MBA Student Biz Offers Internet Access At Trade Show Booths
Name of business: Trade Show Internet; http://www.tradeshowinternet.com/about.html
Founder/s: Seth Burstein, MBA 2011; and Ian Framson
The beginning: January 2009
Initial Investment: $500
Employees: 2 full time, 3 contractors
Founder’s Past Life: Seth Burstein was living the awe inspiring life of an actuary (statistician for the insurance industry)
Initial Preparation to Germinate Idea: There is a lot of price gouging in the trade show industry. Few things seemed more absurd than trade show exhibitors being charged $1,200 for three days of internet rental. As such, a friend and I wanted to start a company to rectify this injustice. We did our research and realized there was a large opportunity to come in with a new technology to break up the monopoly power wielded by the industry’s dominant player. After employing the help of friends to put up a website, we were ready to fully launch in April 2009. To our surprise, within a month of launching, we had a $50M company looking to partner with us.
Favorite Thing about the Business: My favorite days are when I check my email and have messages from customers saying they loved using our solution.
Worst Thing About the Business: When you’re in class and your business partner is in an all-day meeting, someone has to take the tech support call.
Biggest Challenge: Finding time to do laundry
Lesson Learned: Sometimes things work out even better than you could have expected. Like Benjamin Franklin said, “Diligence is the mother of good luck.”