Posted on Jan. 30: Business brainchild incubates at McMaster
[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Incubator_Awards_opt.jpg” caption=”Incubator Award winners”]Many pipe dreams are born over pints of beer, but McMaster business students Daniel Priljeva and Constantinos Coursaris were convinced their brainchild to create a revolutionary inventory tracking system for companies, was much more than empty bar talk.
A $1,000 start-up award from the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business' CampusIncubator Business Plan Challenge, is their proof.
“It's the classic story starting with friends hanging out at a bar,” quips project team leader Priljeva, “and someone mentioned an idea he had for selling tracking hardware and software components of companies. Winning the start-up award was confirmation that it's not only a pipe dream.”
Called Mission84 Networks, the seed company is developing an advanced version of an inventory tracking network (ITN). With the ITN, firms can track any item and its movement, inventory count and location with a newly enabled technology all in a true real-time setting. “But the most exciting features of this product are its exceptional capacity and seamless integration, and signs are pointing toward the ITN as being the first of like technologies that will be viable for retail settings,” says Priljeva. “Imagine knowing with 100 per cent accuracy, the true inventory balance and location of every item in a warehouse and being able to plan production and sales based on this knowledge. The efficiencies at hand create real economic gains and provide visibility across the supply chain.”
The McMaster business graduate, now a financial analyst at CIBC, is thrilled to be chosen the winner of the first stage of the competition. He entered the challenge with Constantinos Coursaris, a PhD student in the School of Business, and McMaster graduates Sasa Bosnjak, Dragoslav Culum, Mike Dinsdale and Dana Culum. “This award comes very timely in the development of our company,” Priljeva says. “As in the case of all start-ups, cash flow is key. The $1,000 prize is highly valued and will go directly to the further development of our product.”
When the team became aware of the challenge through their McMaster peers, they were determined it would be a good match for their corporate development needs.
“The contest has been a great motivator and benchmarking tool,” says Priljeva. “In the short term, our goals include the refinement of our prototype for proof of concept and the completion of our business plan. The CampusIncubator plays a key role in the execution of these goals. In the long term, Mission84 hopes to build a corporate entity that creates value for our customers and shareholders, establishes the industry standard technology for item tracking applications and to grow a business that we can proudly say originated from the roots of McMaster University entrepreneurial community.”
Through a series of free workshops, participants in the challenge learn first-hand from legal, accounting, marketing, patenting, financing and management experts the “dos and don'ts” of business planning. In the end, up to $50,000 in cash and start-up services will be awarded to the most outstanding teams of entrepreneurs whose business plans for new ventures show significant business potential.
The next stage of the challenge is the submission of full business plans by today, Jan. 30. Priljeva says his team will enter the Mission84 concept into the next round. “The CampusIncubator Business Plan Challenge is such a great opportunity that it would be crazy for us not to enter,” he says. “While the award is helpful in kick-starting the company, it's the skills and experience we gain that is most valuable.”
Photo caption: Daniel Priljeva, left, and Constantinos Coursaris visit the CampusIncubator Web site in a student lab in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business. Photo credit: Chantall Van Raay
