2026 Dare to Dream winners announced
Posted on May 29, 2026
Kingston, Ont. – Entrepreneurship drives the business landscape forward by turning ideas into viable ventures. Four early-stage companies will now benefit from financial support and expert guidance to help accelerate their growth as recipients of 2026 Dare to Dream Awards.
Delivered by the business school’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Social Impact (CEISI), the Dare to Dream Program provides up to $15,000 to selected students and recent alumni, along with hands-on support to help grow their ventures.
This year’s recipients come from three of Smith’s professional graduate programs: the Master of Management Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Master of Management Artificial Intelligence and Full-time MBA.
They are:
- Food Web
Food Web is a community-driven platform that enables space, equipment and resource sharing for food businesses, helping kitchen owners monetize their commercial spaces while opening doors for local food entrepreneurs to start and scale their businesses.
Founder: Justin Andrews, MMIE’25
Donors: Dany Battat, BCom’78, and the late Gia Steffensen, BCom’78
Amount: $15,000 - CYAIBER
CYAIBER began as a cybersecurity and blockchain education initiative focused on hands-on learning, offensive security research and real-world exploitation, and has since evolved into building AI-native security and intelligence platforms for modern systems where large language models, decentralized finance and cloud-scale data converge.
Founder: Syed Turab, MMAI’26
Donor: CIBC
Amount: $15,000 - Cloak Biotech
Cloak Biotech, a DARPA-originated spin-out from a $10M program, is developing next-generation microbial biotechnology to advance global health and biosecurity innovation.
Founder: Esther Vlessing, MBA'26
Donor: RLS Foundation
Amount: $15,000 - Acorn Mind
Acorn Mind transforms teaching by equipping educators with intelligent AI agents for automated grading, exam generation, instructional support and personalized student assistance.
Founders: Mo Saniei and Masoud Farsi, both MBA’26
Donor: Sinkinson Family
Amount: $15,000
"Winning the Dare to Dream award has been a remarkable refueling event for me and my business. Building a company is incredible lonely, and very challenging. Some days it feels impossible. But having people behind you that truly believe in you is the best medicine in the world,” said Justin Andrews, MMIE’25, founder of Food Web. “Rather than wondering ‘is this going to work,’ receiving this award has me telling myself, ‘people other than me believe in this, so keep going.’ These funds will be helpful for us to expand our team and really get Food Web off the ground!”
Beyond funding, recipients gain access to workspace, mentorship and coaching through CEISI, along with connections across the broader Queen’s University network.
“As a past Dare to Dream recipient, I know firsthand how transformative opportunities like this can be for young entrepreneurs,” said Katie Callery, MMIE’17, who was joined on the judging panel by fellow alumni Mark Balovnev, BCom’19, and investor Christian Hansson, BCom'04. “It’s incredibly inspiring to see the passion, creativity and ambition of this year’s finalists — congratulations to all of them for pursuing such exciting ideas.”
About Dare to Dream
The Dare to Dream program is designed to encourage and enable entrepreneurs to launch their new ventures. The program is specifically focused on providing critical resources to help Smith graduates turn their new venture business plans into reality. Each award provides up to a total of $15,000 in donor-supported funding over a three-month period, giving recipients the funding to pursue their ventures full time and realize their entrepreneurial dreams.