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An award-winning Ottawa startup that has taken the world by storm with its re-useable wipe clean notebooks has announced the availability of its funky product in Walmart and Staples stores just in time for back-to-school shopping.
Called the “Wipebook”, the notebook is hardly what many would expect from Ottawa’s technology heavy startup space. It’s a book of lined paper that has pages coated with a kind of laminate so users can mark them up with thoughts or doodles and then when they fill the book and need more writing space, users can simple wipe the whole thing clean and start again.
In just over a year of being available the Ottawa minds behind the Wipebook have sold more than $1.5 million worth of their unique little notebooks. They’ve raised more than $500,000 on crowd funding platform Kickstarter and they’ve appeared on the CBC show Dragon’s Den where they struck a deal with Canadian entrepreneur Arlene Dickinson. And on Friday, they were recognized for its invention in a lavish award ceremony where they were awarded the Best New Product of 2015 award by L-SPARK, Ottawa’s new $24 million business incubator.
L-SPARK was first announced by Invest Ottawa in September of 2013. The federal government has committed to giving Invest Ottawa $7.75 million over five years as part of its Canada Accelerator and Incubator Program. The money will be pooled with investments from Ottawa venture capital firm Wesley Clover International, Invest Ottawa itself and other partners, bringing the total pool to $24 million. The organization is aimed at helping guide startup businesses, assist them in finding funding and better assure that they expand into successful medium-sized businesses.
This is the first year L-SPARK has hosted an awards ceremony aimed at shining a spotlight on some of the more interesting products and service offerings on tap at some of Ottawa’s newest startup firms. The awards were held at Shopify’s head offices on Elgin Street Friday night.
The idea for Wipebook was to take a whiteboard and turn it into a low-tech handheld notebook for doodling and copying down quick ideas. It was created by Frank Bouchard and Toby Maurice, both University of Ottawa graduates, a little over two years ago. The Wipebook was actually created as a class assignment for a course in the Masters of Business Administration program while the pair studied at the university.
Toby Maurice, co-founder, Wipebook, poses for a photo in Ottawa on July 24, 2015. (Jana Chytilova / Ottawa Citizen) ORG XMIT: 0724 Wipebook jc 07
A prototype came out of that assignment, which led to the pair floating the idea on Kickstarter in a bid to secure $4,000 in funding to further develop the product. The Kickstarter campaign took off, attracting more than $200,000 U.S. in two weeks.
vpilieci@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
Called the “Wipebook”, the notebook is hardly what many would expect from Ottawa’s technology heavy startup space. It’s a book of lined paper that has pages coated with a kind of laminate so users can mark them up with thoughts or doodles and then when they fill the book and need more writing space, users can simple wipe the whole thing clean and start again.
In just over a year of being available the Ottawa minds behind the Wipebook have sold more than $1.5 million worth of their unique little notebooks. They’ve raised more than $500,000 on crowd funding platform Kickstarter and they’ve appeared on the CBC show Dragon’s Den where they struck a deal with Canadian entrepreneur Arlene Dickinson. And on Friday, they were recognized for its invention in a lavish award ceremony where they were awarded the Best New Product of 2015 award by L-SPARK, Ottawa’s new $24 million business incubator.
L-SPARK was first announced by Invest Ottawa in September of 2013. The federal government has committed to giving Invest Ottawa $7.75 million over five years as part of its Canada Accelerator and Incubator Program. The money will be pooled with investments from Ottawa venture capital firm Wesley Clover International, Invest Ottawa itself and other partners, bringing the total pool to $24 million. The organization is aimed at helping guide startup businesses, assist them in finding funding and better assure that they expand into successful medium-sized businesses.
This is the first year L-SPARK has hosted an awards ceremony aimed at shining a spotlight on some of the more interesting products and service offerings on tap at some of Ottawa’s newest startup firms. The awards were held at Shopify’s head offices on Elgin Street Friday night.
The idea for Wipebook was to take a whiteboard and turn it into a low-tech handheld notebook for doodling and copying down quick ideas. It was created by Frank Bouchard and Toby Maurice, both University of Ottawa graduates, a little over two years ago. The Wipebook was actually created as a class assignment for a course in the Masters of Business Administration program while the pair studied at the university.
Toby Maurice, co-founder, Wipebook, poses for a photo in Ottawa on July 24, 2015. (Jana Chytilova / Ottawa Citizen) ORG XMIT: 0724 Wipebook jc 07
A prototype came out of that assignment, which led to the pair floating the idea on Kickstarter in a bid to secure $4,000 in funding to further develop the product. The Kickstarter campaign took off, attracting more than $200,000 U.S. in two weeks.
vpilieci@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
