Paying it forward

The Smith annual program that supports new graduates in their entrepreneurial pursuits has added a new donor.

David Sinkinson, MBA’13, Artsci’11, and his brother Chris Sinkinson, MBA’11, Artsci’02, are sponsoring a $15,000 Dare to Dream award.

Run by Smith’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Social Impact, the corporate and alumni-funded Dare to Dream program provides capital and resources to help Smith graduates transform their ideas into successful ventures.

The Sinkinson brothers were the recipients of a Dare to Dream award in 2013 that was funded by Dany Battat, BCom’78, and the late Gia Steffensen, BCom’78. The $15,000 they received provided an early boost for their business, AppArmor. The custom mobile safety app developer was bought in 2022 by a U.S. competitor that in turn was bought by Motorola.

“I didn’t imagine that in 10 years we were going to have the success that we had,” says Chris, adding that while seemingly a small amount of money in the grand scheme of things, the Dare to Dream award he and his brother received was significant to the company’s upward trajectory. “In reflecting on what our priorities are going to be now, there is some element of paying it forward and giving others the opportunity that we had.”

The first to receive that opportunity is Kartik Balasundaram, MMIE’23, for his dental app SnapSmile, which helps people manage their dental health and lets dental clinics stay engaged with their patients.

“This grant is going to help us get going at lightspeed,” Balasundaram says. “We can use this funding to make a short-term hire to build out the newest version of our product to scale to thousands of dental clinics.”