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SFU Student-Created App to Aid Property Managers
Thursday, March 27, 2014Company Profile | Follow Company
Simon Fraser University student Chantelle Buffie (credit: Klik Photographic)
Vancouver, BC, March 27, 2014--(T-Net)--A mobile application that enables property managers to stay in tune with tenants is the latest venture for Simon Fraser University student Chantelle Buffie, whose team participating in The Next 36 recently won national recognition for the concept.
The Next 36 is a resource-rich program designed to nurture the entrepreneurial promise of 36 undergraduates with extraordinary potential each year.
FIXO is a dedicated communication channel between residential property managers and their tenants.
Buffie, one of 40 students chosen nationally for the 2014 class of The Next 36, is part of a team that created it and topped the “newcomers” category (among 20 teams) after presenting the app at the National Business & Technology Conference in Toronto.
“Through a mobile application (and eventually the web), property managers are able to receive maintenance requests, send out electronic building notices, respond to general inquiries and gather feedback more efficiently,” says Buffie, a fourth-year student in SFU's Beedie School of Business.
Currently in the development phase, the first part of the FIXO platform will launch in the iOS app store this month.
“We've spoken to a number of property managers who are willing to beta test our platform; collectively, they have access to over 1000+ rental units,” notes Buffie, who was the 2013 HSBC Women Leader of Tomorrow for Western Canada, and Enactus SFU's 2012 Student Entrepreneur of the Year.
“We'll be focusing our efforts on rolling out the platform to student residences since they are a hotbed with tenants who have smartphones.”
Buffie credits the support and feedback of The Next 36's mentors for their progress to date. “The program has been instrumental in helping our team to overcome the challenges of building and launching a business,” says Buffie. The initiative was created with the goal of turning the country's top students into Canada's most successful future business leaders and innovators.
The Surrey resident will head to Toronto in April to continue with FIXO's testing.
Buffie is the third SFU student to participate in The Next 36. She is also a Top-24-Under-24 award recipient (as given by Vancouver daily newspaper 24-Hours) and earlier teamed up with student Sonam Swarup to create Fusion Kitchen, which empowered immigrant women by working with them to teach cultural cooking lessons. The venture, no longer running, earned a BC Ideas recognition.
The Next 36 addresses Canada's deficit of high impact entrepreneurship by providing resource-rich education programs to promising young entrepreneurs. It is supported by more than 300 Canadian business leaders and academics and is championed by Founding Patrons W. Galen Weston, Jimmy Pattison and the late Paul Desmarais Sr. SFU is an academic partner of The Next 36, whose ventures have created over 150 jobs and raised more than $18 million in funding since 2010.
About Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University is consistently ranked among Canada's top comprehensive universities and is one of the top 50 universities in the world under 50 years old. With campuses in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey, B.C., SFU engages actively with the community in its research and teaching, delivers almost 150 programs to more than 30,000 students, and has more than 125,000 alumni in 130 countries.
About The Next 36
The Next 36 is a resource-rich program designed to nurture the entrepreneurial promise of 36 undergraduates with extraordinary potential each year. It was founded by a small group of entrepreneurs, business leaders and academics in response to Canada's need for more high-impact entrepreneurs, and is championed by Founding Patrons W. Galen Weston, Paul Desmarais, Sr. and Jimmy Pattison. For nine months, 36 young entrepreneurs are mentored by Canada's top business leaders, taught by some of the world's top business faculty, and work to earn funding from top venture capitalists. The Next 36 has developed a unique selection process, curriculum and venture development program, which have resulted in immediate national demand from students and unparalleled support from the business, academic and investment community. The program is described by mentors, donors and participants as transformational.
What makes The Next 36 unique?
Though sometimes compared to a startup incubator or accelerator, neither of these terms adequately describes The Next 36. No program in the world provides the same mix of CEO mentorship, investment, academic instruction, networking opportunities and exclusive events.
The program is specifically focused on innovative university undergraduates and recent grads based on their entrepreneurial potential. While the majority of our young entrepreneurs have built a prior business, The Next 36 challenges them to build a venture from ground zero (no traction, scale or minimum viable product necessary to apply) with the support of mentors, advisors, and investors whose expertise, networks and judgment help them learn and grow faster than they thought possible. The Next 36 takes these young entrepreneurs from student to CEO in nine months.
Contact:
Chantelle Buffie, buffie.chantelle@gmail.com
Jon French, director, marketing & events, The Next 36, jon@thenext36.ca
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.9017; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca
Public Affairs and Media Relations
Simon Fraser University
Room 2200 Strand Hall
Phone: 778.782.3210@sfupamr
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