Next level
Waterloo startup aims to help newcomers use their skills
WATERLOO — Creating a “mobile marketplace” that will better connect refugees to the community and the services they need is the aim of a Waterloo startup.
Epoch is a platform that will allow people to trade their skills for services they need.
“No money is exchanged. We value everybody’s skill by time,” explained co-founder Jade Choy, a recent University of Waterloo graduate. “Everybody’s time is equal.”
Epoch uses a “time credit” system, where a person gets credited for the amount of time spent helping someone and they can use that for whatever service they need.
That’s especially helpful for someone who has skills to offer, but may not have money to pay for a needed service. One person could offer English lessons, while another could share cooking expertise.
“What we found is a lot of refugees come with a lot of skills,” Choy said. “Of course, they also have needs.”
But it’s about a lot more too. The platform is also an opportunity to get to know people and learn something new, which can be tough for people when they
move to a place where the language and customs are often unfamiliar.
“Ultimately, it would allow people to meet people and feel at home in their community,” Choy said.
The founders spoke to local agencies that settle refugees to learn more about the challenges and frustrations. Born into a family of immigrants who left Hong Kong in the 1990s, Choy knows the struggle newcomers face to fit in and feel at home.
“They went through the exact same struggles,” Choy said. “And you see that still happening, which kind of broke my heart.”
She developed Epoch with her brother Keith Choy, also a recent UW graduate who studied accounting, and Lisa Tran, a science and business student at the university.
The Epoch team beat more than 35 projects in the University of Waterloo division of the Hult Prize challenge.
Each year, a critical social problem is chosen and teams from around the world create an innovative social enterprise to address the issue. This year’s challenge is focused on refugees, and restoring the rights and dignities of people forced to migrate.
The Waterloo team is going to London, England to compete in the next stage in March at one of five regional finals.
The finalist teams from those go on to an intensive program of entrepreneurial seminars held in the summer, and from there the top six teams pitch their creations the finals in September.
The winning team gets $1 million in seed funding, as well as mentorship from the international business community. If the Epoch team doesn’t win, they still plan on developing and launching the mobile platform.
“We’re all really excited about it,” Choy said. “I really hope it will empower newcomers to know they have a place to go.”