Nehal, a fourth year Entrepreneurship major and Finance minor, has funded his venture himself up until this point and hopes to turnover a profit within the next six months.  Despite his full course load, his involvement as Vice President of Business Development with SIFE, and his internship at Skylight Global Investments, he finds his life has turned into a total juggling act.

For more information on iris+cora please visit www.facebook.com/irisandcora.

Fame&Rumour has had an exciting last few months. Not only have they narrowed in on their target market, but they have also been able to secure their suppliers, create a successful prototype and have successfully completed their first photo shoot for their premium polo collection.  In the coming months the company plans to complete their look book, schedule meetings with potential retailers and distributors, start main production for orders and successfully deliver all of the orders to clients. Funding for the company has come from Nunzio himself and the company has projected that they will turn over a profit within the next six months.

For more information please visit www.fameandrumour.com.

Scanly has already saved Ryerson students over $5000 and they plan to expand to three more universities by year end. Their current company headquarters is at Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone and they have utilized many Ryerson resources such as SIFE, Start Me Up, Business Plan Competitions, and many professors. To date, Scanly has not received any funding and they are profitable, which Vaisman feels is a great accomplishment. 

Although Vaisman is no longer a Ryerson student he intends on continuing his entrepreneurial journey past graduation. 

To learn more about Scanly please visit: www.scanly.ca.

Moving forward Coleman states that WebRockkr would like to “move more towards Internet marketing and offer more online tools to our clients.” Although WebRockkr has been profitable since day one and never needed any funding he says that the support received from Ryerson’s SIFE, Start Me Up, and Business Plan competition have been a huge help in planning for the future. As Entrepreneurship students “we feel that we’ve gained all the necessary skills and connections to ensure our company is successful,” says Coleman.

As for managing his time it is pretty obvious that Mark and his co-founders have got it covered, “In addition to WebRockkr we run another company: MakeTreks, are interning at a company, and are full-time students. Time Management is perhaps one of the most valuable skills you can acquire.

For more information on WebRockkr please visit www.webrockkr.com.

Having an extensive background in television production, she decided to combine the best of both regular programming and the Internet by allowing viewers to “watch, contribute, share and distribute video content”. Although, the company is still in the start-up phase, Screen Goddess has already been seen profits. Gorica thanks both the Digital Media Zone and Start Me Up at Ryerson for assisting with the launch of her company. Additionally, she has received funding from the government, which has also helped Screen Goddess embark on its path to success.

Although, Gorica sometimes finds it challenging to manage her time and often believes there are never enough hours in a day, she continues to remind herself to “remain calm and carry on”.

For more information on Screen Goddess please visit www.screengoddess.net.

“It has been a great pleasure working with StartMeUp Ryerson and I cannot wait to start my business” Noura Sakkija – Co-Founder of Majoura 

Best Ryerson startup of 2012, as chosen by the audience went to Brennan McEachran of Soapbox.

The annual $25,000 competition, open to all Ryerson students with some ownership in the company, is the largest event organized by StartMeUp Ryerson.

StartMeUp Ryerson is a student run organization that is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs start and expand their business by providing education, resources and funding.    

With a record number of submissions, six finalists were chosen based on their business plans.

• Soapbox: an online platform for community based change that allows each person to get their idea in the hands of key decision makers. SoapBox is designed for change and can be used anywhere that has an active community
  http://hitsend.ca/

• Peytec: an engineering innovation and consulting firm located in Toronto Ontario focused on four areas: Mechanical, Electrical and Biomedical, engineering and design, and Software engineering and design.
  http://www.peytec.com/

• My TaskRunner: aims to solve the problem of a lack of time by having somebody who is trusted and verified complete any time-consuming task
• Make Treks: Through video interviews with those who are living on the streets, MakeTreks is able to capture unique portraits into the lives of the homeless, while providing them with care packages in exchange to enhancing their quality of life.
  http://maketrekslikeimhomeless.com/

• Majoura: Through crowdsourcing, Majoura brings ideas from designers all over the world and provides consumers the chance to select and enhance winning designs that will be manufactured and sold.
• Bank My Coupons: consolidates electronic coupons onto a website where users are able to manage their account and later redeem their coupons.

