Andrew Drinkwater
We’re very excited to announce our newest partnership with SFU VentureLabs, an accelerator that focuses on science, technology, and innovation-based ventures. VentureLabs was recognized as a top North American accelerator in 2017 by UBI Global, having propelled thousands of entrepreneurs and hundreds of companies through their venture journey. Personally, this is a very neat way to continue my engagement with my alma mater. Plaid proudly employs four SFU graduates.
As Plaid approaches our sixth birthday of being a higher education data & analytics leader, we’re extremely fortunate to have been at the forefront of tackling student enrolment management data-related challenges together with our clients, especially during these challenging past few years. From enabling institutions to meet public health capacity constraints, mapping out whether waitlisted students are able to enrol in courses, to smoothing the flow of institutional and government reporting, we’ve helped illuminate data and enable insight-driven decisions so each decision is intentional and support institutions in strategic advancement. VentureLabs will be supporting our company’s growth and assisting Plaid while we navigate through our expansion journey so that we can reach our next level, faster and be better equipped to help more institutions to make better, faster, more accurate, and more scalable enrolment decisions quickly and easily.
We’re grateful for the mentorships we’ve formed with Dave Thomas, Chuck Hamilton, Floyd Simmons, and many other entrepreneurs so far. Thank you for sharing your experience and ideas with us. We are learning so much and look forward to our journey together.
This step on our development wouldn’t have been possible without the wonderful collaborative relationships we’ve built over the years. Thank you to our partners in the higher education industry.
Why are we excited about this?
Higher education is in an interesting spot. In many jurisdictions, local demographics are not in favour of sustainable growth. Data and analytics have a role to play in enabling institutions to:
- Best identify their ideal students, including those who are historically underrepresented.
- Provide better and more customized services; and,
- Become more operationally efficient.
We can’t wait for what the year ahead has in store.
Want to learn more? Let’s connect.