We’re not in Kansas anymore…

Life changes frequently in your last year of University but my biggest change was deciding to start a company. In January 2009 I was debating working abroad after graduating or starting EasyPlug. As we progressed through the rounds at Enterprize Canada I told my girlfriend that if EasyPlug placed in the top 5 I was probably going to give it a shot if my team members were also interested once the school year finished. Days later we placed 2^nd and were on stage accepting a 10 thousand dollar cheque. We continued to work hard, place well in competitions and made sure our name were mentioned as much as possible in UBC magazines and faculty newsletters. Coming to the end of the school year we were on cloud nine with 16 thousand tucked away in a bank account and 3 Company Awards. The great aspect about starting a company after graduating is that you are new on the scene and people are often very receptive and willing to help. For example, I have met many people in the local technology industry through EasyPlug. Whether the product succeeds or fails in the long run I will still have my established networks. EasyPlug scheduled our first company meeting for the day after exams ended, quickly making the transition from students to managers. We discussed our summer goals and set a timeline which in retrospect was very ambitious. Early the next week we were scheduled to present at a luncheon at the 4 Seasons to showcases 7 of UBC’s new start ups, with audience members including the head of an Angel Forum and multiple seasoned entrepreneurs it was a great experience.

Shortly after the presentation we met with 3 law firms to pick our legal representation. We quickly realized things had changed, legal estimates climbed and we went from one of UBC’s stars to the new kids on the block. Everything was new, incorporation documents, entrepreneurial organizations (VEF, VEF Momentum, etc) and prototype manufacturing quotes.

During May we prepared for our last student competition which was in Hong Kong and a week before departing received news that the competition had been postponed due to Swine flu. Three of the team members were busy graduating, another was moving apartments and several were working part-time. Starting a company with limited funds, and limited relevant experience was definitely going to be an uphill battle. That month I met with several people for coffee as it’s important to build a network and get your company’s name out right from the beginning. (I plan on doing a future post on the importance of 15-20 minute coffee meetings.) Meanwhile during the post student transition my girlfriend accepted a 6 month internship in Cambodia and was busy preparing for her departure only two weeks away.

It took EasyPlug until about the middle of June to really begin to pick up the pace. During the initial months simple tasks including the incorporation, a corporate bank account, assigning performance metrics and company internal communications were all areas that took time to establish norms. Meanwhile we realized that our team had graduated in the worst recession in 20 years, and most funding was drying up for long term development projects. Although this was not a significant factor since we had planned to bootstrap the business and push off raising capital for several months. Gradually things began to roll and months later our business is progressing at a steady pace.

You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours: A guide to business plan competitions

A year ago while starting EasyPlug at UBC we had access to a great network. From professors and recent alumni to local community leaders which provided an edge. We knew that it was in our best interest to work together with the University for as long as possible, but it was also in the universities best interest to help new talent. For every successful company launched brings credibility to the New Venture Design program, and other programs run by various faculties. This credibility allows for steady funding and eases recruitment of the best students, along with recognition in the local business community.

We found the best way of leveraging this relationship was business plan competitions. Every new start up should enter a competition or two in my opinion; they exist in both the academic and business communities. Why? Because they have free money and free publicity! When starting a business you often have limited resources and some costs are inevitable (legal, materials, etc) so developing a small cushion is a big advantage and can delay the issuance of expensive equity. Business Plan competitions also provide an area for your ideas to be critiqued, and steadily improved with each passing round. Each time you present in front of a new panel you become more relaxed and judges ask different questions. Often you have improved your presentation between rounds but you quickly realize that entrepreneurship is a perpetual learning curve. You constantly need to expand on your most recent work.

So where does the relationship with the University enter the picture? Well there are two main areas funding and expertise. Most student business plan competitions require travel to nearby cities which can eliminate the possibility without funding for many students. (This is also a great opportunity to travel and see the nightlife once the competition wraps up. The story of how we ended up at a Raptors game and then saw the starting lineup at the club that night is a worthy of its own blog post!) Industry competitions tend to be local and a small fee is all that is required to supplement your submission, furthermore they provide a great way for students to meet people in the business community. Universities also help with expertise, when you’re entering a competition is takes a significant amount of work to be competitive. An excellent way to advance your submission is by discussing your application with Faculty members that specialize in your specific area.

So how does the University Benefit? Although the upside for student teams is significant; Universities often enjoy the publicity and student development is part of their mandate. At all competitions we were and still are happy to affiliate with UBC and discuss ongoing programs being run at the university. The key to developing a successful team/university relationship is winning, which is easier said than done. Once you win your first competition you are more likely to receive funding for a second, and then once you win again you are more likely to be written up in the university’s publication which helps both parties.

