Frank Bouchard , student in an interdisciplinary program in engineering management, developed the prototype of Wipebook because he didn’t like to waste paper. Wipebook is basically a notebook that allows you to erase what’s on the page and then reuse it.
While finishing his master’s degree in engineering management, he met Toby Maurice and Thomas Sychterz, who were also in Professor Stephen Daze’s (Telfer Entrepreneur in Residence) High-Tech Entrepreneurship course (MBA6262). Toby and Thomas eventually became co-founders of Wipebook.
In MBA 6262, Stephen Daze really emphasized validating an idea through real sales, and so the team took a leap of faith and manufactured 300 Wipebooks. Sales were primarily to students on campus. During the MBA 6262 course, the team made a first attempt at a crowdfunding campaign with Kickstarter, but only managed to raise $200.
Eight months later, the business was going well and over 150 books had been sold. The team decided to give Kickstarter a second try, during global entrepreneurship week, in hopes to gain more awareness and develop a new prototype in large quantities.
The company raised more than $400,000, which is one hundred times above their initial goal.
