Rather than trying to find a job after graduation, 2008 UBC Sauder alumna Florence Leung and her team began their own business which has garnered much success since its inception. She has a UBC course to thank for that.

Leung’s company, PeerFX, is an online peer-to-peer currency exchange solution that cuts out the middleman and passes savings on to its customers. PeerFX is now in a partnership with the BC Technology Industry Association (BCTIA), BC’s leading technology association.

“It significantly increased our credibility,” said Leung, president and CEO of PeerFX. The partnership was developed because BCTIA’s members have significant business relations with US-based constituents, meaning members would either receive or pay US dollars.

Under the partnership agreement, BCTIA’s over 2100 members will save up to 75 per cent on transaction fees by avoiding hefty bank transaction fees. An exchange of $100,000 could save a customer close to $2000, so the cost savings to companies that do business in both Canada and the US can be staggering.

In addition to hard work, Leung credits her successes to an innovative and interdisciplinary undergraduate UBC course called New Venture Design. Established in 2005, the two-term course allows business and engineering students to work together to create new consumer products and bring them to market.

“What I got out of the class is the fact that we really need to take initiative and sell [our] business plan out there,” said Leung, “the course really nurtured entrepreneurs, providing a place for ideas to develop.”

The course is taught by UBC Engineering professors Peter Lawrence and Philippe Kruchten, and Sauder professors Darren Dahl and Paul Cubbon.

“This course is designed to give people a bridge from learning at school to rival industries and businesses,” said Cubbon, “We’ve combined the Engineers and Commerce [students] for a reason: a joined skill set that will likely be more successful than just Commerce.”

“It’s very different from your average classroom,” said Kruchten, “It’s not just old professor pushing PowerPoint slides in front of bored students, we connect them with speakers about business, manufacturing, patent laws, and so on.”

Other teams from the course are making their mark. Energy Aware, a team from 2005, will be showcasing their energy-monitoring product in the Olympic Village during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. Another team from last year, called EasyPlug, placed within the top 30 for the New Venture BC competition—the only student-based company to do so.    

“The course requires very motivated students…someone who wants to build things and takes risks. It also requires teamwork, since it’s especially challenging to make Commerce and Engineers work with each other,” said Krutchen.

Currently the course is funded by UBC alumnus and Vancouver entrepreneur Ken Spencer, co-founder of Creo, which provides up to $2000 per group as a starting budget.

Any third-year Commerce or Engineering student can apply for the course at the end of year and will be assessed via interview. “Last year we had nearly 100 applicants, but only 31 were accepted to the program,” said Cubbon.

“If we need to expand the program, we need more donors,” said Krutchen.

PeerFX has since gained local fame. It was featured on CBC’s show Dragon’s Den last year and received an offer of $250,000 (from venture new capital funding), but due to disparities on the division of the company’s share, the offer was turned down after the show. “It was not a good business offer, they made a good decision to turn them down,” said Cubbon.

Since declining Dragon’s offer, Leung has been bootstrapping the business, entering competitions and asking for donations which led to a $125,000 grant from government funding in 2008. Landing in the top ten for many competitions, PeerFX kept up positive feedback and presented their project to local businesses—where they landed the partnership deal with BCTIA.

PeerFX is looking ahead to expand their company. “We are looking at growing out of Canadian and US relations and moving towards Europe, Asia,” said Leung. “Right now the banks are charging about four per cent for transaction fees and we are aiming to bring that down to zero per cent so that everyone has access to the competitive price.”

“A multicurrency [exchange] with a peer-to-peer program will wipe out the entire banking transaction system,“ she said.

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