“There are no bad ideas,” or so the saying goes. But the real worth of an idea lies in the number of problems it can solve or ambiguities it can explain. The same applies to an entrepreneurial venture.
Our good idea and, ultimately, our entrepreneurial venture, began when we began exploring ways to explain things…to anyone.
We created a platform to create videos in your browser, called ilos. Our screen capture technology allows you to record your screen, voice, and webcam to instantly generate shareable videos. So you can turn a PowerPoint into an interactive video, or quickly make a software tutorial to pass on your knowledge to anyone in the world, right from the cloud. It’s as easy as capture, teach, and share.
To execute this idea, we put together a team--we didn’t want to find employees, we sought partners. We can teach you how to code, but we can’t as easily change a poor attitude. By surrounding ourselves with the right people, setting our sights high, and engaging with the University of St. Thomas, we were able to move ahead.
We set aggressive deadlines and goals related to software development (making new features, improving the user experience, incorporating search analytics), clients (reaching new clients, supporting existing ones), and business development (securing patents, incorporating the business).With the help of the MBA program at UST, we knew we could achieve these goals.
Whether it’s learning more about business at a strategy level with Prof. DeVaughn or trying to segment a market in the best way with Prof. Malshe, the Full-Time UST MBA program’s professors and opportunities for engagement both in and out of the classroom provided our team with the knowledge base to implement our idea in the right way.
In addition the program introduced us to the Norris Institute, a UST pre-seed stage fund managed by Mike Moore that focuses on innovative start-up companies. Mike and the Norris Institute have helped us not only go to market, but also identify the best channels to do so. This guidance ensures that we stay true to ourselves and each other.
We’d also like to thank all of the faculty and staff, in particular, Dean Puto and Lisa Burke, for all that they’ve done to help make what we do possible. Their feedback allowed us to better design our product offerings. Through this process we’ve been able to take ilos videos, the simplest way to capture and share knowledge, from an idea to a reality.
The value of an idea is the number of things it can explain. With the help of our team, our product goals, and UST, we’ve developed a platform to do just that: explain anything to anyone.
Sean Higgins '14 M.B.A. is currently working at ilos Videos, growing the business through sales, marketing and channel partners.
