DYMO/Mimio co-founder Manny Perez
Manny Perez holds a Masters of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1997, while attending MIT, Perez and four of his classmates founded a company called Virtual Ink and entered the annual MIT $50K Competition. The business plan they entered centered around a device called Mimio which was a device that allowed instructors to record and save notes given on a normal whiteboard, this would allow students to pay attention to the lectures rather than madly copy notes without having the chance to comprehend what was being said in class. Essentially, the Mimio device would convert a seemingly ordinary whiteboard into an interactive whiteboard that would allow the user to interact with the computer when connected. The device attached to the normal whiteboard using magnets and consisted of a pen that emitted ultra-sonic radio waves that would be used to triangulate the placement of the pen from the reciever.
The device, wich was called Mimio, won the second runner up prize in the 1997 $50K Competition with their business plan and product. Virtual Ink eventually became known as Mimio and in 2006 was purchased by the Newell Rubbermaid Company. Today, DYMO/Mimio produces products that allow teachers and students to interact through wireless means wich include graphics tablets, voting systems, document cameras and capture systems. Mimio also produces software packages that complement the system and increase the ease of use for the Mimio system.
Manny Perez still works with Mimio and is currently the General Manager of the company and is still involved in the operations of Mimio and the new advances and technologies it produces for the classroom. With his strong background in computer science and his obvious enthusiasm directed towards the quality products produced by Mimio, Manny Perez will continue to be an inspirational and effective leader in an already successful educational technology venture.
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Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
Denise 3:40 am on June 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Interesting ‘exit strategy” for Manny Perez. Company bought out after 9 years, and he has worked as director of research and development and now General Manager. Not a CEO but in the positions that allow him to continue to be innovative.
I wonder – is he an innovator or entrepreneur? Or unusually both?
Denise
Yves Mainville 11:06 am on June 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I would think pretty well timed too… with the onslaught of ‘whteboard’/’mimio’-like apps on the iPad, android, etc., it would appear that the mimio is in a shrinking market, no? I know in my board, we are phasing them out in favor of tablet solutions that can essentially do the same and so much more. Not always good to have a multi-faceted device as it can lead to distraction and such, however, in a time where budgets are tightening, it is pretty typical to want to ‘maximize’ the investment.