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BUSINESS MONITORPART FOUR OF A FIVE-PART SERIES ON START-UPS THAT HAVE CHOSEN WATERLOO REGION AS THEIR LAUNCHING PADSTART-UP DRIVING TOWARD STOPPING DRUNK DRIVING, SAFELYCatherine Carol“The car will know if you’ve had too much.” Really? It sounds like the perfect antidoteto drunk driving, and Catherine Carol, COO of Sober Steering, believesthat to be precisely the case. She explains further: “Sober Steering is developinga trans-dermal sensor system that is embedded in the steering wheel vehicle toprevent drunk driving. It can detect the presence of alcohol in a driver’s systemthrough the gases that are exuded from the skin. So, it’s the natural interactionbetween a person’s hands and the steering wheel.The car will know if you’ve hadtoo much.”XQuarterly – www. xquarterly.ca• Economic conditions are right forCanada’s existing professionalsports clubs to prosper and for newCanadian-based franchises to succeedover the next 25 years, accordingto The Conference Board ofCanada.The Canadian professionalsports scene in 2035 could include:up to 3 more National HockeyLeague teams, raising the numberto 10; a revived Major League Baseballteam in Montreal; a secondchance for a National Basketball Associationfranchise in Vancouver; 3more Major League Soccer clubs inCanada, making 6 in all; and up to7 viable new markets for franchisesin the Canadian Football League.12 | w w w . e x c h a n g e m a g a z i n e . c o m• Housing market activity is projectedto soften in the near-term, but thegood news is any adjustment willnot be aggravated by negative demographicforces. In fact, at least forthe next decade, demographicforces will be strong enough to mitigatethe damage and probablyshorten the duration of the upcomingmarket adjustment says a newreport from CIBC World Market Inc.The number of Canadians betweenthe ages of 25 and 34, who makeup the vast majority of first-timebuyers, will continue to grow.• Confidence in the state of the worldeconomy is at its lowest ebb sincethe World Economic Forum startedPHOTO: JON ROHRNot only that, but the car will still allow you to run the car to have heat and electricity,to listen to the radio or even charge your cell phone. You just won’t be allowedto drive. Carol says, “If you’re above a certain legal limit, it’ll immobilize atransmission. So, you can still turn the car on, the engine will run, you’ll have heatand electricity and a radio... you just can’t move the car.”Sober Steering was founded by a Canadian based in Florida; the founder remainsthe chief investor in the company. Carol met him in Florida – her originalhome – and signed on with the project. “And I’ve been working with him in thecompany ever since.”However, Sober Steering is now based in Kitchener-Waterloo, drawn here by thestart-up services offered by the Accelerator Centre, and by the expertise in keyfields available at the University of Waterloo.Carol told Exchange, “Our technology involves very advanced answers. Therearen’t a lot of places worldwide that have people capable of working with thesesensors.The University of Waterloo is one of them. So, without a question, the universityis what drew us.... several different departments, from mathematics to engineeringto the chemistry department as well. And when we looked at thecommunity around the university and saw the environment for a startup here,particularly the Accelerator Centre, it was pretty much no-brainer.”Funding was also a factor. Says the Sober Steering COO, “We have both fundingfrom angel investors as well as from the Canadian government. So we havebeen very fortunate to work with the Canadian government in a number of differentprograms to help fund our development. And because of that, we wanted tobase our R&D out of Southern Ontario. So, we started looking in this region. ButI mean, honestly, if there wasn’t any expertise here, we couldn’t have done it herein the first place.”Sober Steering is still in start-up mode, with three employees – Carol, the ChiefTechnology Officer, and a project leader.Carol describes their status: “We are currently at the project stage,” and may beuntil early 2013.Carol is very impressed with the Accelerator Centre, and she brings internationalexperience with such enterprises to her assessment. She told Exchange, “It’s remarkableto me how well everyone works together and how much of an effortthey make at pulling you into the community and making you part of the community.I’ve worked in incubators prior to Accelerator Centre. And that side ofcommunity, in collaboration, was not part of the environment.”its Global Confidence Index fivequarters ago. The relative optimismof the previous quarter evaporatedagainst a backdrop of slowinggrowth in the US and China as wellas a lingering eurozone crisis, with72% of respondents reporting thatthey were not confident about thestate of the global economy over thenext 12 months, up from 37%.• At the beginning of 2011, there were3.14 million members of public sectorpension plans – an increase of26.6% since 2001 – while privatesector pension levels remained flat.Canadian Federation of IndependentBusiness research shows thatpublic sector plans are underfundedby more than $300 billion, despite$10,000 per year being put asidefor the average public servant in employerand employee premiums.XQuote• Almost half of today’s Canadian 50-59 year olds have less than$100,000 saved for retirement;many plan to use employment incomein retirement to make up forlost savings. A new CIBC poll ofCanadians in the heart of the babyboom (aged 50-59) shows thatwhile retirement is just around thecorner for many, they have come upshort on their savings goals and planto supplement their income by workingin retirement.• On average, Canadians in their 50splan to retire at age 63, but 53% saythey’ll work in retirement, with mostplanning to work part-time.• 61% say they have fallen short of thesavings they expected to have.• 45% say they have less than$100,000 put away to fund their retirement.“The escalating costs of government pension plans are seriously eroding theability to deliver fundamental public services.The implications are starting to befelt. For example, the City of Montreal’s pension plan now eats up 13 per cent ofits operating budget – even more than the amount devoted to public transit."– Dan Kelly, President Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses.