"Honestly, one of the best attributes of the program has been how adaptive things have been to our feedback. The community part has been stellar. Everyone's on the same page."

"The mentorship pushed me to actually step up and start building. They told me I was too young and inexperienced. That's when it clicked that I could just go build it myself."

Shea Tough

Activate Director

Shea is a geneticist and former pharmaceutical consultant with Johnson & Johnson. After finishing her Masters Degree from Western University, she left pharma and declined medical school admission to found a private biotech startup incubator (FCSB) to support early stage synbio entrepreneurs. She raised $1M+ to support over 50 startups in bringing their products from lab to market.

Ravi Ravindran

Activate Director

Ravi is a serial entrepreneur who founded three companies before the age of 24. He holds a B.Sc. in Neuroscience and Psychology from UofT and an Executive MBA from Schulich. As Entrepreneur-in-Residence at UofT, he helped 158 startups commercialize research. He serves on Canada's Semiconductor Council and has consulted on $786 million in infrastructure projects with the federal government.