Student presenters at the Innovation Sprint for Blyyss.
On September 19, 20 students from four Canadian universities came together at the Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre at Saint Mary’s University for an Innovation Sprint with Blyyss, a Nova Scotia-built grocery platform that helps people find affordable food and shop with local, independent grocers.
Over the course of the afternoon, six teams of three to four students were challenged to develop a strategy to attract and retain grocers for Blyyss’s Flyer feature, which helps users discover deals and promotions from local grocery stores.
The four-hour sprint gave students a chance to work together, share ideas and turn their thinking into a short pitch. Students from Saint Mary’s University, Dalhousie University, Memorial University and Athabasca University took part, with students bringing different backgrounds and perspectives to their teams.
Teams present a one-minute pitch. Selected teams moved on to a second round, where they had three minutes to present.
The challenge was especially meaningful for the founder Conrad Scotchburn BComm’26, a Saint Mary’s alumnus who is currently completing his degree, Master of Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MTEI) at the university. Conrad is a 2026 Frank H. Sobey Award recipient. He also founded the Saint Mary’s University Artificial Intelligence Society and played on the SMU Men’s Basketball team.
“I brought a real problem to the Innovation Sprint, one we hadn't solved ourselves and left with ideas I'm using and testing. The students asked questions I hadn't thought to ask and the energy in that room was vibrant and useful to me as a founder. I'd do it again without hesitation!” — Conrad Scotchburn, Founder and CEO of Blyyss
Teams had an hour and a half to develop their ideas before presenting a one-minute pitch. From there, selected teams moved on to a second round, where they had three minutes to present their strategy followed by a question-and-answer period.
The winning team was made up of Connor Stewart and Patricia Tagliapetra from Dalhousie University and Jameka Woodside from Saint Mary’s University. Cooper Roberts, Nathan Crowell and Reva Bharadwaj from Saint Mary’s placed second, while Erik Batista from Memorial University, Nafey Narmeen and Zonaira Abro from Saint Mary’s and Suman Singh from Athabasca University placed third.
“The experience has been nothing short of exceptional. It was a great intellectual exercise that allowed me to network with like-minded peers, build my confidence in collaborating with others and learn to incorporate, build on and tweak one another’s ideas to create a final piece. In the end, our collective efforts earned us first place.” — First Place Winner, Jameka Woodside, Commerce student at Saint Mary’s
The Innovation Sprint is part of the Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre’s efforts to give students opportunities to build their skills, meet other students from across the region and work directly with local businesses.
If you’re interested in being a part of a future Innovation Sprint, learn more here.