
Bringing values to ventures
MBA alum Matt Schaubroeck leverages entrepreneurship to transform how we do business
Signing non-disclosure agreements for a class project, drafting patent applications on an airplane tray table, waiting in the wings before stepping out on the TEDxWinnipeg stage, Matt Schaubroeck’s entrepreneurial journey so far features more than one dawning realization of, ‘I’ve never done anything quite like this before.’
Schaubroeck [MBA/17] was drawn to entrepreneurship during his time in the Asper MBA program, looking for a way to enact change. The unpredictable, always dynamic terrain of entrepreneurship has kept him solidly in this space as he moved from the launch and acquisition of his first venture, ioAirFlow, into his latest project.
Today, he is Principal and Founder of Leverage Point Consulting, where he works with start-ups and founders seeking to pursue business that has a positive impact on the world—fellow entrepreneurs with the drive not just to start a business but to do business differently. The role is a natural fit for Schaubroeck, a founder who thrives in the execution.
“I’m not necessarily the ideas person, but I can help turn other people’s ideas into reality because I can parse it through and ask the tough questions to figure out an execution plan,” he explains.
“I get to work with brilliant people—visionaries—who just might not know how to build a three-year financial projection, for instance. I also get the opportunity to ask them, what are we doing from an environmental or social lens? How are you considering your team and what company culture looks like for you? What values are you hoping to bring to this venture?”
While he emphasizes the brilliance of his clients and his current passion for enabling fellow entrepreneurs to succeed, Schaubroeck has logged some pretty impressive headlines himself.
Winnipeg Jets Whiteout Street Party media relations lead (for which he received the 2019 Canadian Public Relations Society Communicator of the Year award), a featured speaker at TEDxWinnipeg’s 2024 post-lockdown return, the youngest individual to run for provincial office in Manitoba, and the Co-Founder/CEO who launched and led ioAirFlow into a successful acquisition in 2022.
He describes the acquisition of the company as “a coda on a really exciting experience,” recounting how this software startup (focused on increasing energy efficiency in commercial buildings), all started in an MBA class.
Schaubroeck and classmates were instructed to come up with an idea and then take that idea to as many people as they could—high-level executives and decision-makers across sectors. Classmate Mandeep Saini [BSc/10, MBA/18] had an idea, a decentralized smart thermostat, that he and Schaubroeck started to shop around. Honouring the aforementioned NDAs, Schaubroeck can share one resounding piece of feedback they received: build it and come back to us.
Soon after, Schaubroeck and Saini were travelling to a conference in Hanover, Germany, with a prototype, which he refers to affectionately as a “just slightly more improved science project” at that stage. They pitched their prototype with the confidence befitting any successful entrepreneur (by necessity, as the device had blown a fuse in the hotel and was no longer functional).
“I think that’s one of the qualities of a good entrepreneur—that tenacity,” he quips.
But beyond learning more about different voltage requirements between North America and the EU, Schaubroeck felt again the pull of entrepreneurship in this pitch—what that tenacity can do and serve.
“You see something in the world that is not working the way it ought to be working, and you have the audacity to say, you know what, I’m going to fix this.”
And it’s the process of following that instinct, making the prototype, building something capable of making a change, that drives him today. The acquisition of ioAirFlow was big news, an impressive feather for an entrepreneur’s cap, but the years before that moment stand out to Schaubroeck.
“It was the journey to get there, to building something worth acquiring, that I think I’m most proud of,” he says.
The journey, the path of the entrepreneur, is not without its disappointments (blown fuses and the like), but it’s all part of having the audacity and tenacity to do something differently, to imagine business as regenerative, a way to leave things better than you found them.
“The path between that long-term vision and executing it is a long road filled with a lot of no’s and discouragement and late nights and all of those things,” says Schaubroeck.
“But if this is your path, and if you really are an entrepreneur, you’re going to love it all.”
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The Asper MBA program is designed to meet the market-driven needs of today’s industry professionals. With one of the most flexible and adaptable programs in Canada, the Asper MBA program is designed to help students build their leadership skills in any field. With functional and specializing concentrations in entrepreneurship and innovation, sustainability, and more, the Asper MBA program provides the opportunity for career transformation in any industry.
Interested in the tech? Check out Schaubroeck’s TEDxWinnipeg presentation on YouTube!