Waterloo produces billion-dollar builders… but not enough founders.
The community made Waterloo great. Now it’s creating the founders who will define the next decade.
This is the uncomfortable truth:
Waterloo produces the people behind billion-dollar companies in greater numbers than it produces billion-dollar founders.
Our fingerprints are everywhere: Instacart, Faire, Supabase, OpenAI, Stripe, Meta, Super.com, Nvidia.
Waterloo people show up as:
the earliest engineers
the architects
the operators
the “whatever it takes” internal founders
the technical backbone of modern tech
We supply the engine. But not enough of the drivers.
That’s the gap.
And it’s not a talent gap, it’s a pipeline gap.
Institutions often got the credit (and they earned it), but it was also the community that shaped the builders. Still, without a clear path to become founders, most of Waterloo’s top talent ended up as exceptional operators rather than the ones starting the companies.
That is the part we intend to change.
The next wave of builders is forming outside institutions.
Something unusual is happening in Waterloo right now, a kind of OG Silicon Valley energy many people forgot existed.
It’s happening in houses like Akatos, in groups like Socratica, in late-night deep dives, in Discord channels, in the Builders Club community, in self-directed learning paths, and in the sudden ambition of 18-to-25-year-olds who are skipping the job queue entirely.
This new generation looks at the world and thinks:
“I don’t want the job. I want to fix the problem.”
“I don’t want the credential. I want the capability.”
“I don’t want permission. I want to build.”
This moment didn’t come from the university.
It came from the community rediscovering its identity as a builder ecosystem.
And for the first time, the magic is much more accessible to anyone.
The University of Waterloo is not the gate. The community is.
Here is the shift:
For the first 50 years, you pretty much had to pass through UW to fully experience the Waterloo builder effect.
The collisions, the ambition, the intensity, the deep technical confidence, these were once bundled together inside the institution. The university wasn’t a moat; it was porous. Students moved freely between campus and community, and the community flowed back in. It’s hard to describe today because a version of that openness still exists, but the texture has changed. The old rituals that acknowledged Waterloo as part of the region have faded. Students no longer host the Canada Day celebration for the entire community. Doors that were once open are now keycarded or monitored. And many staff no longer live in the neighbourhoods surrounding campus.
But the shift isn’t a loss, it’s a signal. We no longer need the institution to create the collisions that once defined the Waterloo experience. The community can now build those environments itself, and we can engage the entire campus ecosystem - UW, Laurier, Conestoga, and even students from Western, UofT, McMaster, and Guelph - right here in Waterloo.
Akatos.house brings builder density and ambition formation outside the school.
Socratica creates founder identity without administrative blessing.
Builders Club gives you the “post-UW” ecosystem with mentors, collaborators, operators, investors, peers.
AI tools let anyone ship meaningful work without expensive labs.
Remote and diaspora connections pull global opportunities back into local builders.
For the first time in its history, Waterloo’s builder magic is fully accessible to people who never attended UW at all.
This is the most important change happening here.
The community is building what comes next.
The Barn, Builders Club, Socratica, Akatos… these aren’t programs.
They’re not new institutions.
They are infrastructure built in the community’s image:
decentralized
ambitious
identity-preserving
bottom-up rather than top-down
built around people, not policy
These pieces are modular. They interlock without losing their individuality. They evolve together.
And they produce something UW was never designed to produce at scale:
Founders.
Waterloo has always been the place that made billion-dollar companies possible.
Now it’s becoming the place that makes billion-dollar founders possible. That is the shift.
That is the opportunity.
That is the story we need to tell.
The next chapter belongs to the builders.
Waterloo can no longer defined by its institutions. They are still important but expecting them to lead is unfair.
It must be defined by its people. Its builders, its communities, its diasporas, its relentless desire to take things apart and build them back better.
The University of Waterloo was born from that spirit. It maintains a version of it.
But the spirit itself is older, stronger, and more widely distributed than any single institution.
And now, for the first time, you don’t need the university to access it. UW is still very important but… The community is the engine. The builders are the fuel. And the magic is open to everyone ready to step into it.
Come see us at Builders Club!
Note: I am going to be in SF this week talking to folks about this on Wednesday (Dec 10th) evening. If you are interested/available. Let me know! Would love to see you.