The competition was presented in front of 4 judges:

• Randy Pilon – President & CEO BA, MBA, ICD. Virox Technologies Inc.
• Rick Spence – President, CanEntrepreneur Communications
• Shayan R. Mashatian – Founder & President, International Institute of Mobile Technologies

The fourth judge was the audience, which voted by paper ballot at the end of the competition.

The $25,000 along with the continued mentorship of the StartMeUp team will allow Noura Sakkijha to reach the highest standard of living for an entrepreneur, having her idea turn into a reality.

The 450 attendees along with the 32 plans submitted represent the growing spirit of entrepreneurship within Ryerson University and StartMeUp is at the heart of this change.

“Ryerson once again shows why it’s the best and brightest light in Canada when it comes to Entrepreneurship” - Sean Wise, Chair, Slaight BPC

Written By: Piotr Makuch | @pmakuch 

Beale and business partner Mara Sofferin developed Rock Your Cause™, a cause-conscious apparel line, to fill this void. They create graphic apparel that raises funds and awareness and sell it online and in a few retail locations. They also developed the “RYC Campus Campaign” which gives students (and anyone else) means to run their own campaigns for the causes they care about. Today Rock Your Cause™ has a presence on over 40 high school and university campuses and for every item sold, no less than 30% of the selling price gets donated to a cause.

Rock Your Cause™ is “Philanthropy that fits perfectly.” Their stylish apparel and eye catching graphic design/marketing (all designed by Beale and Sofferin), have already united thousands of young people over a growing number of philanthropic initiatives. As a part of the Rock Your Cause™ “Cause Community” people everywhere can raise funds and awareness for the causes they care about. Beale and Sofferin set out to help their friend fight her illness, and now that she is cancer free, she has a lot to be thankful for AND a pretty legitimate tool to help her continue to raise funds and awareness for her cause.

Rock Your Cause™ has always been profitable but for now Beale and Sofferin choose to reinvest every penny after donations and expenses back into the business, “We use it to help fund future initiatives including cause campaigns, events, and special programs in the community,” says Beale, “Although our ultimate goal, once we are both available to work full time on Rock Your Cause, is to make a living for ourselves while continuing to run a socially responsible venture.”

When asked how she manages her time Beale responded, “Mara and I always joke about working the night shift at Rock Your Cause as our most productive hours are between 12:00 and 4:00am. I’ve also learned that if I have class at 2:00pm, it doesn’t mean I can sleep in until 1… I wake up early and use my time wisely, or at least I try too.”

For more information on Rock Your Cause™ please visit www.rockyourcause.com.

McEachran states, “His company was started to enable positive change”. HitSend allows users to submit and vote on ideas that can be used for community-based change. The ideas are posted on a message board, publicly, within a community, or privately, within a company, where everyone with access can view them. Each idea is then voted up or down. Ideas with the most support reach the top, and what is left is a list of priorities representing your community.

McEachran who is quite the legend around the halls of Ted Rogers with both classmates and professors balances being an entrepreneur and a full time student seemingly effortlessly, but when asked about the challenge he puts it mildly, “it’s not hard, just harder work”. He began his company after meeting with Ryerson’s president, Sheldon Levy, where he presented ten of his own ideas. He explained to Levy, “these are ten of my ideas, but imagine if we had each student brainstorm ten ideas of their own, and then had the Ryerson community vote on the ones that they care about, in an organized fashion”. Levy loved the idea and helped kick off their operations. Today HitSend Inc. uses Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone as their company headquarters and they exploit other Ryerson resources such as Start Me Up and the many Business Plan Competitions to the fullest.

HitSend Inc., which is is run by a team of four – Graham McCarthy, Ayu Er, Warren Tanner and of course the founder and CEO Brennan McEachran, recently launched their first paying client, Chapters Book Store, on the company’s birthday. They also have the green light from Ryerson to launch SoapBox campus wide. When asked about future milestones the company hopes to meet McEachran is most excited about the paycheck he hopes to write himself when the company turns its first profit.

McEachran is eager to see what the future has in store for HitSend Inc. and hopes that this positive change enlightens the world to follow in their footsteps. Finally, he describes the experience he has had starting his business as a Ryerson student as, “Amazing. Look at all the help I’ve received and wonderful people I’ve met… Couldn’t have asked for more!!

For more information on HitSend check out www.hitsend.ca.

Date: Monday, March 26, 2012 starting at 6:30pm

 Register to Attend the Final Event

The Six Finalists

Register Now

More Slaight BPC Info