A million-dollar idea can enter the mind unexpectedly at any time. For 36 year-old Tania Mulry, mother of three elementary school kids, it happened at a school fundraiser at a local Santa Clarita restaurant. “What if I can create something that can help parents raise funds for their kids’ school using a cell phone?” she thought. But being able to breathe life into a good idea is what largely marks the difference between a viable business and another fleeting thought, and it’s what sets successful entrepreneurs apart. Today, Mulry joins the ranks of those who took the plunge into unknown waters, hoping to make their idea come to life. “You have to be just a little bit crazy I think,” said Mulry who earlier this year quit her stable job at MasterCard to pursue her business. “You have to have that inner drive that sets you apart and makes you operate a little bit differently; you have to have that spark that an entrepreneur has that is very unique.” With limited funding options available, Mulry decided to take a six figure chunk out of her 401K retirement fund to finance her technology start-up DDX Media, which was incorporated in May. Armed with a decade of experience as the head of mobile data services at MasterCard, she hired a team of designers and programmers and set out to build a mobile platform that would incorporate location-based technology to achieve her goal of facilitating school fundraising. She named it EdRover – a play on words on her favorite childhood game. Here’s how it works: A school supporter first downloads the EdRover app to their phone and selects from a menu of 99,000 schools across the U.S. Then they’ll see a list of nearby businesses that offer a donation to their school of choice if they come within 500 feet of that business location and press a button that says “I’m here” on their phone. Participating businesses will make one lump sum donation to EdRover who then tracks the visits that are generated. “Every time a visit happens we move those funds into the beneficiary school’s account and once a month we pay out the schools,” Mulry explained. “So it takes a lot of the administration out of the hands of the businesses and makes it very easy for them to show that they are making a direct contribution to the cause that’s most personal to their customer.” With this application, which the company expects to roll out in early 2011, retailers and other businesses will have the ability to attract visits on a consistent basis and build affinity between the brand and the consumer by supporting a cause that’s important to their shoppers. Businesses will also be able to create that affinity through promotional messages that will be displayed in the EdRover application. At the same time, school supporters will be rid of what Mulry calls a clumsy and broken fundraising model, which usually involves cramming into a local restaurant that is offering to donate a percentage of its proceeds from a given night. “The staff at the restaurant hate it because they aren’t able to project the staffing needs or even the food needs for that night, the people who are waiting on benches outside are miserable as well, and at the end of the night every family that went to that fundraiser was able to raise between $5 and $10 dollars for their school from what they’ve purchased. It would be much easier to just give the school ten dollars,” she said. Mulry is currently in talks with national brands who will be participating in the program next year and is working with schools across the country to promote her application. DDX Media hopes to lease the technology to several non-profit organizations in the near future. As a way to prove that the fundraising model works, and to test out the application, Mulry set up EdRover as a non-profit business with an independent board who will lease the mobile technology from DDX media. Her idea has already piqued the interest of investors, and Mulry expects she will be seeking venture and angel funding in the first quarter of 2011, in order to grow her business nationally, and reach her goal of changing the fundraising model for many non- profits. Another big dreamer Like Mulry, Armen Margarian is another entrepreneur hoping to turn a good idea into a billion dollar business despite today’s difficult economy where it’s become more difficult to secure a bank loan. Margarian’s big idea resulted from his involvement with non-profit organizations as a volunteer, which gave him first-hand knowledge of how tedious planning fundraising luncheons, banquets and mixers can be, especially when sophisticated event planning software and services are too costly for smaller organizations. “If they can raise $60,000 per luncheon, they really can’t afford to pay between $30,000 and $40,000 for event management services,” said Margarian. “I found that there is a niche in the market of smaller sized non-profit organizations that need event management,” he said. Margarian decided to focus his web design and development company in Sherman Oaks, NexusLab, towards creating an easy to use and affordable event management online system for chambers of commerce, bar associations, small hospitals and other non profits. The end result is Eventish, a service which requires noupfront or installation costs, and aims to make event management, marketing and ticketing easy and affordable. Three organizations, a chamber of commerce, a bar association and a hospital are currently testing the system, which allows guests to RSVP, select their table and seat, purchase tickets electronically, and check in to an event by having a person at the door scan their ticket code using a mobile phone, among other services. “Non profits will spend four percent of what they raise during an event with our system, compared to the 16-20 percent they were spending before on event planning costs,” he said. The unique technology which required extensive development of mathematical algorithms has great potential even outside the non-profit realm, said Margarian, adding that there’s been growing interest for Eventish from commercial users including large event planning firms. Margarian expects the company will be cash flow positive in March. However, in order to grow the company needs funding. “This is all happening too fast for us,” he said. Starting in December, Eventish will begin presenting to investors in an effort to raise between $1million -$2 million of venture capital or angel money, which would largely go toward marketing and PR efforts during the company’s first year. “I’m not only looking for financial investment, I’m also looking for the human resources and connections that VC comes with,” said Margarian. “There is huge potential for this business and we want to grow and be as big as we possibly can.”
Scary World of New Businesses
