Portland State Magazine Spring 2014

SPRING 2014 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 15 That leads to the next step in launching a new product: Establish an online presence to get your product out there and find what sparks people’s interest. “Social media presents an unprecedented opportunity to inform people about your product or your product idea and get feedback,” Jetter says. Sometimes it’s clear that the market is begging for a good solu- tion to an urgent problem. Ryan Jenson is an Oregon farm boy and engineering genius who earned his bachelor’s and master’s in electrical and mechanical engineering from PSU. He was having a conversation with a family friend about crop spraying and realized that it is an all or nothing endeavor; there was no way to target a problem area with a crop dusting plane. “He mentioned that people were looking into spot spraying with technology,” Jenson says. “I figured you could do that with robots.” With that idea, Jenson founded HoneyComb, a company that builds agriculture surveying drones that use imaging and mapping to precisely locate problem areas suitable for targeted spraying. FINALLY, the experts say, don’t try to launch by yourself. Parker worked with classmate Michael Gray, also a MIM program grad- uate, to turn his GlobeSherpa idea into something useful and marketable. McNames’ APDM has a licensing agreement with the PSU Business Accelerator, and has increased revenue each of its six years. It now employs 16 people. Jenson combined his engineering virtuoso with two friends’ skill sets—Ben Howard’s software expertise and John Faus’ marketing skills—to create an agriculture drone with potential for a worldwide market. “Good ideas are worth pennies—they’re the least important element of success,” McNames says. “I would rather have a strong team, with trust, commitment and a terrible idea, than a great idea and no team, or a great idea and a team that works badly together. Product ideas are always changed, but a bad team will sink you.”  Meg DesCamp, a Portland freelance writer, is a frequent contributor to Portland State Magazine. ENROLL IN A DEGREE PROGRAM School of Business Administration Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science: Engineering and Technology Management ENROLL IN A CERTIFICATE PROGRAM Athletic and Outdoor Product Management Business of Craft Brewing Project Management Business of Social Innovation WORK WITH A STUDENT TEAM Business Outreach Program Business Strategy Capstone MBA Consulting Project INCUBATE A TECHNOLOGY COMPANY PSU Business Accelerator VISIT pdx.edu/magazine/business for details Getting smart about business