A Master’s program at the University of New Brunswick is helping aspiring entrepreneurs turn their ideas into full-fledged businesses by providing training, mentorship and practical education.
The Master of Technology Management & Entrepreneurship program has been running at UNB for 30 years.
The one year study helps students craft their innovative ideas into viable businesses and teaches them how to launch and maintain them.
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“It’s really grown my mind in the business aspect of things,” said Casey Glenen, CEO of PHYS Technologies, a local company that’s developed a device to monitor athletes’ output in the gym. “I did a civil engineering undergrad so I didn’t learn too much about the business world but this really tied everything together for me.”
Glenen isn’t alone in shifting specialties, classmate Stewart Hillhouse shares a similar story.
“I came from a forestry undergrad so I didn’t really have a whole lot of business knowledge,” he explained. “So through this I’ve really gotten that business mindset.”
Originally thinking about an innovation in the aquaculture industry, Hillhouse changed gears after touring a distillery in Brooklyn, NY and discovering the long wait times required for whisky to mature.
“There was just so much passion in their creating this product that has a lot of tradition,” Hillhouse explained. “And they were really adamant about making it properly.”
Hillhouse’s company, Rabbit Town Whisky Co. is developing technology that would see the maturation process reduced from three to 20 years, to just months, enabling companies to more quickly and efficiently move their product.
He likens the idea to the rapid reduction in size of computer hard drives that has been seen over the past several decades.
“It’s that sort of idea of taking, going along with technology trends to be able to figure out how we can best use the resources we have available to us.”
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While developing their products the students have been coached along the way on launching their businesses in the real world, including how to properly pitch their ideas to industry for investment opportunities.
At the end of the program is a final pitch session in front of an expert panel which began Thursday morning.
David Coleman, the acting director for the J. Herbert Smith Centre for Technology Management & Entrepreneurship, says the program is a great way for students to attract attention to their business ventures.
“We’ve gotten great support from a number of different provincial agencies as well as federal funding agencies as well to help the students while they’re students here and also as they go on to actually start their own businesses,” Coleman explained. “It’s an incredible environment.”
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