I’m a researcher from Voltx: an AI product to reduce lifetime testing time for supercapacitors and batteries by 85–96%. On the side, we’re writing this article to explain testing issues for lasers, LEDs, photovoltaics, optical coatings, and integrated circuit chips!

Feel free to email the editor of this article (Alishba Imran) or Shagun Maheshwari with any questions.

Have you had an old phone where the battery somehow drops from 80% to 10%…?

Why can’t you buy a magical new phone with magically better batteries to make that problem magically disappear???

Well, you can… we already have magically better batteries to…

Help others

• I can’t focus on work. Okay, I’ll make a gift for a friend. Or I’ll message someone a compliment. That’d be useful.
• What would a perfect friend to help me through this be like? How can I be like that for others who need me?
• Do I have a classmate, coworker, friend, or relative I like and haven’t reached out to in a while? Let me send them a quick message to just ask ALL ABOUT THEM + THEIR LIFE.

STOP thinking

• Do repetitive motions. Stirring something while cooking, doodling with just one shape (ex. circles), go running, etc.
• Say tiny details…

This is one of a series of case studies on lessons learned from starting sustainable businesses!

Key Takeaways:

• As a student, the world’s doors are open to you. This isn’t school. You CAN ask for help.
• Find EVERY single way you can to test your ideas. Aim to make your validation process THE big story you tell when you talk about your business.
• Large market = lots of money? Not if you try to do everything and end up with nothing.

Alessandra Amato has been trying to go vegan for a REALLY long time…

She doesn’t like the harm that factory-farmed meat…

This is one of a series of case studies on lessons learned from starting sustainable businesses!

Key Takeaways

• Look for problems in areas you’re uniquely interested in or that you’re uniquely aware of. The solutions will be all the more innovative.
• Not having many resources at first is GOOD! It helps you not waste time chasing ideas or products that aren’t the best.
• Be VERY specific about the values you’re not willing to bend on. For the other nice-to-haves, give yourself some flexibility to grow into them :-)

Since 2005, Christal Earle has been in and around the garbage dumps of the…

This is one of a series of case studies on lessons learned from starting sustainable businesses!

Key Takeaways

• Sometimes, typical ‘entrepreneurship’ advice doesn’t work for social ventures. People’s incentives might be different for a social cause.
• For student founders, there’s really no better environment than a university with a strong focus on entrepreneurship :-)
• For student founders, teams can sometimes have strangers or people that aren’t aligned on the same vision. This was okay in school projects, but needs to be fixed UPFRONT in a business.

Melanie Chanona LOVES to solve problems.

Even as a student at the University of British Columbia…

This is one of a series of case studies on lessons learned from starting sustainable businesses!

Key Takeaways

• Don’t just get excited about a solution because you have the skills to pull it off.
• Your ‘side’ talents before entrepreneurship become the niche no one else can occupy.
• Don’t try to get everything done yourself. This isn’t school. But if you’re willing to take a risk, it’s ALL about trusting yourself.

5 years ago, you could meet Paige Whitehead and NEVER have imagined her being an entrepreneur. She’s the kind of person that loves microbiology and music festivals, not mergers and acquisitions! …

I recently came across a 1953 comedy act that made me laugh harder than I’ve laughed in 4 months…

The funny thing is, the reason I was watching this was because I was sadder than I’d ever been in 4 months.

Gee, what got you in this mess of emotions?

Well, I’d been trying to painstakingly maintain relationships virtually during COVID-19 for 9 months. One day, I just stopped and thought of every friend I had. …

You see, I’m usually frantically dashing between classrooms at this time of day. That was until the COVID-19 lockdown came. Since then, school has been a series of Zoom calls. One tedious current of information after another… flowing slowly from my teacher’s screen to mine.

It was at that moment I realised that I hadn’t had an original thought in a

very…

very…

VERY…

long time. 😨

But how does that apply to ME? I just decided what to eat myself!

And so had I. But those simple decisions weren’t the problem.

The problem was that it’d been a long time since I’d just STOPPED to look away from the screen. To observe the…