“Without the Coast Capital Innovation Centre, I wouldn’t be where I am,” asserts Danielle Lowe, Founder and Owner of Doodlebug Pet Food, cricket-based, hypoallergenic dog treats. The Coast Capital Innovation Centre is UVic’s start-up incubator, providing student entrepreneurs with resources and focused support to start their businesses. Less than eight months from launch, mixing and treat-making equipment was en route to streamline production and meet thriving demand. To date, she’s won eleven awards and grants and sold more than 950 units.
Dog treats were not Danielle’s original concept. Flexiburger, a cricket-based patty for human consumption, was Danielle’s focus in her third year at UVic. Insects are high in protein and highly sustainable once you get past the stigma of eating bugs. The entrepreneurial co-op allows a student to work on their own business idea for an entire semester and gives students like Danielle the opportunity to dive into their business ideas with rich support, while satisfying their academic requirements. She won the $300 PitchIt award for her compelling pitch before starting her specialization. This nurtured Danielle’s confidence and belief in her potential for success.
Danielle encountered more barriers than solutions digging into the logistics and regulations surrounding human food production. Then, her new beloved puppy “fur-niece”, Billie, struggled with food allergies. A serious dog lover, Danielle recognized the opportunity, and Doodlebug was born. During her entrepreneurship specialization at UVic, she won PitchIt again, for Doodlebug. “It was great for early-stage validation and super helpful in refining my concept and pitch,” she shares.
“The incubator programming is like a boot camp for business,” she describes, “we learn to pitch, create business plans, connect with successful entrepreneurs and share our challenges with a like-minded team of people.” It’s currently her third time participating in an entrepreneurship co-op. Danielle values the fresh ideas and extensive access to university equipment and resources, “Plus, the Innovation Centre team is always there to help.”
During her entrepreneurship specialization, Danielle also won $3000 with PlanIt, the Innovation Centre’s business plan competition. This allowed her to refine her business plan and implement learning from sessions with the Innovation Centre. Danielle used this funding to launch Doodlebug and prepare it for farmers’ markets. Since then, she has been selling out of her peanut butter and banana, and pumpkin and apple dog treats online and at the markets, though she is in discussion with a couple of retail locations.
Balancing a business with studies has been a learning experience in itself. “Generally, there is a “right” answer at school. That’s not the case in business,” she explains. Danielle has found a way to navigate both successfully. Her next accolade was First Place in the UVic Startup Competition, winning $20,000, held at the end of the entrepreneurship specialization of her business degree. The funds helped launch Doodlebug and connected her with the local business community.
One of the things Danielle had not considered was the physical toll making a product can have. She received an Entrepreneurship Co-op Subsidy for $5,000, which she set aside to use for equipment. Recently, she was the recipient of the prestigious Coast Capital Entrepreneur Co-op Award for $6,000, allowing her to order machinery; and grow her business and scale.
When asked what advice she might offer, especially for a young person encouraged to get a degree before pursuing a business, “don’t wait. If you are at UVic, in this program, the incubator is an incredible place to launch a business. There are so many opportunities and resources here.”
Danielle’s business and approach is attracting a lot of attention and acclaim. She made it to the semi-finals for The Forum Pitch and also won the Business Co-op Student of the Year Award for 2022. In March, she placed second out of 64 teams nationwide with St. Mary’s University’s March Madness Pitch Competition, modeled after the NCAA March Madness basketball competition.
As the sole Doodlebug investor, owner and founder, Danielle wears all the hats. A self-proclaimed perfectionist, she learned to let go a little to produce. “You can’t do everything perfectly, and certain decisions have to happen fast.” Autonomy is gold, but at times, she allows it would be nice to have someone handle the finance and marketing.
Danielle loves dogs. One of the many unexpected outcomes of Doodlebug is the connection she has with dog owners. At markets, people want to talk to her about their dogs. This positively fills her with joy. “One in five or eight will be people whose dogs have died. It’s therapeutic. We talk about their joy of owning a dog.”
