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Written by: Greg Dillon, Co-Founder and COO of Props
About a year ago, four unfamiliar students at Carleton University decided to take “Intro to Entrepreneurship”. As a requisite for passing the class, our professor mandates that classmates are placed into groups of four and over the course of the term, narrow down a list of their own 50 potential business ideas into one; which is presented similarly to the likes of a science fair. As unfamiliar faces, when myself (Greg Dillon), Mohamed Hirsi (Mo), Kyle Smendziuk, and Brayden Girard were given ten minutes to meet and exchange contact information to collaborate and communicate over the term, we encountered a massive problem. By the time the ten minutes was up, I had Kyle’s number saved under Brayden’s name, Brayden’s name with no number, and I was still searching for Mo on Facebook because he spelled his name differently on social media than in real life. We thought there must be an easier way to connect, especially over several networks. This is where the idea of Props was born.
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By the end of the semester, in preparation for the “entrepreneurship fair” Brayden had built a mock-up that we let other students operate to show the simplicity; and they were blown away. They then began asking if they could download it, we knew we had to make it.
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Fast forward a year, and with the outstanding support of Carleton University’s Entrepreneur Program, and the generosity of Wes Nicol and Tony Bailetti, we had received some much needed financial support to turn the dream into a reality.
We approached Arctic Empire, a development firm headed by CEO Josh Garellek, in Ottawa, Canada. Josh shared such a similar vision as us that he wanted to partner with us to create Props.
Now days away from Austin’s South by Southwest festival that we will be attending, Props is already becoming a local hit.
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