Sometimes the best innovation leaders aren't the ones who build the biggest companies; they're the ones who learned from failure and decided to help others succeed instead.
That's exactly the story of Nazli Bostandoust, Manager of Corporate Innovation at MaRS Discovery District, who joined us for the latest HeroX Speaker Series episode. Her journey from startup founder to ecosystem builder offers a powerful lesson: innovation doesn't happen in isolation, and the bridges we build between stakeholders matter just as much as the technology itself.
From Founder to Bridge Builder
Nazli's path to MaRS wasn't linear. After studying business management, she co-founded a wearable tech startup focused on competitive rowing, a venture that ultimately shut down during COVID due to a lack of resources. Rather than viewing this as a setback, Nazli saw it as "hands-on exposure to the realities of building a tech-based company."
That experience became her superpower. Today, she channels those hard-won lessons into helping other founders overcome the same barriers she once faced. It's a reminder that sometimes our greatest contributions come not from what we build, but from what we learn when things don't go as planned.
The Ecosystem Advantage
What makes MaRS unique are its programming and its position. Located in downtown Toronto, MaRS sits at the rare intersection of startups, corporations, government, universities, and research institutions. This is by design.
"I think the way we think about innovation at MaRS, it's thinking about the founders, of course, and what is that ecosystem that a startup needs to be thinking about? So it's not just about the technology itself, but also everything surrounds it."
As a non-profit, MaRS approaches innovation with mission focus, defining success by commercialization and alignment with what capital providers and government stakeholders actually need. This ensures that innovation efforts translate into real-world impact rather than just interesting ideas.
Bridging the Gap Where It Matters Most
One of Nazli's core responsibilities is connecting startups with corporate partners, and the results speak for themselves. Take the example of pairing a Canadian telecom company with an AI startup serving rural farming communities. The telecom provided crucial 5G and multi-edge computing infrastructure, giving the startup access to resources for real-world testing that they simply couldn't afford on their own.
This kind of partnership is "very critical" for early-stage companies, Nazli explains. It's about funding; it's also about access to the infrastructure, expertise, and testing environments that can make or break a product's development.
Real Impact: Two Powerful Case Studies
Conserving Energy with Quantum-Inspired AI
Multiverse Computing, a MaRS venture, has developed quantum-inspired technology that compresses AI models by up to 95% while preserving accuracy — cutting energy and compute costs and making it possible to run frontier-level AI fully on-premise, even in regulated sectors like defense and healthcare. MaRS supported the company's growth by connecting it to capital, partners, and government relationships. While HeroX runs challenges with the National Laboratory of the Rockies (formerly NREL), focused on producing clean energy, this represents the complementary approach: conservation. Both are essential paths to sustainability.
Global Partnerships for Accessibility
Deaf AI, another MaRS venture, uses AI avatars to translate real-time speech into sign language. Through the Mobility Unlimited Hub, a program advancing assistive tech in partnership with the Toyota Mobility Foundation, this Canadian startup gained global reach. It's a perfect parallel to HeroX's work on challenges like the NIH Community Champions for Disability Health, proving that mission-driven innovation transcends borders.
"That to me is a really great example of how a startup with a really meaningful idea can be supported and through global partnerships, and these Canadian startups can work together to solve meaningful challenges that we face in society."
The MaRS-HeroX Connection
The synergy between MaRS and HeroX runs deep. The organizations have already collaborated on the Opioid Data Challenge and the Healthy Behaviour Data Challenge, and the alignment is natural: both communities are filled with innovators and entrepreneurs who want to be part of something bigger than themselves; who want to make an impact.
Nazli's Advice: Get Involved, Stay Open
As our conversation wrapped, Nazli offered advice that every founder, researcher, and corporate innovator should take to heart:
"My biggest advice is really to get involved with the ecosystem early and have intentions around it. Innovation doesn't happen in isolation and it happens when founders, researchers and policymakers actively connect and support one another."
First, engage with your local innovation ecosystem, whether that's incubators, accelerators, or funding programs, but do it intentionally. Second, stay open to partnerships. Whether you're a founder looking for resources or a corporate seeking fresh perspectives, collaboration accelerates progress in ways that solo efforts simply can't match.
Watch the Full Conversation
Ready to dive deeper into mission-driven corporate innovation? Watch the full conversation with Nazli Bostandoust below, and explore our HeroX Challenges page to find a crowdsourcing opportunity that aligns with your organization's mission to solve meaningful, real-world challenges.
Because at the end of the day, the biggest innovations don't come from working alone—they come from building bridges together.
