While some people consider starting a company in today's economy to be a futile venture, students who attended last night's Inventors and Entrepreneurs seminar found that there are fortunes to be made for the bold.
Students gathered in the School of Business Café to hear Dr. Matt Mashikian and Bruce Broussard of Imcorp explain the steps they took toward starting a successful company.
"It's an entrepreneurial success story but it comes from teamwork," said John Hanson, from the UConn Office of Technology Commercialization.
Also present was Dr. Michael Newborg, executive director of the UConn Center for Science and Technology. His extensive knowledge of the patent process was a focal point of conversation.
In 1983 Mashikian was negotiating funds with industrial organizations for research here at UConn when he noticed the tremendous system of underground cables that many of these companies had. He also recognized the need these companies had for reliable, specific, non-destructive techniques for diagnosing problems with these cables.
After researching and developing diagnostic techniques, Mashikian was able to patent his idea in 1989. In 1997 he hired one graduate student and started Imcorp.
Eventually Mashikian realized that he needed to team up with someone more business- savvy so that he could focus of on research and development. He hired Bruce Broussard to take care of the business end of the company.
"It was hard to let my baby go," said Mashikian. "It is important to do what you can do best and hire others for the rest."
After a brief question and answer session students enjoyed some free pizza and soda and were encouraged to mingle and discuss possible business ideas with each other.
"The goal is to get people talking," said Hanson.
C.J. Forse and Geoffrey Cullen, both 9th-semester mechanical engineering majors, were among students who had teamed up to start a company based on a simple idea. The idea was to make wheelchairs just a little more mobile in order to improve the quality of life for individuals in need of their assistance.
Unfortunately, after doing extensive market research the two decided that there was probably not much of a market for their idea, although Go Motion Mobility Solutions, their fledgling company, is working on some ideas that might work, Forse said.
"It breaks our hearts to see that this invention wouldn't fly, but we also know we dodged a bullet by doing the market research," Forse said pointing out that nine out of every 10 startup companies fail.
According to Cullen, the project has planted the seed for future business possibilities.
Other students like Justin Rattner, a first-year business grad student, were networking over pizza with the goal of bridging the gap between engineering and business.
"We made some headway," said Rattner.
As he said this, Rattner was approached by Felix Heckert, a 1st-semester business engineering grad student. Heckert, a member of The UConn Consulting Group, exchanged info with Rattner on the spot with the hope that the two groups could help each other in the future.
There were connections being made all over the room of what might be future business giants.
"I see a lot of value in bringing engineers and business majors together," said Jonathan Fishpaw, 1st-semester business graduate student. "I think the pizza might even have been more valuable than the speakers in this respect."
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