It’s no secret that “reality TV” is often more about TV than reality.
And so, when Hongwei Liu and Desmond Choi stepped into the CBC Dragons' Den to pitch their indoor-wayfinding company, MappedIn, they weren’t entirely surprised at the eventual outcome.
The outcome on TV: All five Dragons tripped over each other for a chance to invest in MappedIn, leading Liu and his co-founders to make deals with three of them.
The outcome in reality: “Off the air, after due diligence, we decided that the deal was not for us,” Liu said.
Instead, MappedIn chose “one of the greatest possible partners and investors we could have found,” a company called Esri Canada, an established leader in mapping software.
That might not be the made-for-TV ending viewers of last night’s episode expected, but it’s the kind of reality startups like MappedIn typically face early on in their existence, when nothing is certain and plenty can go wrong if you rush into relationships with the wrong partners.
Liu, who is just 21, credits his team’s confidence to hold out for a better deal to the experience they’ve gained at the Communitech Hub and through the University of Waterloo's VeloCity 'dormcubator' program.
That experience began in the summer of 2010, after Liu finished his first co-op work term at Research In Motion. He heard a friend had been admitted to the VeloCity residence, about which Liu knew little – other than the fact that it, unlike his dorm, was air conditioned.
That was enough to get him to apply for a spot in VeloCity.
“I got in, and then the first week, they say, ‘Everyone get into groups, brainstorm and come up with ideas you think are cool’,” he recalled. “And one of my group’s ideas was, ‘What if we made Google Maps for indoor places?’ And I said, ‘That’s cool, I want to do that. Who wants to work with me?’”
For months, the group hacked away on weekends and showed off their genius to their friends, but didn’t step up and fully commit until September of 2011. That’s when Tony Niederer, Communitech’s senior director of marketing and events, introduced them to Sandra Stone, general manager of Conestoga Mall in Waterloo, a prime target customer for MappedIn’s interactive, indoor map displays.
A meeting was arranged, at which Liu asked Stone and her colleagues, "Can I show it to you for 10 minutes and then you guys can give us your thoughts and see if it works?"
After the demo, they were impressed enough to say, "Okay, if we say yes right now, can we get it before Christmas?"
Conestoga Mall is now one of seven locations where MappedIn has kiosks installed; others include the Communitech Hub and a pair of Toronto locations that Liu can’t reveal just yet.
Becoming an actual company with customers meant he and his co-founders had to suspend their studies at Waterloo, which was not an easy sell with their parents, but Liu says he has promised to return to finish his degree.
In the meantime, he’s eager to get back to the Hub’s VeloCity Garage and resume hacking, after a trip to Toronto yesterday to help open the stock exchange with Dragons David Chilton and Arlene Dickinson, and other student competitors from last night’s episode. They included a pair of UW mechatronics engineering grads, Alexander Peters and Rohan Mahimker, who pitched their Burlington-based company, SMARTeacher, and its educational online math game.
“I’m going to go back (to school) eventually; I mean, that’s my promise to my parents,” Liu said.
At the same time, he’ll keep building MappedIn, Dragons or not.
“It’s exciting, and I don’t think we can walk away from this one,” he said. “We’ve got to see it through.”
