Many entrepreneurs build companies to tackle problems they’ve experienced first-hand — and Kurtis McBride (BASc ’04, MASc ’07) is one of them.
The Waterloo Engineering alum hit upon his startup idea when he was a student on a co-op work placement at a transportation consultancy. The job involved manually counting vehicles, which McBride saw as outdated and inefficient, hindering the urban planning process.
“What struck me was how critical decisions about city infrastructure were based on incomplete or inaccurate data,” McBride recalls. “I saw an opportunity to do better by applying modern technology to traffic management.”
In 2005, McBride launched his first company — Miovision. Based in Kitchener, it helps cities and towns understand their traffic systems in real-time, using data-driven insights to reduce congestion, improve road safety, make transit more reliable, improve emergency response and bring useful data to the dashboard. All of this helps communities make their road networks work better for everyone. Today, the company employs 400 people, including Waterloo co-op students, and its technology is used in 63 countries.
Revitalizing Canada’s entrepreneurial edge
There are many reasons for Miovision’s success, including, as McBride puts it, being in the right place at the right time.
“Canada celebrated risk-taking and job creation 20 years ago,” he says. “It was like a golden age for entrepreneurship, and the Waterloo region was leading the charge, attracting industry and academic leaders from all over the country and the world.”
However, McBride is concerned that the public policy consensus that benefited him — the agreement that supporting entrepreneurship is key to building a dynamic economy capable of sustaining a strong social safety net — has eroded over time.
“There’s more risk aversion today, fueled by public narratives that pit wealth creation against social ideals,” he says. “This mindset threatens our ability to foster the next generation of innovators and keep them here.”
Despite this, McBride is optimistic about the Waterloo region’s continued potential to model the positive relationship between entrepreneurship, economic growth and community development. Velocity, the University of Waterloo’s startup incubator, the University’s Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Technology, and the Accelerator Centre, all contribute to the local ethos, helping entrepreneurs commercialize their ideas and build businesses.
Nonetheless, McBride emphasizes the need for greater collaboration among local businesses, academic institutions and government to create an environment where bold ideas can flourish.
“Many established businesses have benefitted from a supportive ecosystem that is under threat,” he says. “It’s up to us to speak up and collectively challenge the powers that be to think and do better, make sure the future is powered by risk-takers and game-changers, otherwise we will fall behind.”
Thinking global, acting local
While leading Miovision’s mission to create smarter, more sustainable cities around the world, McBride remains deeply engaged in fostering innovation in the Waterloo region.
He co-founded the Kitchener-based hub Catalyst137 in 2016 to give local businesses the space and support they need to grow, encouraging community development, driving collaboration and regional job creation.
His latest venture, Shift Reality, is winning points with his children for its ambitious goal of blending virtual reality with real-world driving experiences. He’s also part of a group of local entrepreneurs that has revitalized and reopened Kitchener’s Victoria Park Boathouse as a restaurant and live music venue. For McBride, these endeavours are part of a broader mission to give back to the community that fueled his entrepreneurial success.
“When people have the space to connect, collaborate and innovate — whether through work or play — they build a thriving community that attracts more talent and investment,” McBride says. “I want to see my city, region and country thrive, and I will do what I can to back the innovators and risk-takers who are making it happen.”
Feature image: Kurtis McBride. Photo credit: Miovision
