This isn’t anyone’s Plan A.
We are living through a live case study of an unprecedented global pandemic, and many of your colleagues who had their dream jobs lined up after graduation have found the rug pulled out from under them.
COVID-19 has forced hundreds of thousands of new grads to change their plans entirely — and not to their Plan B ‘fall back option’ but to something entirely different. Something they weren’t considering in the first place.
They have been forced to pursue Option C.
Graduations have gone virtual, and offers are delayed or rescinded but Option C can be a blessing if you allow it to be.
In a special edition of the Ivey Entrepreneur Podcast, Ivey Faculty Member Eric Janssen talks to four Ivey students who have pursued non-traditional paths and made blessings out of boulders.
The Ivey Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
For more episodes, visit the Ivey Entrepreneur Podcast.
The students and businesses featured on this episode:
Jacqueline Scott, HBA ’20 - Allora Athletics (alloraathletics.com)
Allora Athletics was created to help children and families make the most of summer 2020. Offering athletic activities for kids and workouts for teens and adults, Allora's goal is to help people get outside and staying active. This is not the summer that any of us expected, but that doesn't mean it can't be a great one.
Natalie Diezyn, HBA’21 - Marlow (com)
Marlow is a community that aims to share the stories of women, while identifying problems in the menstrual product space that have previously been ignored. To start, we’ve learned that many tampon users experience insertion pain and discomfort, so we’re creating the first ever lubricated tampon.
Chloe Beaudoin, HBA’20 - Apricotton
Apricotton is an online tween bra brand that makes stylish and adjustable bras so it can grow as she grows. We help girls feel comfortable with the bra shopping experience, improving their confidence during their most awkward stage: puberty.
Jack Jelinek, HBA ’20 - Crank Lite (cranklite.com)
CRANK Lite Bev Corp. (CRANK) is a new beer company attempting to disrupt the stagnant beer industry. Brewed out of Equals Brewing Co. in London, ON, our first product, CRANK Lite Lager, is a light, great-tasting, and crushable beer. As two young adults who like to enjoy an ice-cold beer after a long day of work, we found that there was no beer that properly satisfied both our tastes’ and our value-driven selection. The classic craft beers were too expensive, and often tasted too ‘crafty’ to have more than one – they were more like a meal than a beer. Additionally, we found the value beers in the market to be low-quality, with continuously increasing prices as companies look to boost their bottom line. With this in mind, we created.