Building the FREDsense Team

The team is a critical component of any business and is therefore of critical importance to ensure our success within FREDsense. FREDsense was born out of the Calgary 2012 iGEM project, which developed the initial ideas for the technology behind our toxin detecting device. While the team was composed of over 30 students, six key players have joined together to develop this technology into a feasible business. Because of the number of students and professors which were involved in the previous year's project, numerous tasks were assigned to determine our group's right to operate within the framework of the iGEM competition. Our approach to IP protection, and how we have collected our intellectual property can be found in the IP section of the wiki.

Research and Development

In order to develop our flagship product as well as further generations of the system, our research and development group will require individuals with backgrounds in a diverse array of scientific disciplines. For work on the biosensor component of the system, personnel with expertise in biochemistry, genetics, and microbiology will be required. Expertise will also be required in the fields of electrochemistry and analytical chemistry in order to continue work and development on the output of the system. Our team has extensive forma training and experience in these areas which will facilitate the development of this aspect of the technology, Individuals with expertise in the fields of chemical, software, and hardware engineering will be required in order to develop the field-portable prototype device and the data transmission, management, and processing components of the system. As such, after the first research and development milestones are achieved, it will be necessary to bring on individuals with these skill sets in order to compliment our existing technical knowledge. During the initial stages of product development, our Chief Technical Officers, Robert Mayall and Maggie Renaud-Young will take the lead. Over the three years of our financial plan, we have budgeted to bring on additional individuals as skillsets are needed; namely an additional geneticist and electrochemist in 2014 as well as an electrical engineer and a software engineer in 2015. These positions will all be compensated with salary, as outlined in the budget. As for all hired employees, we will target young, bright, recent graduates with demonstrated proficiency in order to keep costs affordable during our first five years.

Production and Quality Assurance

Once the development of our technology is further along, we will need to obtain skillsets in quality control and manufacturing. In order to develop our prototype and products, we have established a partnership with a group with expertise in manufacturing and industrial design here in Alberta: ACAMP. A not-for profit group, ACAMP is well established with a mandate of helping small technology-based businesses overcome hurdles related to manufacturing and quality assurance. As such, acamp will help design and implement the production strategy for our product. We feel that a strong partnership with ACAMP will help to ensure that our product will be developed in a cost effective manner and still meet the needs of our customers. Additionally, it will allow us to focus on other aspects of the business as the founding members so not have substantial experience in manufacturing design and operations. Our research and development team will work closely with the manufacturing team, in order to ensure that the required product specifications are incorporated into the final design. Our Chief Operations officer, Iain George, will ensure that production, quality assurance, and distribution processes are streamlined and that deadlines are met. In addition, in 2016, when operations will begin to ramp up, we will be hiring an operations manager in order to take over this position. This will also be a salary-based position as reflected in our five-year budget. In addition, 2 members will be hired in 2016 in order to help with the manufacturing and distribution of cartridges that will be done in-house at FREDsense Technologies.

Marketing and Sales

In order to properly market our product, we will need personnel with expertise in sales and marketing. This will allow us to to create an effective marketing strategy to achieve maximum market penetration. In addition, we will need to consult with business strategy and marketing professionals in order to conduct in-depth market and industry analyses for both our first target market as well as any future generation products that are produced. Our Chief Marketing Officer, Lisa Oberding will take the lead in this area, ensuring that we are creating products for which there is a need in the market, identifying potential market opportunities and market penetration issues, as well as designing our products in a way that meets the needs of our end-users and the demands of industry. We have a partnership already established with HydroQual Laboratories, an accredited toxicity monitoring company in Alberta. As a prospective customer, we have already begun conversation with them in order to better understand the diverse needs of this market. With major research and development activities wrapping up in 2015, we will at this point bring on a marketing officer in order to further these activities. This will also be a paid position.

Administration and Business Development

Personnel with expertise in administration and business development will need to be acquired in order to ensure the company is run in an effective and profitable manner. Specifically, a Chief Financial Officer with experience in accounting and corporate finances will be required in order to oversee and manage company finances. This position will be filled during the first full year of operations, by the end of 2014 and will be compensated by shares in the company. We will also require legal experts, both in corporate law as well as in intellectual property protection, to protect the interests of the company and its members. These roles will be outsourced on an as-needed basis as reflected in the legal section of our budget. To manage personnel in the company as further key individuals are brought in, we will acquire a part time administrative assistant in 2016 when production begins to ramp up. Finally, during the first five years, should the need arise, we are preparing to take on a new Chief Executive Officer, replacing Emily Hicks and David Lloyd. Although they will be responsible for overseeing the overall direction of the company during its initial startup phase, with growth of the company, it will likely be important to attract someone with significant experience in this. This move may also allow us to be better positioned to obtain venture capitalist funding needed for late-stage production costs.

With a core group of individuals identified to lead the company through it's early development, it was additionally important to determine what positions our company would need in order to have success. While our present group has a detailed technical background, we lacked the business and legal framework required to achieve success within the company. We identified the most critical components of our business could be grouped into four key divisions listed below:

While many of these positions are not of critical importance within an early start-up framework, our group aims to bring on players with key skill sets in all four of these major divisions of our company. Achieving an advisory board (detailed below) of strong players with technical, business, and legal expertise has been our first step in bringing the right people into our company. The evolution of our team will occur as skill sets are needed, identifying business and technical experts to aid in engineering and prototype development of our system and in financial recording and accounting.

Company Structure

Our group has divided ourselves into distinct roles in order to achieve our goals. These include the roles of Chief Technical Officers Robert Mayall and Maggie Renaud-Young both who have extensive experience in developing our technology further. Both have a strong technical background as well as significant experience working together. Robert has the primary technical experience in the electrochemistry and will be leading the development of the electrochemical reporting side of things, Maggie, with a background in molecular genetics, will be leading the strain development. Our Chief Operating Officer, Iain George, has had extensive experience managing iGEM projects as well as experience in environmental microbiology. With his proven skills in enforcing deadlines, he will ensure the timely delivery of our technology on budget. Lisa Oberding, our Chief Marketing Officer has been instrumental in constructing our market evaluation and will be responsible for ensuring our product is developed with an appropriate end-user focus. With formal training in petroleum microbiology, Lisa will be critical in assuring the design of our product meets the needs of the industry. In addition, with significant experience in graphic design, she will be responsible for advertising and marketing of our product through web, print, and other media outlets. Finally, David Lloyd and Emily Hicks act as chief executive officers of the company with roles of identifying potential avenues of funding, ensuring the communication of our project effectively to our board of directors, and developing our business. With significant experience advising iGEM teams over the past three years, they have both acquired the strong management and communication skills skills required for this role. While David has a strong technical background in biochemistry and demonstrated leadership skills, Emily brings her strong communication and public speaking skills to the team. This breakdown incorporated into our team requirements can be seen below:

Incorporation

As a next step for our group, our six members have begun the process of incorporating our business. This has involved engaging legal professionals to maintain the rights of our company FREDsense Technologies. We have established a share structure, secured the name FREDsense Technologies, and begun to protect our identity as a corporation. We have also created an unanimous shareholders agreement (USA) to ensure that our team is working together strongly to build this company up in the future.