It takes a community to raise an entrepreneur

Every great venture starts with a single question someone refuses to stop asking. For Daniel Gagnon, an MBA student at the Asper School of Business, that question surfaced in a classroom, and it would not let go. 

Over the next year and a half, Daniel would crisscross the University of Manitoba campus, connecting with coaches, researchers, and commercialization experts who each added something essential to what would become the CPPA Binder, a novel lithium-ion battery technology rooted in UM research.

Daniel’s compelling story shows that the infrastructure, the people, and the culture to transform bold ideas into real ventures are already at UM, and they are growing. 
 

A spark in the classroom

Daniel’s entrepreneurial journey began in Debra Jonasson-Young’s MBA Entrepreneurship Mastery course, designed to bridge academic insight with real-world innovation. By design, it brings partners from across the university into the room, exposing students to the full breadth of UM’s ecosystem.

Debra frames entrepreneurship with an analogy that stayed with Daniel long after the semester ended:
 

During a presentation by the Partnerships, Knowledge Mobilization, & Innovation (PKMI) office, Daniel’s attention was drawn to a technology he had never heard of: a lithium-ion battery binder developed by a UM researcher. “It piqued my interest,” he recalls. He didn’t act on it immediately — but the idea stayed with him, building quietly in the background. That quiet persistence, it turns out, would define his entire journey.

The marathon runner

Entrepreneurship is often portrayed as a sprint, the dramatic pivot, the overnight success. Daniel’s path looked nothing like that. To navigate the long road ahead, he connected with Ben Isakov, a Startup Coach at the Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship. Ben recognized something rare in Daniel almost immediately.
 

For more than eighteen months, Ben worked alongside Daniel as he researched, questioned, and refined his understanding of the technology and the market. The coaching relationship didn’t just give Daniel direction; it gave him the confidence to keep going when the path was unclear.

Where research meets the market

With Ben’s support, Daniel reconnected with Loren Oschipok, PKMI Director, who facilitated a crucial introduction: a meeting with Dr. Christian Kuss, the Faculty of Science researcher behind the lithium-ion battery binder technology. It was the bridge between two worlds: deep scientific expertise and entrepreneurial ambition.

Loren was struck by what Daniel brought to that first conversation:
 

From that meeting, a genuine partnership formed — one built on mutual respect between scientist and entrepreneur. The result is the CPPA Binder (Conductive Polymer Polyanionic Adhesive): a venture rooted in university research and driven by Daniel’s persistence. Daniel is candid about what that collaboration means to him: “There’s no business without Christian, in my opinion.”

This is exactly the kind of partnership the University of Manitoba is working to make more common, connecting world-class research with the entrepreneurial drive to bring it to market.
 

Building an entrepreneurial ecosystem for what’s next

Daniel’s journey is proof of concept. But the University of Manitoba is thinking bigger: what would it look like if stories like his were the norm rather than the exception? Rajeev Koyal, Program Manager, IDEA START sees Daniel’s experience as a blueprint for what the ecosystem is being built to deliver at scale.
 

That infrastructure includes incubator spaces, prototyping tools, and hands-on commercialization support — the connective tissue that turns a promising idea into a functioning venture. The research is already here. The support is coming online. The ecosystem is ready for its next wave of innovators.

Validation on a national stage

All that effort culminated in the New Venture Championships at the Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship, where Daniel was selected as one of just 16 graduate-level teams to compete nationally. The invite alone was a meaningful milestone that validated eighteen months of quiet, deliberate work, including an honourable mention at the competition. 

Reflecting on what drove him through it all, Daniel keeps returning to the process itself:
 

The power of community

For Bruno Silvestre, Dean of the Asper School of Business, Daniel’s achievement is a testament to what becomes possible when faculties, centres, and offices work in concert.
 

Debra Jonasson-Young sees it the same way: “When all the pieces come together like this, the University of Manitoba can holistically support students. That’s the ecosystem at work.”

Your idea. Your turn.

Daniel’s story carries a simple, powerful message for every student and researcher at the University of Manitoba: you don’t need to have everything figured out to begin. You need a spark and a community ready to help you fan it into something real.

That community exists at UM. It includes coaches who believe in quiet builders, commercialization experts who open doors to researchers, faculty who bring the ecosystem into the classroom, and scientists who want to see their work change the world. It’s growing. It’s evolving. And it is ready for your idea.