(L-R) Lewis Sobotkiewicz, Rian Bowden and Hongge Ren received $15,000 for their business venture, mPulse
By Brodie Albright
There looms on the horizon a new future for the delivery of online media, and for one local small business, that horizon has already offered up a reward.
mPulse was one of three UVic winners in the recent student entrepreneur competition hosted by UVic’s technology transfer office, the Innovation and Development Corporation (IDC). IDC handed out more than $30,000 in cash prizes last month to winners of the third annual IDC Challenge: Vancouver Island Student Business Plan Competition.
mPulse is an online media company started by a group of UVic students from the business and engineering faculties. Lewis Sobotkiewicz (computer science), Rian Bowden and Hongge Ren (commerce) teamed up to compete in the yearly challenge, which invites students from UVic and other island schools to pitch their entrepreneurial ideas and innovative business plans to a panel of local industry experts.
mPulse took in a total of $15,000 in seed money and services as the Gold Winner in the New Venture Category. mPulse’s business idea is focused on the way in which news and entertainment media are delivered to and selected by consumers. The company’s website states that their mission is “to change the way people consume new media, [and make] it easier and more manageable for people to work rich media content on the Internet into their daily lives.”
Since incorporating on September 17 of this year, the founding trio has been seeking out investors and partners, and is registered for an “angel forum”—a gathering of venture capitalists seeking business opportunities in their early stages of development—in Vancouver this November. The company is also working with marketing classes at UVic to gain further help with their business launch plan.
Because of the current buzz about their product, which is still under development, the boys of mPulse are reticent to disclose too many details of their business before they secure the investment that will launch their service.
The two other winning UVic student proposals this year were Greendex (commerce student Sean Young) and Chewzzles (commerce students Emily Spence and Michael Hofmaier). Greendex is an online listing of environmentally friendly products. Chewzzles is a fun game for young children to motivate them to make healthy food choices.
Visit the IDC website at www.idcchallenge.com for more information about the competition and this year’s winners.
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