Partner with the Innovation Sprint at Mount Royal University
Innovation Sprint is a five-week co-curricular program, delivered by the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Mount Royal University. It runs once in the Fall semester and once in the Winter semester.
A team of students works on a real business question for your company. You give them a customer to study; they do intensive customer discovery, ideation, and pitch you a new product or service you could offer, built on what they actually learn from that customer.
Every team is given the following prompt: “if you had $1M, what new product or service would you pitch to [Company Name]?”
The student journey
In the first week, the team meets you and settles on one of your target customers to focus on. Then they go out and do customer discovery, interviewing real people in that group to understand what those customers actually struggle with. From there they generate ideas, narrow to one, and shape it into a concrete product or service concept: what it is, who it's for, why that customer would want it, and how it could fit into your business. In the final week they build and rehearse the pitch, then present it to you on the last day, along with the research behind it.
We are proud to be able to pay our students for taking part in our programming! All students earn a $600 stipend at the end of the program.
The mentor journey
As a mentor, you meet with your team once a week at a time that is convenient for you. In those 30-60min meetings you steer their thinking when they're off track, sanity-check their research, and share the industry and customer knowledge they can't find on their own.
In week 3, there's a short check-in with the Institute team to see how the process is going. Finally, we'd love to have you there in person for the final showcase at Mount Royal University to watch your team present their proposed solution to you.
Past mentors have found the students' customer discovery work valuable and many have gone on to implement the solutions the students came up with.
Dates you need to know
Fall 2026 | Program runs Oct 19 to Nov 18
Meet your team for an hour, in the following weeks: (online or in-person)
Oct 19 to Oct 23
Oct 26 to Oct 30
Nov 2 to Nov 6
Nov 9 to Nov 13
Meet Institute staff for an hour between Nov 2 to Nov 6 (online or in-person)
Join us in-person at Mount Royal University for the final showcase on Nov 18, 4 to 6pm
Winter 2027 | Program runs Jan 11 to Feb 10
Meet your team for an hour, in the following weeks: (online or in-person)
Jan 11 to Jan 15
Jan 18 to Jan 22
Jan 25 to Jan 29
Feb 1 to Feb 5
Meet Institute staff for an hour between Jan 25 to Jan 29 (online or in-person)
Join us in-person at Mount Royal University for the final showcase on Feb 10, 4 to 6pm
“The Innovation Sprint at MRU added immense value to Plunge Audio through fresh perspectives, illuminating insights, and inventive ideas brought forth not only by the hard work of the participants, but the engaging conversations had throughout the project. The future of entrepreneurship in Alberta is in good hands!”
—Justin Kudding | Founder & CEO, Plunge Audio
“For any founder considering joining, I’d say that the Innovation Sprint is a great opportunity to gain fresh perspectives on real business challenges while helping students develop practical entrepreneurial and problem-solving skills. The students brought thoughtful ideas, strong energy, and a willingness to tackle problems from new angles, making it a rewarding experience for everyone involved.”
—Boudy Rego | Founder & CEO, YSwipe
Get in touch
Orin Bailey-Davies
An artist, innovator, and game enthusiast, Orin is passionate about building worlds and bringing people together. This drive for creation and community is what fuels his work. As a Launchpad alumni, he navigated the startup journey with his own venture, Shapesynth, winning 15k in 2025. Orin believes deeply in the potential of student entrepreneurs. When he’s not supporting student ventures, you can find him actively involved with the Calgary Game Developers Association (CGDA), participating in game jams and events, or searching for the next great addition to his collection of over 100 board games.
Reach out to Orin at obail724@mtroyal if you’d like to join the Innovation Sprint as a partner company.
Entrepreneur Development Officer