A few months after musing with his father about new technologies for the automotive industry, Sam Jesso is one step away from capturing more than $200,000 in seed funding and services to develop such a product.
Jesso heads AutoPulse, a Fredericton startup designing technology that helps auto dealerships monitor their customers’ cars.
Last week, the University of New Brunswick software engineering student found out AutoPulse was a finalist for the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s Breakthru competition. The top three finalists, who will be named March 19, will divide a prize pot worth about $750,000.
“When we were working on our first business plan, we started before we’d even heard of the Breakthru competition,” Jesso said in an interview Sunday, together with his co-founder Kristin Killam.
“We plan on going forward regardless of the outcome, but winning would help because it would reduce the need for money.”
The story of AutoPulse began when Jesso did a few work terms in his co-op program with Blue Spurs Consulting in Fredericton, and he became intrigued with the startup world. Then in October, he and his father, Reg, a portfolio manager with an auto dealership, began to discuss the opportunities for new technology in the auto trade.
They teamed up with Killam, a business administration student at UNB, and soon devised a data-based product.
AutoPulse works off existing hardware that is simple to install and operates with the onboard computer in most cars on the road. The system automatically monitors the workings of the car and can detect early signs that problems may arise. AutoPulse transmits the information to a mobile or desktop dashboard at the dealership.
The idea is to provide the dealership with data so it can initiate a service call, rather than wait for a car owner to get around to it. That means the dealership can contact car owners before they even know there is something wrong, thus improving service. It also means a dealership can order parts before a car even arrives at the shop.
That reduces “unsold service capacity,” or having parts sitting around the dealership in case they’re needed. And it facilitates scheduling an appointment by putting the two parties in touch.
“From a competitive standpoint, there are multiple (customer relationship management devices) for dealerships, and what a lot of them focus on is lead conversion for sales,” said Jesso.
“But these are, for the most part, manual entry databases or, at best, they’re estimations. We think there is some value in that information being real-time.”
Though they’re still a few years away from graduation, Jesso and Killam plan to launch the first version of their product in early 2016. They already have four dealerships signed up to test it.
And they believe the cost of developing the software will only be about $25,000, meaning they can proceed regardless of how they do in the Breakthru event.
Disclaimer: Entrevestor receives financial support from government agencies that support startup companies in Atlantic Canada. The sponsoring agencies play no role in determining which companies and individuals are featured in this column, nor do they review columns before they are published.
