If there’s one thing Shiven Vinod Khera learned at UBC Okanagan, it’s that anything is possible if your heart and mind are in the right place.
The Faculty of Management graduate was part of a team that launched tech start-up Linkbase Technologies Inc. through UBCO’s innovative Mentor 2 Market program, which helps build successful businesses by connecting students with mentors and giving them access to tools, customers, funding and community. Khera says the relationships he and the Linkbase team built on the Kelowna campus through the program were vital to their successes.
“UBCO encouraged us to continually work on our passions,” Khera says. “The professors encouraged us to push ourselves and strive for more. It became clear we could do it.”
Linkbase is an internet of things (IoT) firm that helps small- and medium-sized businesses develop smart products and automate services or processes. It allows users to streamline sometimes time-consuming or wasteful tasks. A hotel owner, for example, could automate checkout using Linkbase’s technology. With the push of a button, curtains in an empty room could close, lights could be turned off, door codes could be changed and climate controls adjusted—all customizable based on what IoT devices are in play.
Khera and his business partners received hands-on help from Mentor 2 Market; in addition to one-on-one mentoring with business leaders, the program offers a five-part eDiscovery workshop series, special information sessions on topics such as funding, intellectual property and company structure, as well as the popular Quick Pitch competition.
“The entire e@UBCO team works tirelessly for students and has a very welcoming and informative program that helps anyone wanting to take their idea to the next level,” Khera says.
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Through Strategy 18: Alumni Engagement, UBC is working with alumni UBC, together with targeted efforts across faculties and departments, to broaden and deepen engagement through programs that cultivate pride, empower personal growth, support professional development and enable contribution.