SFU student Gursher Sidhu selected by The Next 36 for 2015 cohort

Gursher Sidhu
Gursher Sidhu

SIMON Fraser University undergraduate student Gursher Sidhu has been named to the 2015 cohort of The Next 36, a national initiative aimed at transforming Canada’s most promising post-secondary students into leading entrepreneurs.

He is one of 38 students who earned a spot on The Next 36 at the annual National Selection Weekend held in Toronto earlier this month. A total of 80 finalists from a pool of 630 applicants attended the weekend of interviews, workshops, speakers and idea generation.

“The Next 36 will challenge me to adapt to a rapidly moving environment as well as learn and apply a large amount of knowledge in a very short amount of time,” says Sidhu, a fourth-year student in Mechatronic Systems Engineering (MSE). “I will be pushed outside my comfort zone and coming out I will be very prepared to handle the obstacles of building and growing a company.”

Over the next seven months, program interns from across the country will build their companies with the support of mentors, a unique academic program and a pool of business advisors.

First working remotely while completing their academic year, they will converge in Toronto again in May to work on their ventures full-time. The Next 36 culminates in mid-August with the Venture Day showcase.

Sidhu is no stranger to entrepreneurship.

Sidhu has been pursuing his entrepreneurial endeavours with tech e@sfu. The program brings together third- and fourth-year MSE and entrepreneurship students to develop a market-inspired technological product and then pitch for the funds to take it from bench-top to market.

The Next 36, Canada’s leading undergraduate entrepreneurship development program, sets out to address Canada’s deficit of high impact entrepreneurship by offering resource-rich education programs to promising young entrepreneurs. The program provides its entrepreneurs with mentorship from some of Canada’s top business leaders, access to funding from venture capitalists, and academic instruction from some of the world’s leading business experts. SFU became an official academic partner of The Next 36 in 2014, solidifying SFU’s reputation as a Canadian leader in fostering entrepreneurship and innovation.