1Mentor is at the forefront of leveraging AI to improve student and higher education institution outcomes through Waterloo-based The necessity for Mentor’s platform and the data it offers higher education institutions is shown by the company’s recent acquisition by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the largest global higher education network in the world.

Employers’ demands are gleaned from job ads by 1Mentor’s artificial intelligence (AI) enabled technology, which also identifies the skills necessary for success. Additionally, it gives universities the knowledge they need to modify their curricula in order to close the skills gap.

Esteban Veintimilla (MBET ’22, BMath ’18) saw a very real problem while attending the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, which inspired him to create 1Mentor, a ground-breaking tool that will revolutionize how higher education adjusts to a world that is changing quickly.

Veintimilla assisted students in obtaining their first job experience through the Bridging Entrepreneurs to Students (BETS) program while she was employed at the Conrad School. But he soon discovered that it was extremely difficult to give pupils the tools they needed to succeed in the modern workplace.

I came to see that it’s not simply a “me” issue. This is a widespread, systemic issue that I personally encountered. As my position involved both employers and students, I was able to observe both sides of the issue.

Veintimilla is not surprised, then, that 44% of workers’ abilities will be disrupted in the next five years, according to a recent World Economic Forum assessment in its Future of Jobs assessment 2023.

During his undergraduate dual degree program in math and business, Veintimilla took an elective course offered by the Conrad School, which sparked his love for entrepreneurship.

I was able to use what I was learning in the actual world right away. I was captivated by this hands-on element and spent the rest of my undergraduate career enrolling in as many optional classes on entrepreneurship as I could.

Veintimilla was a part-time graduate student in the Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) program when he founded Mentor. “Everything I was learning had actual, palpable consequences, and I could actually see results right away.”

Soon after, he was urged to apply by a Velocity business adviser who acknowledged the validity of the problem 1Mentor was determined to solve.

At that point, he put what he had learned into practice and honed a crucial founding skill: drawing useful conclusions from customer research.