Scott Nguyen (BA’12) and Jimmy Truong (MBA ‘13) had a chance to showcase their tutoring service application business start-up for Deputy Premier Deb Matthews, during a visit to the Entrepreneurship Practice and Innovation Centre Monday.

The team was among several who had a chance to speak with Matthews, who was accompanied on the tour by UWindsor President and Vice-Chancellor Alan Wildeman, Odette School of Business Dean Allan Conway, and a team from EPIC Innovation and EPIC Odette.

 Matthews talked to the young entrepreneurs about their business ideas, project milestones, customer bases, and profit generation plans.

“Well this is just fantastic. I wanted to witness the great magic that is happening here. This centre is about unleashing the entrepreneur spirit that the young people –and other ages – have,” said Matthews, who is also President of the Treasury Board and Minister Responsible for the Poverty Reduction Strategy.

“Graduating and getting a job to build a career doesn’t exist anymore, so we do need such places where they can develop their ideas and get support they need to be successful.” 

EPIC Innovation is one of three business incubators at EPICentre. It is a fully-furnished business incubator space which aims to support young entrepreneurs on campus and in the Windsor-Essex region. EPIC Innovation has the capacity to provide services for entrepreneurs from all disciplines. It is dedicated to business start-ups created by students and recent graduates from the University of Windsor or St. Clair College with innovative and well-protected intellectual property and a strong business model or plan.

The goal of EPICentre is to provide start-up companies with resources and networking opportunities to help them grow their new businesses.