Toronto’s tech community comes together to celebrate five years and solve real problems for Ontario schools.
What happens when Canadian tech minds receive an assignment to solve problems for teachers?
A snowstorm may have dumped over 25 cm of snow on Toronto last week, but it didn’t stop more than 250 people from making their way to Koru’s fifth anniversary and hackathon, which was focused on solving challenges identified by some of Ontario’s school boards. Braving the weather, they came together to celebrate the venture studio’s impact in the Toronto ecosystem and connect with leaders across tech and education.
“If you continuously hear the same friction brought up over and over again, that’s a reinforcing function, saying there’s something here to be solved.”
Bryan Marcovici, Koru
The celebration kicked off two weeks prior, when Koru, a venture studio created by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers), invited the tech community to participate in a hackathon focused on three problem areas: facilitating teacher transitions, streamlining student observations, and improving digital learning.
Koru also offered teams office hours with school district representatives to help them fine tune their solutions. All ideas will be shared with school districts and the broader community.
“Anyone can throw a cocktail party—which we are doing later tonight —but we wanted to showcase our skills in building,” said Leah Carr, Venture General Manager at Koru.
Since launching in 2019, Koru has built and launched 11 new ventures across a variety of industries, including child care, financial services, and climate tech. Carr said when the team started brainstorming the theme for the hackathon, it was obvious that the solutions should focus on teachers.
“Ontario Teachers’ exists to help secure the future of teachers, and it’s an area that we care about as well,” said Carr. “So, we started working our networks and talking to school boards and we found out there’s a need for people to help come up with innovative solutions that can be implemented to address pain points for school boards and teachers.”
After 10 days of coding and creating, 23 teams gathered at the Ontario Teachers’ offices to showcase their solutions across two rounds of judging.
The full-day event kicked off with a panel discussion featuring Carr, as well as Charlotte Nurse, Director of Programs at Canada Learning Code; Alex Norman, Co-Founder of TechTO; Daniel Nieto, Associate Principal at BDC’s Seed Venture Fund; and BetaKit CEO Siri Agrell.
The conversation, which tackled the tension between growth and responsibility, and how to scale a company while staying rooted in community, also offered some key lessons on problem-solving for the hackathon participants.
For Nurse, the key in building tech solutions that solve important problems lies in recognizing who needs support.
“It’s really about looking around for the gaps within your community, and for the ways you can serve your community,” said Nurse, pointing to educators as a prime example.
“Not only do they need your support in the community, they’re also teaching the future,” she added. “My advice would be to look for where you can build within your own community and what direct impact you can make to the people around you.”
That same local-first mindset extends to where solutions are built in the first place.
Norman avoids using the word “impact,” but he’s firm on one thing: tech talent should consider staying and building in Canada, where they can make a bigger difference while enjoying a high quality of life.
After the panel, the first round of judging cut the field from 23 teams to just three finalists. With only four minutes to pitch, teams faced a high-stakes test, not just of their ideas, but of their ability to distill them under pressure.
That evening, more than 250 guests celebrated Koru’s fifth birthday and watched as the hackathon champions were named.
The third place prize went to Relay, an app designed to streamline the transfer of information to substitute teachers, while second place was awarded to Teacher’s Diary, an AI-powered diary for educators.
In the end, Team DHACK took home the top prize for their app, Obi. The team, which comprised Damian Matheson, Krishiv Thakuria, Henry Fu, Alec Ngai, and Cynthia Lam, won $7,500 in Air Canada gift cards.
DHACK didn’t have to look far for inspiration. After speaking with educators, the team developed an app that lets teachers take notes on students throughout the year, easily review them, and generate report cards using AI at the end of the semester. The team said several teachers they talked to are already eager to use it.
Bryan Marcovici, Co-Founder, CEO, and Managing Partner of Koru, said the event validated the need for builders to work hand in hand with industries and communities to identify needed solutions.
“If you continuously hear the same friction brought up over and over again, that’s a reinforcing function, saying there’s something here to be solved,” Marcovici said.
PRESENTED BY
Koru works with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan portfolio companies to create ventures that shape tomorrow. Learn more about how Koru fuels bold ideas.
All photos provided by Koru.
