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With their revolutionary earplugs, Kristina Pearkes (BEng’17) and Sean Kaiser (BEng’17) aim to end insomnia without medication. The duo is the brains behind Orbityl, the company that just received Next Canada’s Outstanding Next 36 Venture Award. The Next 36 is a young-entrepreneur accelerator run by Next Canada, which offers seed capital as well as mentorship opportunities.

Ms. Pearkes and Mr. Kaiser are not exactly new to the accelerator scene: The pair received an honourable mention in the 2016 ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ Dobson Cup’s SME track for their social food sharing platform, Appetite. They then took Appetite to the ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ X-1 Accelerator and on to the Next 36, where they pivoted to launch Orbityl.