Ascend Accelerator Program graduates seventh cohort
by Scott A. Sumner
The six student start-ups are provided funding from the John Dobson Foundation, in addition to mentorship, weekly workshops, and are held accountable to milestone goals created throughout the 10-week boot camp-style program.
Tony Braxton Tchio Ngoumeza - GreenShade GreenShade is developing a precision agriculture system that leverages machine learning to optimize farming practices and provide farmers with tailored recommendations. Whether a farmer's goal is to maximize yield, improve resource efficiency, or identify the most suitable crops for their specific environment and climate, their system analyzes a wide range of variables to deliver actionable insights. By integrating data-driven analysis and predictive modeling, they empower farmers to make informed decisions that align with their unique agricultural goals.
James McDonagh and Gia Hieu Le - Conversaver An AI-powered audio summarization tool designed to prioritize your privacy at every step. It delivers customizable summaries of your conversations, helping you capture key insights without the hassle of manual note-taking. With strict data protection measures in place, you can trust that your information stays secure and confidential.
Mackenzie Smith – Aurae & Company Aurae is an online yoga studio rooted in accessibility, mindfulness, and self-care. With a holistic approach that nurtures mind, body, and soul, Aurae blends calming beach imagery with a flexible, “practice anywhere” ethos. Whether through guided meditations, movement practices, or reflective prompts, the brand invites users to reconnect with themselves and move with intention — no matter where they are.
Magdy Alani - Teknu Solutions Teknu Solutions is a research-driven startup providing advanced engineering solutions for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector. Founded by PhD experts, it integrates structural engineering expertise with AI and optimization algorithms to streamline and enhance the design of buildings. Our first solution focuses on intelligent layout optimization to improve material efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and accelerate early-stage design decisions. This company builds the foundation for smarter, more sustainable structures.
Rambert Shaw - Vivideye Concepts Vivideye produces cinematic, story-driven videos that elevate brands, capture attention, and drive results. With our turnaround time of three business days, Vivideye helps you stand out and sell more with high-quality, professional content designed to leave a lasting impact regardless of whether you're a realtor, event planner, or small business owner.
Vince Butrico and Michae Gagliardil - SkillJa SkillJa brings athletes and coaches together in one unified space. Athletes can find trusted coaches across 35+ sports, while coaches showcase their expertise, manage bookings, and grow their business. Built by athletes for athletes, SkillJa replaces the scattered search process with a seamless way to discover, book, and connect with sports coaches.
I asked James McDonagh about his project. Tell Me about Conversaver?
“ Conversaver is an AI powered audio transformation tool. A user can upload any kind of audio file they want. It gets turned into a transcript and then processed using AI and summarized based on a very specific template the user wants. For example if you are a financial advisor and have many meeting in a day, our tool is basically able to take those audio files, quickly transcribe them and summarize them in a very specific format so they can go to their notes. It means you can kinda go paperless.”
“ A main goal for us with this was privacy and compliance as you are dealing with client data. It could be used by many people including in healthcare. We can introduce encryption. Half of our program is basically a transcriber which takes audio and puts it to text.”
What stage are you at with the project?
“ We are basically demo ready with the project and want to partner with a business that has many clients and meetings, so we can learn how viable our product is and refine the product. We could then move to more businesses including a Cloud based approach as now we do everything on a physical server. You could buy a subscription to the service. We want our app to be able to pair with Zoom for example as well.”
“ The project was equal parts research and figuring out what we wanted to build and then writing a lot of the code and refining the model.I do enjoy entrpreneurship.” James just finished his Honours Bachelor of Computer Science and is going back for a Masters this fall, a two year course with some research.
I asked Alyson MacKay, Ingenuity manager some questions. Tell me about this program.
“ I run the day to day operation of our business incubator, which assists students in starting their own businesses in a number of different ways- whether it be one on one meetings with students, to workshops, finding them resources and then our Incubator program which is our biggest program.”
“ Our office space Ingenuity has a hot space area for students that acts as their office with lockable space as well as a lecture room, theatre room.”
How does the Accelerator program work?
“ With the accelerator program itself we put out a call for applications. It gets dropped to the top ten and then the final rounds. All students can also contact me to find out specific information on where they could find funding and so on. They can get up to $5000 through the Accelerator program.” “ We typically get out 100 students a year contact us as well continuing their education. Anyone is welcome to have a conversation about entrpreneurship with us.”
