WINDSOR, ON – Dr. Francine Schlosser’s Winter 2015 Lean Start-up class had their final project presentations on Thursday, April 9, 2015 at EPIC Innovation.
The special topics 4th year Business class 75-493 – “Field Study in Entrepreneurship: Lean Launchpad and Prototype Development” is open to students from all disciplines and will be offered again in the Winter 2016 semester. The course is an entrepreneurial field study, where student teams will experience their own venture start-up, from ideation, to search, to customer discovery and validation, wrapping up at the end of the class with a minimum viable product/prototype. The students worked in multi-disciplinary lean start-up teams with fourth year engineering students. Business students who wish to continue to develop their business with their teams can apply to take a special topics credit through the Summer 2015 semester or can continue on an active basis with their team outside of class.
Here are some of the teams and their final product/prototype presentations:
- Let’s Park Mobile App
Team Members: Codie Bouliane, Sanah Shaheen, Hayden Freker, Foad Karimian.
The Let’s Park App allows users to identify available private parking spots available at an hourly rate across Windsor-Essex County. The initial stage fo the app will focus on parking in the University of Windsor area. Homeowners and landlords around the University can register their available parking spaces on the app and drivers interested in convenient spots can browse the map for available spots and reserve and pay for a parking spot directly thorough the app. The value proposition for this parking app is that it is convenient for users in terms of time and money savings and generating income for homeowners. These parking spaces normally go unused for a portion of the day by homeowners and landlords and would be considered a waste of a valuable resource and loss of potential revenue. The team plans on executing its marketing strategy via a social media viral launch and with a large event launch after the completion of the course.
- ParcelHop
Team Members: Zaid Kaleem, Naren Kukreja
Parcelhop offers an alternative solution to the traditional mail delivery process. The traditional package delivery often creates problems for users who frequently miss daytime delivery attempts while at work and being unable to reschedule delivery during convenient times. If you live a busy lifestyle and go to work everyday chances are you have experienced a missed package delivery before. Most companies charge a steep fee for a re-delivery and this can be avoided by signing up with the Parcelhop service. The first step to access the service is to sign up online, be assigned a unique shipping address, which can then be submitted as the delivery address when shopping online. Once the package has been received at the Parcelhop warehouse, a notification will be sent out to the user’s phone and email with the option of scheduling a convenient delivery window. The user then schedules a time window in which they would like to receive their package hand delivered to their door step.
- Pre-packaged Healthy Ready Meals
Team Member: Charisma Olajuyigbe
The eating healthy lifestyle can get very expensive and time consuming at times. Unless you’re a licensed nutritionist most people usually do not have a general understanding of healthy eating habits, and eating healthy meals are even more crucial for athletes. Creating a meal plan service for athletes offers an affordable alternative to cooking your own, which allows active students to stay healthy. Athletes on campus usually have very busy schedules composed of practices, working out and school work. The meal plan will consist of healthy ingredients and a variety of locally produced vegetables. Various meal plan options at a set price will be offered to meet this need in the market.
- Cultivated Clothing Line
Team Member: Ikenna Nwakwesi
Cultivated Clothing Line has the goal of being recognized as one of the number one suppliers of top-notch quality, daily, functional garments. Currently the start-up is focused on increasing their user base through their instagram account. Ikenna mentioned about the course, “I would definitely recommend the lean start-up course to peers because this course allows for exploration of your strengths and weaknesses as well as a great way to network. Not only does this course offer a more hands-on approach to learning it allows for a student like myself to learn about a lot of the resources available to me that might have been overlooked.” The company already has a public image, follow @cultivatedco on instagram at www.instagram.com/cultivatedco, on the web at www.cultivatedco.wordpress.com or tumbler at http://cultivatedco.tumblr.com.
- Dapamen
Team member: Adbdulkareem Adepetu 
Abdulkareem’s main idea is an image consulting firm called Dapamen. The main purpose of the firm is to help men around Windsor understand the importance of self-presentation. Dapamen coaches men on the proper way of how to dress for specific events. Dapamen aims to develop and maintain a long-term relationship with the clients he works with to help men really change their lifestyle when it comes to style. For more on his experience, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jES63elL4Po
- Ontario Highschool Leadership Initiative (OHLI) social enterprise
Team member: Michael Ouelette 
The Odette High School Leadership Initiative (OHLI) was set up to explore the possibility of a Social Venture to assist in sustainability of the program. The Social Venture would focus on offering skills graduating high school students need to make a smooth transition to post-secondary education. The founder, Michael Ouelette encourages students of all disciplines to enroll in the Lean Start-up class for the great experience it offers “I would recommend the Lean start-up course to any student who is interested in exploring what it takes to start a business. The course offers a wealth of resources that will help in the advancement of the venture idea,” stated Michael at the end of his presentation.
