Communitech’s Hyperdrive startup incubator program gets a big boost today as two tech leaders join the team.
Steven Woods, engineering director for Google Canada, and Ted Hastings, a serial entrepreneur, and president of Cyberplex Inc. an online publishing and marketing firm, will become business advisors to companies participating in Communitech’s new $30 million tech incubator program.
The goal of Hyperdrive is to maximize the ability of these companies to commercialize innovations and prepare the companies for investment opportunities.
Hastings is an accomplished 38 year-old businessman and scholar, who was named to Canada’s prestigious “Top 40 Under 40” list. Hastings earned his business administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Woods is a 12-time patent holder and the co-founding mastermind behind Quack.com, a popular voice portal platform developed in 1998.Woods got his PhD and Masters in math from the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. He currently operates out of Google’s Kitchener-Waterloo office.
“It is our honour to welcome Ted and Steve to the team as they are both great ambassadors of what hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit can achieve,” said Iain Klugman, CEO of Communitech.
“They can absolutely relate to what all the companies in Hyperdrive are going through, and bring real-time examples to the table,” said Steve Currie, vice president of venture services at Communitech.
“The two together are a really good team, because Ted will have an in-depth financial knowledge and operational knowledge, and Steve will have the product and technology knowledge,” said Michael Litt, CEO and co-founder of Vidyard, and a Y Combinator graduate.
Communitech is the regional hub for the commercialization of innovative technologies supporting and building a Southwestern Ontario tech cluster of more than 800 companies. These companies generate more than $25B in revenue.