Resources act as catalyst for change

Ben Pearman — Chinook Aerosports

Ben Pearman is a fourth-year business student and the founder of Chinook Aerosports, a disc golf startup that creates community-driven products that improve the game and grow the sport. He explains that MRU acted as a catalyst for his personal and professional growth.

“I believe the ability to innovate is something that I’ve always had, but I just didn’t know what it was for a long time. This ability was dormant for most of my life. It wasn’t until I went to MRU that I realized how to use it in a beneficial way for myself and others.”

As a student founder in five full-time courses, Pearman says that getting connected to MRU’s innovative community not only added value to his time at MRU, but paved the way for increased success.

“I thought my business idea was impossible until I talked to people at the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE), who said that it could happen,” Pearman says.

“The fact that MRU’s innovation community is so broad allowed me to gain knowledge in so many different areas. For example, I was able to bring another student on to my business from the computer information systems program, who has been such a major help. I wouldn’t have met him unless MRU brought us together.”

During his time at MRU, Pearman made the effort to view his education as an innovative tool that goes beyond just the classroom. He attributes much of this mindset to the IIE’s experiential LaunchPad program, which supports MRU students in their entrepreneurial journeys by helping them build their own companies, projects, ideas, networks and careers. Through this program, students foster peer-to-peer mentorship, receive guidance from industry experts and have various opportunities for funding.

Pearman explains the IIE has acted as an invaluable resource both personally and professionally.

Ben Pearman is the founder of Chinook Aerosports, a disc golf startup that creates community-driven products that improve the game and grow the sport.

“I was able to make so many connections within the Institute — the team there is just ‘A-plus’ and they helped me get connected with things outside of school. They connected me with Platform Calgary, and Deltatee, an engineering firm, was hugely helpful for my business in terms of testing the feasibility of my product,” Pearman explains.

“The whole Institute team is great for checking in with you and making sure that you’re still going, which is so necessary. As a student founder, you need people to hold you accountable.”

After launching Chinook Aerosports in 2020, Pearman stresses the importance of taking advantage of MRU’s various campus resources. He believes his business wouldn’t have become a reality without the Maker Studio, a makerspace that provides creativity and design skill building and offers a variety of tools and technologies for prototyping such as laser cutting, 3D-printing, 3D-scanning, sewing, electronics, robotics and more.

“The Maker Studio was huge for my business early on. I was like, ‘I want to make a product. I want to make a physical thing, but I have no idea how to do that.’ Experts at the Maker Studio taught me the fundamentals of physical manufacturing and introduced me to the various prototype programs, how to design things in CAD (computer-aided design), and how to get access to some really expensive software programs,” Pearman says.

“The first three product prototypes I made came from the Maker Studio. I think I used two of the 3D printers there to make my initial prototypes. It was such a crucial resource and it proved that I could do it.”

Pearman culminated his four years at MRU by taking home close to $30,000 from the 2021 JMH LaunchPad Pitch Competition and believes the campus is a pioneer in innovative and experiential learning.

June 1, 2021 — Sarah Green