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Linda Pond. (Etienne Ranger, OBJ)

Connecting customers first – before building products

So many high-tech companies have flown high on a great idea, only to crash after discovering nobody was interested in buying their product.

With what some have described as an acute lack of sales activity in an Ottawa economy besieged by a worldwide slowdown, entrepreneur Linda Pond decided to reverse this process – Ms. Pond hunts for customers of a particular concept first, and only then finds a company willing to back the idea and manufacture a product.

Her company, called Customer Connects, brought its first idea to market this summer. It's an apparatus called the Cooler Light, one that sticks to the unit's lid and shuts off when it's closed, for those dark nights when you're looking for just one more bottle of beer while sitting around the campfire.

Ms. Pond's company even signed a deal with Coghlan's Ltd., a high-powered marketer and distributor of outdoor goods featured in stores such as Mountain Equipment Co-op, Bass Pro Shop, Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire.

Luminaries on her team include Steve Carkner, an OBJ Forty under 40 winner from 2007.

"I had Steve scientifically calculate how much power (would be) available for this light," Ms. Pond says. "And he came up with – and I love this – scientifically, these three batteries will run the cooler light for (as long as it takes to chill) 250 cases of beer."

Ms. Pond's days were a bit darker back in 2002, when she was laid off from Plaintree Systems Inc. The genesis for her company came while at a Kanata Kareer Group networking meeting that year, where she told the group of about 40 unemployed techies she was looking for a technical sales role.

Four engineers then approached her with great ideas, but said they had no expertise in which to market them.

"From that point, I understood that the need within Ottawa's community was a lot of these high techies branching out on their own, discovering themselves, taking their great ideas to market on their own," Ms. Pond says.

"But they really didn't have a good connection with customers. I saw that right away."

Now, she says Customer Connects has become an online spot where product users, manufacturers and sellers all come together under one umbrella.

On the company's website, members list "needs" – problems they see in their lives that could be solved with a product – allowing companies to hear directly from consumers on what should or could be generated to solve a particular problem.

It's a concept that's even caught some established Ottawa industry watchers offguard.

"That's a really cool idea," exclaims Michelle Scarborough, vice-president of investment and commercialization for OCRI (the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation).

Though not familiar with the concept, she says other companies in the region do take customer needs into account before making their first sales pitch.

"In a lot of cases, when we see an entrepreneur and they have a technology, what we do with them and what the entrepreneurs need to do (is) you need to ask potential customers if they will buy your product," she says.

The cooler light idea came from Ms. Pond's adult daughter, Rhonda, during a community baseball game three years ago. "We're finishing our ball game, and it's dark, and we're into a refreshment after the game. Rhonda reaches into the cooler to get a drink and she says, 'Here's a need for your event, mom. This cooler needs a light.'

"And I said, 'Absolutely. How come there's no light in here?'"

Through prior connections, Ms. Pond and her four-person team (including Rhonda, who has a stake in the company) approached Coghlan's and got the project finished.

Ms. Pond then spun a company out of the light's product development, one called LuminCity Inc., working for free to get the product together. Three years later, the Cooler Light is on the shelves of local Canadian Tires and Wal-Marts.

The first profit cheque has arrived, she says, adding she'll likely be more confident of the product's success the next time around.

"The next run of this will be totally different, because we're coming from experience now instead of 'Oh gee, I wonder if this is going to work,'" she says.

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BIO: LINDA POND

Born: Pembroke, Ont.

Education:

- B. Sc (Botany/Biology) Brandon University (Manitoba)

- Registered Medical Laboratory Technology New Brunswick School of Medical Technology

- MCSE/CNA/CCNA certifications - Ottawa

Previous positions:

Medical Laboratory Technologist - Queensway Carleton Hospital

(Valley Lab Program)

Technical Sales - Plaintree Systems Inc.

Director - Carleton Place and District Chamber of Commerce

Director - Kanata Kareer Group