Since its inception, Queen’s Partnerships and Innovation’s Wings program has helped a diverse, eclectic range of entrepreneurs and innovators successfully launch their businesses. Run by a team experienced in helping startups take flight and drawing on experts in a range of fields, the program has taught participants how to recognize their strengths, focus on what it is they are really selling, and identifying their customers. The program welcomed its final cohort of fledgling startups this January 2023. These are their stories.
When Jesse Purvis of Kief Cake wants to explain his approach to the world, he uses an example from the days he spent working in the kitchens on the Canadian Forces base in Kingston. “I used to wash and peel potatoes,” he says. “Anybody thinks of the army that’s what they think of, guys peeling potatoes.” Every day he’d be one of four guys just sitting and peeling to feed a thousand people.
But as he puts it, “I’m an idea guy. I’m always trying to find a way to make things easier.”
In the case of the potatoes, one day he came into work with two power drills he sourced from somewhere on the base, and to which he’d attached scrub brushes. “I said, ‘Watch this, guys.’” He jammed his two drills into a tub filled with potatoes, pulled the triggers and in a manner of moments had peeled and cleaned more potatoes than the four of them could have done in an afternoon. “And my boss was like, “We’re doing things a little differently from now on.”
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It was through his involvement in the legal cannabis industry that he had the brainstorm that led him to Wings – and may just ultimately make life a lot easier for a lot of people out there.
“Cannabis is a very sticky product,” he says. Try to pick it up, and you’ll cover your hands in fine, resinous powder. What Purvis has developed is a scoop with a detachable end. You use the scoop to gather it up, and then, pulling off the end, you can pour it into a pre-formed cone of paper or a pipe -- “Transition your cannabis to your preferred smoking device,” as Purvis puts it.
Purvis had originally contacted Queen’s Partnerships and Innovation (QPI) about another idea (the Kief Cake cited in his company’s name) but had realized that he simply did not have the finances to carry this forward at the time. But being an idea guy, he did have another one too. So, he talked to QPI’s Stephen Scribner about his plans for a cannabis scoop.
Scribner provided advice about the patenting process, and before long was drafting a patent application for the scoop, which Purvis had named the BNC loader. A U.S. provisional patent application was filed recently.
From there, it was Elza Seregelyi and Rick Boswell who recommended the Wings program to him.
“I’m not a business guy, I’m an idea guy. I needed to learn more about business,” he says.
The experience? In a word: “Awesome. Rick was awesome, the two Mikes [Mike Wells and Mike Lazinski] were awesome. Elsa was there for anything I needed. Any question I had during the week, I’d just send it off and she’d get right back to me.” He hasn’t taken advantage of any other QPI programs as of yet but expects to. “I’ll be keeping in close touch with Queen’s,” he says. “They helped me so much.”
For Purvis, one big takeaway from Wings was realizing what his actual market was. “I was thinking I was more like business to customer, but I learned through Wings I’m more business to business. I have a small product. I can sell them singly but that’s not really going to pull in the revenue. I need to get it to as many distributors as possible.”
Since completing Wings, Purvis has kept busy. Another one of his business endeavours is 3-D printing (he has three machines), and when it comes to his cannabis scoops, he can turn out “up to 950 a day.” He’s developed a logo and sourced packaging and is ready to launch the BNC Loader. Before too long, they may be in cannabis stores everywhere.
“My plan is to have them up front on the counter,” he says. “The way you see lighters now. I’ll have them all up there in different colours."
Queen’s Partnerships and Innovation (QPI) offered the Wings Accelerator program, along with many other programs and services, with support from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, through the ScaleUp Platform, an initiative led by Invest Ottawa in Eastern Ontario and in which QPI is a regional partner.