Competitions become easier with time, 80% of the work is creating the initial business plan. It will be a slow process if it’s your first and will require extensive research. Then with each round you improve the plan, this makes it easier to enter later competitions. Occasionally a total ‘overhaul’ is required as the plan begins to lose it’s consistency after multiple revisions, the worst thing you could do is say my business plan is complete. Plans are as dynamic as the businesses themselves and therefore must always be adapting to new challenges.

Pick your competitions. We conducted extensive research about competitions all across North America looking for the biggest cash prizes but unfortunately most of these competitions focus on the graduate level programs. Although we did find enough competitions that we were kept busy applying and competing for over 6 months. To apply for the graduate level competitions we found a friend that allowed us to use his name on the application, a trick that is worth a shot but probably won’t lead to acceptance. My advice is select three or four, and focus the remainder of your time on business development. We entered the rhythm of perpetually modifying the application and sending it off to a new competition. There also comes a point when you need to stop competing and start doing which is the stage EasyPlug is at right now. (At this point shift you attention to grants, another form of free money and leverage you business plan which has by now been improved significantly.)

And the best thing about competitions is free money! It’s not a loan, you don’t lose equity it’s just free. So compete while you have time and maybe you’ll have a chance to buy some lab equipment and pay your lawyers to get you started. Below are links to a couple competitions in the British Columbia area. If you’re planning on applying and need some advice here feel free to e-mail me. Also feel free to comment with other great competitions and I will add them to the links.

Industry Links:

New Ventures BC

TiE Quest

Small Business BC

Student Links:

Enterprize Canada

PolyU Hong Kong Competition

VSEA Bright Ideas Competition

Concepts in the Classroom

It all started just over a year ago with an application to a course which I thought I’d never be accepted. UBC runs a program called New Venture Design which combines commerce students with engineering students in their final year with the hope of forming a company. With only 12 students accepted annually from the business faculty out of 500 I didn’t think my chances were that great. In order to paint the picture I will tell you my mantra towards school. I never really cared about my grades and was told upon moving into residence on my first day of University ‘D’s get degrees’. (Unfortunately this motto came into effect a few times while at UBC) I was far more interested in reading about Somalian pirates in the Economist or the Top 50 hikes in Canada than reading about transportation and logistics. Keeping busy outside the classroom while achieving mostly high 60s low 70s was much more interesting and kept me interested while in the classroom (which was most of the time, since I decided attending class was like studying). Now this doesn’t mean I slacked throughout University it just meant that school often came in on the list after social activities and sports. So it was to my surprise that I received an interview for one of Sauder’s unique programs. In the interview I stated that I wanted start a company and I felt it would be a great learning experience, but I made it very apparent that I wanted to win awards for UBC throughout the academic year as the course had a travel budget. Somehow I managed to crack the starting line up and I was excited to take on a course which involved active learning rather than academic theories.

On the first day of class I enthusiastically met with the 23 other students and the professors had arranged a fully catered BBQ. One hour later after everyone was well feed and brief 3 sentence intros were complete the professors left the room. At this point the students talked about whatever they thought was cool; I realized I was really going to like this course. Recently I had taken an interest in third world business practices and sustainable business which managed to find there way into the discussions. A week later after another mingle session our team was formed.

Then came the idea part, the downside to product development classes is that students are not informed regarding real world problems.

Example: After working for years a mechanic might look at his screwdriver and say ‘hey what if I did this’. Suddenly he has created a new product that fits a market niche and he knows other mechanics who will buy his product.

Whereas we (students) were trying to come up with a technology that filled a need, for all aspiring entrepreneurs find your need first. It will make you life much easier down the road. You will also become far more observant as you test the entrepreneurial waters.

So how did we come up with our product? Brainstorming session after brainstorming session, several were either preceded or followed by a round of beers at the Gallery to improve our creative juices. (Unfortunately one of the finer ideas “The Tingler” didn’t make the cut, feel free to guess its use) Initially everyone was assigned to show up at our group meeting with 10 cool ideas, and then we put them all up on a whiteboard to find the most interesting ones. Unfortunately this little thing called a patent seemed to get in the way of many of our ideas so we kept trying.

One day we decided to put up bubbles for every industry and try to find either hybridizations of different product or areas where each industry needed work. This developed many unique ideas but we still hadn’t come up with our perfect product. As noble university students we tried to think along the lines of Green Tech, sustainable products and Bio Fuels as these technologies would have a great social impact not to mention governments are literally throwing money into these industries. In the end a random ‘don’t you hate it when’ comment sealed the deal.

So we now had a product, an adaptor which prevents tripping over electrical cords saving both the individual and the appliance from damage. Weeks later we developed our name EasyPlug; which we are still using 9 months later.