The Globe and Mail

Kelly Jennex

Strangers inspire me

Age: 25
Company: TitanFile Inc., a secure file-transfer service
Website: www.titanfile.com
Year founded: 2011
# of employees: Four
Annual revenue (2011): N/A
Projected revenue (2012): $500,000
Words to live by: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” Gandhi
Dream: Stay tuned to find out.

Rob Darling

Barack Obama, Dave Logan, Steve Jobs and Tony Hsieh inspire me

Age: 38
Company: WellRead Inc., a news curating application
Website: www.wellreadinc.com
Year founded: 2011
# of employees: Two
Annual revenue (2011): N/A
Projected revenue (2012): N/A
Words to live by: "People may not remember exactly what you did or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel." Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
Dream: 1. Provide great products and experiences for customers to help them be well-read every day. 2. Create a culture/company of open-minded creativity that has a significant, positive impact on our customers, partners, team members, families and friends, as well as local and global communities.

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji

Other stories of success inspire me

Age: 20
Company: Bookneto, an online platform for social learning and knowledge
Website: www.bookneto.com
Year founded: 2010
# of employees: N/A
Annual revenue (2011): N/A
Projected revenue (2012): N/A
Words to live by: "Never get high on your own supply."
Dream: To be a place where anyone who is interested can access the highest quality educational resources for the lowest cost

Aditya Bali

Other stories of success inspire me

Age: 23
Company: BufferBox, a self-serve kiosk that allows for 24/7 pickup of your parcel at a convenient location
Website: www.bufferbox.com
Year founded: 2011
# of employees: Four
Annual revenue (2011): $35,000
Projected revenue (2012): $200,000
Words to live by: Don't put your name on anything you are not proud of.
Dream: Establish a ubiquitous service that enables anyone to receive online purchases and parcels from automated, self-serve kiosks that are conveniently located; eliminating the frustrations of failed deliveries forever.

Akash Vaswani

Fred Wilson inspires me

Age: 20
Company: Crouton Labs Inc., which specializes in making apps for restaurants that let consumers order and pay for their food remotely
Website: www.croutonlabs.com
Year founded: 2012
# of employees: Four
Annual revenue (2011): N/A
Projected revenue (2012): N/A
Words to live by: Failure is better than stagnation.
Dream: To bring restaurants into the mobile age.

Barbara MacDonald

Startups that make it inspire me

Age: 25
Company: Willet, which turns social browsers into shoppers
Website: www.getwillet.com
Year founded: 2010
# of employees: Three
Annual revenue (2011): $0
Projected revenue (2012): N/A (private)
Words to live by: Ask forgiveness, not permission.
Dream: Success!

Phil Noelting

World-changing, disruptive innovations inspire me

Age: 25
Company: Qwalify Inc., a hiring platform that provides customized filtering tools, human analytic reporting and a comprehensive management system to help you hire efficiently and effectively
Website: www.Qwalify.com
Year founded: 2010
# of employees: Five
Annual revenue (2011): N/A
Projected revenue (2012): N/A
Words to live by: The world would be a very different place if everyone realized that happiness is a conscious choice, and not just a result or outcome of something. Why not choose to be happy?
Dream: To have a direct impact on unemployment rates in areas in which we operate.

Jeeyoung Kim

Company: Polychart, a browser-based platform for exploring data and creating charts
Website: www.polychart.com
Year founded: 2011
# of employees: Two
Annual revenue (2011): $0
Annual revenue (2012): $0
Words to live by : Move fast, break things.
Dream: We want to make data visual.

Cedric Jeannot

Innovation inspires me

Age: 26
Company: I Think Security Ltd., a state-of-the-art encryption technology for business and personal use
Website: www.ithinksecurity.com
Year founded: 2010
# of employees: Seven
Annual revenue (2011): N/A
Projected revenue (2012): N/A
Words to live by: Deal with the best or die like the rest.
Dream: Worldwide leader in IT security. Watch for it, this is how we roll in Waterloo.

Gareth MacLeod

Zuck, Jack, Steve, Bill, Elon, Larry and Sergei inspire me.

Age: 24
Company: Alpha, which gathers data from all aspects of your life, and analyzes it for patterns you can use to live better, healthier, and happier
Website: youaresuperhuman.com
Year founded: 2011
# of employees: One
Annual revenue (2011): $0
Projected revenue (2012): "Maybe a few grand" (revenue projections for early startups are practically meaningless).
Words to live by: Build things.
Dream: To help everyone be the best version of themselves.

Mike McCauley

Working alongside amazing entrepreneurs every day inspires me.

Age: 23
Company: BufferBox, self-serve kiosks that allow for 24/7 pickup of your parcel at a convenient location
Website: www.bufferbox.com
Year founded: 2011
# of employees: Four
Annual revenue (2011): $35,000
Projected revenue (2012): $200,000
Words to live by: Life is good.
Dream: Establish a ubiquitous service that enables anyone to receive online purchases and parcels from automated, self-serve kiosks that are conveniently located; eliminating the frustrations of failed deliveries forever.

Andrew Matlock

Humour and music inspire me.

Age: 24
Company: Industry Corp., an entertainment and media company
Website: www.industrycorp.ca
Year founded: 2008
# of employees: 12
Annual revenue (2011): N/A
Projected revenue (2012): N/A
Words to live by: Pimpin' ain't easy.
Dream: To become a mainstay entertainment and media conglomerate.

Jay El-Kaake

Bill Gates inspires me.

Age: 23
Company: Sweet Tooth, a turn-key points and rewards software for your Magento eCommerce store
Website: www.SweetToothRewards.com
Year founded: 2010
# of employees: 17
Annual revenue (2011): N/A
Projected revenue (2012): N/A
Words to live by: Enabling others to succeed is the best way to reach your own success.
Dream: To become a standard in online commerce rewards that helps more businesses succeed.