up with technical solutions. Most commonly, I noticed that customers with simple inquiries for over-the-counter medication such as cough syrup and allergy medication were waiting long periods of time before getting a pharmacist's help. This was where our startup MedaKi (external link) started. The idea at the time was a touch screen kiosk where customers can input symptoms and receive over-the-counter medication recommendations.
Eventually, after graduating from the computer science program at Ryerson University, I was accepted into the Master's Program for Management, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at the Smith School of business. During the 12-month program, I was introduced to a wide variety of topics surrounding start-ups, built and took my first business to market, pitched in front of investors for the first time, and started to learn about resources that can help you build your business as a student or recent grad. I also teamed up with a local independent pharmacy owner, Tarek Hussein, and brought on a fellow peer from the Computer Science program, our CTO, Zain Quraishi.
While networking at pitch events and exhibitions I heard more and more about different incubators and learned that Ryerson University had one of the most resourceful startup ecosystems.
During the computer science program, I had heard about the DMZ and seen a few booths about incubators while walking down the halls of the George Vari building.
At that time, I did not understand the tremendous value that a student can gain by entering the various bootcamps, networking sessions, and training programs. I had also tried starting a few startups during my undergrad, such as a student attendance tracking app, a fitness app, and an app that digitized rubrics for pharmacy students for St.Micheal’s Hospital. However, I could not manage to deliver the projects and had to take a step back to identify my gaps and weaknesses. This is where the support system from Zone Learning comes in.
After graduating from the master’s program, our team made it a goal to join the DMZ incubator program.
We started by joining the Science Discovery Zone. We learned about the Zone’s focus on providing STEM students with a business background and seeing that two of our co-founders are from the Computer Science program, we saw ourselves as a great fit.
After graduating from the master’s program, our team made it a goal to join the DMZ incubator program.
After being successfully admitted, we were able to start using the office space and started to network on campus, learning about the other opportunities where we might be able to connect. Being a part of the Zone, also made us members of the Zone Learning and that’s when we got subscribed to their newsletter and learned about Zone events that students can attend and that there were many more zones at Ryerson.
I started to attend the Startup Certified Program and connected with entrepreneurs-in-residence . Although we could not enroll in the program, I was able to sit in during all the sessions for the sales and marketing programming and to network. We later joined the Basecamp program.
We got to work alongside like-minded individuals and attended sessions that covered core areas start-ups should focus on, such as sales, marketing, and problem-solution validation. The sessions helped us better analyze and understand the pharmacy space and the Zone team was there to help guide and support us. By the end of the program, we hypothesized a list of problems pharmacy customers faced, and later on, went to validate and choose a niche. During the pitch competition, we were able to come in the top 6 finalists and got valuable feedback from the judges.
Our startup’s greatest challenge was finding and connecting with healthcare professionals in the Toronto area and receiving feedback on our platform. When we learned about the Biomedical Zone, we learned about their healthcare focus and their BACE program. In this Zone, we attended several healthcare sessions from professionals with years of experience and learned how to enter the US healthcare market and connected with MedStack, an alumni of the Zone and a partner we eventually started using for our platform’s security and compliance.
In November 2021, we were fortunate enough to receive the first-place prize at the Ryerson Venture Zone in Brampton’s Industry Challenge which had a focus on the healthcare space. We then got accepted into the Zone’s incubation program and continued to receive their support as well as a $20,000 grant towards our startup. The Ryerson Venture Zone’s program was unique in the way they had a founder-first approach, connections to industry partners, and provided an unprecedented amount of support from their team.
In September of this year, our startup had successfully entered the market to start generating some revenue, created a delivery partnership, onboarded our second pharmacy to the platform, and are now onboarding our third. We also raised $50,000 in funds from grants and pitch competitions and have grown our team to 6 team members.
In the next few months, we are looking forward to onboarding more pharmacies across the GTA, raising our first round of investment, and – as planned – applying to the DMZ incubator program.