Looking to the future and firmly grounded in her current enterprise, Danielle’s vision is to be a sustainable protein company. Business and studies are solid, and she just won the Top 10 to Watch with Douglas Magazine. Danielle credits the Innovation Centre for giving her the opportunity to connect, bounce ideas off other early entrepreneurs and learn from professionals. Sharing space with people going through the same thing was invaluable.
Written by Gillie Easdon
The Coast Capital Innovation Centre has been made possible through a partnership between the University of Victoria and the Coast Capital Federal Credit Union. Since 2016, Coast Capital has committed over $1.5 million to support entrepreneurs and innovators at UVic.
This novel solution works in conjunction with an app where the user can take a picture of the wound for an objective reading of colour changes associated with the extent of infection. This solution provides an opportunity for remote monitoring of wounds and reduces the need for patients to visit the clinic. Commercialization of this technology could provide AI-powered telemedicine and offer better patient outcomes through effective wound management.
company develops novel fibrin-based bioink that generate stable and reproducible 3D-structures. A key novel function of this innovation is the ability of the structures to remain in culture for over 30 days while maintaining a high level of cell viability and function. The technology supports a wide range of cell lines, such as induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), neural progenitor cells (NPCs), and the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The applications of the novel bioink are vast including drug modeling, screening, and development of cell therapies. Axolotl Biosciences has partnered with the Elvira Lab at UVic to investigate “3D bioprinting personalized brain tissue models”. An example of one of the many partnerships Axolotl Biosciences has developed since it was founded in 2020.
with different fabrication processes including spin coating, slot-die and blade-coating. SolariesTM Solar Cells use an emerging solar technology called perovskite. The perovskite solar cells are lightweight, flexible, high efficiency and transparent. These solar cells are top quality, and cost effective to provide greater accessibility to end-users. Not only are these solar cells more effective than their competitors, the carbon footprint to develop SolariesTM solar cells is significantly less when compared to traditional solar cells. Solaries is partnered with the Saidaminov lab and previously partnered with the Evins lab at UVic to further their research goals.
DNATM technology requires only a scoop of water from the target area. The test can be used on water, soil, and sediment samples. This non-invasive test is used to protect species at risk, particularly those that are more elusive, and their habitats. Through licensing and collaboration agreements this technology is helping our partners, such as Hemmera and Bureau Veritas, expand their testing toolkits and offer an opportunity to enhance Industry’s understanding of species at risk.
participating in the UVic summer pilot program was meeting with like-minded women as we developed our businesses. Axolotl’s biggest accomplishment so far was incorporating during the pandemic and bringing on five full-time employees for summer. We are excited that our novel bioink is now being beta tested by users in both academia and industry. We are looking forward to expanding our product portfolio and selling our bioink. In particular, we are excited about being able to bring on a full-time business manager and digital content developer this fall.”
courage and confidence in my business. The ability to meet and talk to other women founders and hear their challenges and accomplishments have been extremely helpful. The webinars were very informative, and I am looking forward to participating in more webinars. With the knowledge gained, I am going to expand my business with more confidence.”
program was great! In addition to providing incredible resources, especially in financial management, I connected with an amazing group of women! My biggest accomplishments were finalizing incorporation, preparing for the PlanIt competition and having my interview for W Venture all in the same week of my PhD defence! I am most looking forward to moving from our first prototype printer model towards our re-designed model. In six to nine months, we will have our second prototype ready. In 12 months, we will be producing 3D printed parts for our collaborators in academia. In five years, we will have at least two different models of our printer with one focused on tissue engineering and a second model focused on mechanical engineering.”
future customers will be able to make their decision about which barber they would like to choose. Zizzor might be your next option when you want to look presentation perfect.
That is the typical 96 well plate, high-throughput model. We are making our technology a lot more biometric but still are able to do it in high-throughput. This technology shows promise to be able to run 900 assays per hour.
industry-academic partnership is contacting an ILO with a new idea. They can connect you with relevant researchers to develop the innovation or highlight technologies ready for commercialization that offers a solution to common problems within your industry. Partnerships can begin early in the research phase, part way through development when a technology needs to be optimized, or when the technology is ready for licensing.