MBiz

eureka project imagination station eureka proJeCt brings good ideas to life W by Holli Moncrieff innipeg is a city of best-kept secrets. According to Gary Brownstone, president and CEO of The Eureka Project, we have a hidden wealth of worldclass businesses. "People have suggested it's for some of the same reasons we have a good music scene — the winters are so long and dark that we get really creative," he laughs. "For a small city, the talent pool in Winnipeg is really phenomenal. We're competitive in a global marketplace, but we tend to underestimate ourselves." The Eureka Project takes bright ideas and helps make them a reality by providing budding tech entrepreneurs with workspaces, mentorship and expert marketing, financial and sales advice. "We bring management support to passionate creators of technology. You bring the technical expertise, and we bring the management experience to elevate you," Brownstone says. The University of Manitoba created the company in 2007, but while it's still located at the university's SmartPark, Eureka became independent three years later. "We needed to move at the speed of technology-based entrepreneurs. We needed more freedom and to have a broader reach within the community," Brownstone explains. So far, nine of Eureka's clients have met with tremendous success, and another nine have achieved moderate success. Canadian Prairie Garden Purees developed a process for pureeing vegetables and fruits that can be stored at room temperature. It now counts Nestlé and Campbell's among its customers. "No one else in the world is doing what they're doing with vegetables," Brownstone says. "We worked with them to secure funds to set up a small-scale plant. They were able to raise the money to build a multi-million dollar production facility." The Invenia Technology Company is another of Brownstone's favourite success stories. "These two young men told me they'd developed software that could forecast energy output for wind farms. With wind farms it's very difficult to know how much power can be produced and when it's going to be produced," he says. "They proved to Manitoba Hydro that their stuff worked better than what Hydro was currently using, and now Hydro uses their software to sell energy." Eureka also worked with Complex Games, an award-winning computer-game development firm. "When they came to us they had two employees. Now they have 30 to 40," Brownstone says. "They were the first Winnipeg 22 | WINTER 2013 'peg biz company to get Nintendo's game development licence. They made a curling game for Wii." Eureka's current roster of 10 clients includes promising startups Reclaim IO and Joist. "Reclaim IO started off developing scheduling software, but we quickly realized there's lots of scheduling software out gary brownstone helps there — they'd be one among entrepreneurs turn smart thousands," Brownstone says. ideas into businesses. However, one element of their Photo courtesy of software set them apart — a The Eureka Project function for selling appointment slots for hair salons, doctors and others whose income depends on filling slots that become available when clients cancel appointments. "A message goes out to the existing client list or social media to sell off these lapsed appointments," Brownstone says. "Our guys take 20% of the profit of the found appointments. They'll have their stuff on 5,000 desktops around America by spring." Joist is a tool for trades and service industries that creates estimates, sends invoices, manages jobs and takes payments. More than 20,500 contractors are using the application. An entrepreneur since he was in his teens, Brownstone brings experience in operating, financing and managing companies through growing stages. He says Eureka gave him an opportunity to work with talented young people, and that's the most rewarding part of his job. "Everybody has ideas, but few people are able to execute them to the point they're something the world wants."

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