JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

TECHNOFILEAbove, Since 2009, revenuesfor Davis McGregor’s MobileData Technologies havegrown more than 50-fold.Opposite, top, outsourcingelements of production hasallowed Tanya and RyanClarke of Dr. ScientistSounds to keep workingfrom home and meetbooming demand.Opposite, bottom, after afew hard years, Innovequity’sMark Holtom (left) andBen Bertrand have leadsfor their automatedhomebuilding technology.web extraRead the original stories andget updates on other previouslyfeatured innovations by visitingtechlifemag.ca/updatesfall-2012.htm.Dollars for dataFrom Firestarter, Vol. 3.2few entrepreneurs opt to keepbootstrapping when investorscome to the table. Yet the fourengineers behind Mobile DataTechnologies, which designsand sells sensor monitoring andrecording units for the oil andgas industry, decided that itwasn’t the right time for externalinvestment – despite a successfulpitch to the angel investors ofthe VentureAlberta Forum inearly 2010.Less than a year later,however, it was a different story.In early 2010, Mobile DataTechnologies was selling aboutthree units a month. In August,it sold seven. In November, itsold 11 in a single day – and 16that month. By late 2010, theformer novaNAIT incubator clientneeded a cash infusion to keeppace. Mobile Data Technologiesgot the investment needed andmoved into a 560-square-metre(6,000-square-foot) shop inAcheson, a few minutes west ofEdmonton. The company alsostarted hiring, expanding fromfive employees to its current24. Today, the product line hasgrown considerably, anddemand has been so high thateager customers have boughtthe prototypes for systems stillin development.As its 2011-12 fiscal yearcloses, the company is exactlywhere president and CEO DavisMcGregor predicted in his initialpitch to the VentureAlbertainvestors. Back then, he forecastsales to grow from $114,000in 2009 to $5.8 million in 2012.With sales for the year closingin on $6 million, “We’re right ontrack,” he says. “We’re actuallyahead of that curve.”Mobile Data Technologies hassince expanded from WesternCanada into the United States,and sales south of the border willbe the company’s focus for thecoming year. By 2015, McGregorexpects the focus to shift evenfurther afield. In the meantime,the company’s engineers areworking on a prototype for a newproduct – a prototype they hadnot intended to sell. Demand,however, proved too great. “Onceagain, the customer stepped upand said this is what we neednow,” McGregor says.18 techlifemag.ca