SPARK From Home

SPARK From Home 2020

SPARK From Home 2020 is an online hackathon for middle school and high school students across the Greater Toronto Area. Scroll down below to see how our first virtual hackathon went!

LOCATION

Virtual

DATES

August 8 – August 10

TIME

12 PM – 11:59 PM

Watch Our Workshops and Opening & Closing Ceremonies

Speakers

Andrew D’Souza

Andrew D’Souza is the co-founder & CEO of Clearbanc, the biggest e-commerce investor in the world. Clearbanc has invested $1 billion into 2,200+ e-commerce and software companies using data science to identify high-growth funding opportunities in less than 24 hours. This data-driven approach takes the bias out of decision making and helps fund 8x more female founders than traditional VC. Andrew has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital and is an adviser and investor to companies such as WealthSimple, Properly, and Tulip Retail. Prior to Clearbanc, Andrew was the president of Nymi, a wearable platform focussed on identity and security and the COO of education startup, TopHat. Andrew began his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company after receiving his degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Wali Shah

As an alumni of RBC’s Top 25 Canadian Immigrants, Wali Shah is a poet and public speaker. He’s delivered TED talks, created poetry for corporate events, narrated voice-overs for commercials, and spoken at hundreds of schools and colleges across North America. Wali has toured Canada coast to coast as a WE Day performer, and closed out President Barack Obama's keynote speech with a bespoke poetic message in Toronto. He's impressed notable figures with his freestyle poetry and performances, including Seth Rogen, Chris Hadfield, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Kendrick Lamar. Wali has also served his hometown, as Poet Laureate for the City of Mississauga. His work inspires thousands to follow his voice, his journey, and his advocacy — Wali Shah is the people’s messenger.