Former political staffer, entrepreneur, gets bright idea for mobile campaign app

Julian Haigh left a four-year career as a Parliament Hill staffer, working for Conservative MPs such as Joe Preston, Garth Turner and Peter Goldring, to launch a wireless startup in Vancouver for the politically minded. His new company is called D2D Campaign Solutions, and Haigh said his experience working on political campaigns gave him an idea to simplify the door-knocking process with a mobile application for the iPhone and BlackBerry. The app, which is still in development, will give campaigners and their political parties real-time information as they canvass constituents. “We’re creating an application to be a platform for mobile political engagement either on issues or on candidates,” Haigh told The Wire Report in an interview. Haigh said the application is set to launch in September, just before a round of Canadian municipal elections scheduled for October. D2D Campaign Solutions is one of eight companies to recently receive support from Wavefront’s entrepreneurship program in Vancouver. Wavefront is a commercialization centre that partnered with the British Columbia Innovation Council (BCIC) to help Canadian wireless startups get off the ground and become viable businesses. Brad Lowe, Nokia’s former head of research and development in Canada, is now the community engagement manager with Wavefront, where he heads the entrepreneurship program. “What we’re trying to do is really bridge this commercialization gap where people really have the energy, enthusiasm and knowledge to do something, but don’t have all the resources around them to help them succeed the first time,” Lowe said in an interview. Lowe said startups often fail the first time they try to get a project off the ground because they do not have the contacts or access to capital to move their ideas forward. “We really want to see people succeed as quickly as possible and then grow their companies into something that will contribute economically and create new jobs,” Lowe said. Each of the eight companies chosen for the entrepreneurship program will get a downtown Vancouver office at Wavefront’s headquarters and access to $10,000 worth of consulting services. “We have quite a few relationships with international companies and consortia in the wireless industry, so we can help get introductions for their ideas into markets or companies where they can have a chance to commercialize their product further,” Lowe said. The companies also get access to Ericsson Canada’s research and testing facilities in Montreal as well as the network of U.K. wireless provider Orange to build business relationships in Europe. Mischa Steiner-Jovic, the founder and CEO of Awesense Wireless Inc., one of the eight startups chosen by Wavefront for the program, said the experience has so far been valuable. “We were selected to present to Rogers Ventures Monday, and opportunities like that are extremely valuable,” Steiner-Jovic told The Wire Report in an interview on Wednesday. Awesense Wireless has developed a “smart grid” solution that uses wireless networks to furnish utilities providers with information on the effectiveness of their electrical grid. “Awesense has built a platform to help utilities companies quickly and easily identify electrical losses in their distribution system,” Steiner-Jovic said. Technicians can connect a small device to their electrical wires and from there measure the flow of electricity. The device delivers the information wirelessly to a “data aggregator” that presents it in a more relevant format to an analyst with the utility provider. Steiner-Jovic said that in North America $10 billion is wasted every year due to electrical inefficiencies. Reducing those losses by just one per cent is equivalent to removing 2.25 million cars from the road, he said. Lowe said Wavefront and the BCIC chose the eight startups after receiving applications from about 40 companies. He said Canada does not have the kind of venture capital available in the United States, or as many strong anchor companies, but there is no lack of talent and good ideas. “The one thing that just bugs the hell out of me is seeing really smart people immediately get sucked down south or somewhere else when we put out the effort to train them,” Lowe said. “I would love to see them either making their own jobs or getting jobs here in Canada that benefit our economy.” jmigneault@thewirereport.ca

Former political staffer, entrepreneur, gets bright idea for mobile campaign app

News | 08/25/2010 9:11 pm EDT

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