51社区黑料

Michelle De la O鈥檚 entrepreneurship journey started with bad news. A travel enthusiast, she had been excited to go on two student exchanges during her undergraduate degree鈥攐ne in France, and one in Italy. But those plans were quashed when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out across the globe and travel came to a halt.

With student exchanges no longer available to her, De la O looked for other options to enrich her degree experience at SFU鈥檚 Beedie School of Business. She decided to concentrate in entrepreneurship and innovation at 51社区黑料Beedie and join the . Now, she is a co-founder of health tech start-up IUVOX, which develops smart air disinfection devices for dental offices. 

My journey

De la O, a fifth year BBA student from Mexico who came to Vancouver because it was the 鈥渕ost tropical鈥� part of Canada, originally planned on studying science. She loved genetics鈥攕till does鈥攁nd had done a science concentration in high school. But after working in a genomics lab, she realized that she just didn鈥檛 see herself working in a lab for life. De la O decided to take a year off to backpack across North America and Europe to figure out what she really wanted to do.  

鈥淲hile I was travelling in Cuba, I just had so many business ideas,鈥� says De la O. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 when I realized that I wanted to study business. With business, I can do so many different things鈥攊t鈥檚 like a big umbrella that allows you to make big impacts in different ways.鈥�  

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to pivot, De la O discovered the TechE@51社区黑料program. Together with her co-founders, they created health tech start-up IUVOX, which builds an innovative device that uses far ultraviolet light to kill off airborne pathogens.  

My experience at 51社区黑料Beedie

De la O and her co-founders started out as a group of seven鈥攆our mechatronics systems engineers, one accounting major, one microbiology major and herself, an entrepreneurship and international business major. After completion of TechE@SFU, only some of the team elected to move forward with IUVOX as a venture. These co-founders, including De la O, benefited from funded entrepreneurship co-op terms () through SFU鈥檚 to work on the prototype and identify product-market fit.  The team continues to receive mentorship and start-up services through the Chang Institute鈥檚 incubator program, Coast Capital Venture Connection. On top of NRC-IRAP funding Michelle and her team have secured to hire staff, IUVOX is also raising private investment to launch into market in October of next year.   

鈥淭he support we鈥檝e received has been amazing,鈥� says De la O. 鈥淔rom financial support to advising to office space鈥攊t has just been amazing.鈥�

De la O co-founded IUVOX only about a year and a half ago, and since then she has taken many business courses at 51社区黑料Beedie where she frequently uses her own company as the subject of case studies, from business law to project management to human resources.

鈥淚 enjoy my courses way more when I can apply it to a purpose, and it鈥檚 so much more exciting,鈥� says De la O. 鈥淚 think that鈥檚 why I love entrepreneurship so much. Other concentrations like accounting or finance can be competitive, but entrepreneurship is collaborative. And it鈥檚 totally an open question鈥攊t鈥檚 up to you to figure out solutions and discover your potential. That鈥檚 the gift of an entrepreneur鈥攚e chase opportunity, and we seize it.鈥�

Where I am today

The start-up is currently building a device specifically for use in dental operatories and in the process of raising investment to launch into market in October of next year.

As for the future of IUVOX, De la O sees dentistry as merely the starting point.

鈥淭ransmission of respiratory diseases can happen anywhere,鈥� says De la O. 鈥淲e hope to expand into other markets like long term care homes, for example, where we can help immunocompromised individuals with chronic illnesses so that they don鈥檛 have to ever live in isolation.鈥