After five years at the helm, Adrien Côté is stepping down from his role as executive director of Velocity, the University of Waterloo’s flagship startup incubator program.
The Waterloo graduate, researcher, and technologist spent eight years at Velocity, leading the program through a COVID-19 shutdown and helping mentor hundreds of students looking to build businesses. Côté is returning to his roots in the cleantech space, he said, and will remain in an advisory role at Velocity.
“I think we should be looking forward as an ecosystem, not looking backwards.”
Adrien Côté
“The team has worked over the last five years to build a really fantastic foundation for entrepreneurship at the University of Waterloo and for this region,” Côté said in an interview with BetaKit.
“It’s always mixed feelings. [I] won’t be part of that journey, but I’ll be on the side, without a doubt, cheering.”
Founded in 2008, the Velocity incubator has supported more than 400 startups through prototyping and commercialization, including companies such as ApplyBoard and Faire. The incubator provides office space, equipment, labs, and a professional network to participating founders.
Karim Karim, the associate vice-president of commercialization and entrepreneurship at Waterloo and a professor of electrical and computer engineering, will handle Velocity’s executive director duties until Côté’s replacement is chosen.
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Karim told BetaKit he will be looking for a replacement that is grounded in business experience and entrepreneurship. Karim himself is the founder and CTO of KA Imaging, a University of Waterloo spinoff company that provided X-ray technology for the first medical X-ray to go to space.
Côté took the reins at Velocity in early 2020, just weeks before the school shut down most of its campus operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a difficult time, Côté said, and he knew the Velocity team had to be there for student builders. For example, Velocity rushed to reopen certain labs for medtech teams that he said could not afford to lose experimental progress.
Velocity’s 2024 Momentum report claims that student builder teams—many of which become startups—grew from a dozen in 2019 to 157 in 2023. Côté said that number is closer to 200 now. The report also noted that Velocity consistently attracts an even ratio of hardware and software companies, with a majority in health and business productivity verticals.
But some broader regional data shows that startup creation has declined in recent years. An internal Communitech report viewed by BetaKit showed that company formation in the region was down 80 percent in 2022 from its peak in 2014. The report called this metric a leading indicator for the long-term health of the innovation ecosystem.
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“I think we should be looking forward as an ecosystem, not looking backwards,” Côté said. “And we have this wave coming from the University of Waterloo, Velocity as an ecosystem. Let’s just grab onto it and scale.”
Karim added that Velocity’s growing numbers indicate a community of emerging startups that is “growing exponentially,” though he acknowledged the role institutions must play in making Canada an attractive place to build a company. As some early-stage Canadian startups seek opportunities and funding in the United States (US), including acceptance to the famed Y Combinator program, Karim said the “brain drain” narrative is an important conversation not just in Waterloo, but nationally.
“We have to create the environment for our startups to succeed right here,” Karim said.
Now, Côté’s departure comes amid a resurgence of energy in student-led tech ecosystem initiatives in the region. Student builder movements like Socratica and student-focused groups like Builders’ Club are seeking to create open, unstructured spaces to encourage product and company creation. Meanwhile, local innovation hub Communitech has tapped a new leader who has committed to reorienting the organization’s focus on the Waterloo Region.
Both Côté and Karim are bullish on Velocity’s future impact on the ecosystem. On his way out, Côté announced the launch of the Velocity Momentum Grant, which provides financial support for early-stage startups. Côté touted the Velocity Fund II, partly funded by the university’s endowment, as a key option for early-stage startups looking to fundraise. This past fall, Velocity debuted its Innovation Arena, which includes 20,000 sq. ft. of purpose-built lab space for hardware and healthtech equipment.
“This is the most energy and the most engagement that we’ve had—ever—in Velocity’s history,” Côté said.
Feature image courtesy Velocity.