From winning the first-place 1-million-dollar prize at a Health Canada competition to building a drug testing device to help combat the opioid epidemic. On this episode of Spindle, Ari Forman, co-founder of Scatr, talks about the company’s founding story. He speaks about prototyping and iterating on ideas as an undergraduate student, the challenges he has faced so far, and how he’s liking the molecular genetics graduate program at UofT.

Producer: Jay

Timestamps:

(2:40); Founding story

(8:48); The ideation process

(10:47); Credibility as an undergraduate student

(13:09); Prototyping

(15:12); Failures and challenges along the way

(17:56); Validating ideas

(20:53); Balancing Scatr with school

(22:06); Finding a co-founder

(25:20); The business-side and fine details

(27:26); Takeaways

(30:38); “Perks” :)

(33:53); Molecular genetics at UofT and the rotation system

(37:11); Advice for students in science

(38:21); Reconciling faith and science