"For me, it was the confidence I got from the whole program that was the most valuable. It clarified my strengths and gave me a foundation in business administration needed to start a company." -John Calian
Turning cell into sell: Movaya founders go international with wireless e-commerce platform
John Calian and Phil Yerkes had a big idea during a TMMBA economics course: what was the revenue potential of selling edgy content over mobile networks? Their concept evolved during the business plan phase: instead of selling pure content, what about building the infrastructure that enables businesses to sell products and services to mobile subscribers?
Yerkes and Calian used their TMMBA knowledge to analyze the business opportunity and launched Movaya Wireless to secure a share of an emerging, multibillion-dollar industry. “We decided to build on our strengths,” said Yerkes, “which are building and selling software to businesses.” Harkening back to the gold rush, when Seattle businesses flourished selling prospecting equipment, Calian explained: “We’re all about supplying people with the tools to find gold.” Movaya’s Platform M connects content generators to consumers and distributors. For businesses with Web-enabled e-commerce systems, Platform M extends their reach to hundreds of thousands of customers that service hundreds of millions of wireless consumers.
The business potential is huge: “We have been refining the market opportunity and we’re niching into a $2 billion industry” Calian said. With angel funding, the two founders left their day jobs and committed to Movaya full-time. Yerkes confirmed that the knowledge he gained in TMMBA entrepreneurship and corporate finance classes was especially valuable. He and Calian re-wrote the original business plan, choosing a leaner, scalable model that gives them added flexibility to grow the company. “Instead of relying on start-up venture capital, we have positioned ourselves to not need a lot of funding to be successful,” Calian added. They also applied a global business strategy to keep the burn rate low – working with Movaya’s Chief Software Architect and EVP Stanley Wang to set up a development office in Chengdu, China. “For me, it was the confidence I got from the whole program that was the most valuable,” Calian emphasized. “It clarified my strengths and gave me a foundation in business administration needed to start a company.”
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