My friend Mike Tan and his start up, TeamPages.com, was recently featured on the CBC news show Fortune Hunters. The show features entrepreneurs trying to make a fortune by starting a new business and experts offering advice. It’s one of the few good shows on CBC. The other is Dragon’s Den.
TeamPages.com began when Mike and one of the original founders were managing a soccer team. They had a hard time communicating schedules and messages sent from the league to the entire team.
“We looked for online solutions, but there wasn’t anything out there that would let people manage teams over the Web.â€
Their business plan for TeamsPages.com gave them first place at the IDC Challenge Business Plan Competition and second place in the New Ventures BC Competition. This provided the seed capital to start the site. A further half million dollar in VC money kept them afloat.
At the time of the Fortune Hunters taping, TeamsPages.com was on the verge of running out of money and needed another $1.5 million in funding to continue operations. Running a start up is never easy. Running one during a recession is even harder. Congrats to Mike on the coverage. Remember what I said about those sweater vests.