A group of five students from the 11-Month MBA program were able to directly impact a new company by way of naming the new entity.
The student team partnered with entrepreneur, Rich McNamara, who had started a math-based home-school curriculum company in 2014. Like many entrepreneurs, McNamara had a great idea and the skills to back it up. But, he continued to struggle with what to name his new company. With a niche audience and unique offering, McNamara, a PhD in Applied Math, felt he was too close to the product and couldn’t decide on a protectable name that would appeal to his customers – high-school math students and their families.
The group, which included Katy Lane, Tracy Meyer, Brian Rogers, Ashton Santee, and Chris Yang, worked with McNamara over the course of four weeks to develop ideas, taking into consideration McNamara’s teaching style. Out of hundreds of options, the group recommended three finalists, and fleshed out taglines and logos for each. The team presented their recommendations to the client, who was immediately excited about the range of options. After some deliberation, and conversations with his patent lawyer, McNamara decided on the name Mathlingual, with the tagline Math Fluency for Math Proficiency. The students came up with this name as a result of McNamara’s approach to teaching math – rather than teaching rote memorization, he teaches advanced mathematic concepts like a foreign language. The name Mathlingual conveys the product focus and core differentiator.
Of his experience, McNamara said, “I had a terrific experience working with a team of five students. Their enthusiasm, thoroughness, creativity, interpersonal skills, and overall quality of work were all excellent. I consider this partnership to have been a complete success.”
The project was brought to the 11-Month MBA program through Richard Smolenski, global sales consultant and charter member of TiE Rockies. The 11-Month Program has an informal partnership with TiE Rockies to connect students with local business leaders, and develop mutually-beneficial projects for the Business Collaboration program. Smolenski’s work with McNamara’s business allowed him to leverage this partnership, and connect this growing company with the CU Denver MBA students. Smolenski’s insights into the process of naming companies was invaluable to the group. He has been a part of naming hundreds of companies over his career, and provided a framework to the students that they would not have otherwise learned.
The students who participated in this project come from various backgrounds and were drawn to the opportunity for different reasons. Some are interested in entrepreneurship, and will use this framework in their careers moving forward. Others wanted to experience a more creative project that would allow them to “think outside the box.” All of the participants can now proudly see the results of their hard work with the marketing and success of Mathlingual. For more information about Mathlingual, please visit their website at http://www.mathlingual.com/
For more information about how you can partner with the 11-Month MBA program on Business Collaborations, please contact Jill Lohmiller at jill.lohmiller@ucdenver.edu
