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The Story Behind Our Name, Logo, and Tagline Each of these items was carefully crafted to showcase the vision for our company and our goals for our clientele. Our name – Ceregem – was created from “cerebrum” and
“gem”. The cerebrum is the part of the brain that enables high level functions, such as learning, thinking, reasoning and problem-solving, which are skills that our software products are designed to cultivate and enhance. Gems are precious and sparkling, just like the insights and understandings that our customers will acquire. These themes are reinforced in our logo - the shape of a brain, exhibiting the carefully cut facets and vivid colors of precious gemstones.
In the same vein, our tagline, “Brilliance in Mind” signifies both the talents we use to develop our products, and the results we intend to generate for our customers.
National Science Foundation Innovation Corps We were honored to be accepted into the prestigious National Science Foundation Innovation Corps program housed at the California State University Northridge (CSUN NSF I-Corps). The goal of the NSF I-Corps program is to aid the inventors of promising new technologies in commercializing their discoveries, and thereby benefitting the larger society.
Being selected as participants reinforced our belief that our simulations had the potential to provide game changing ways in which students prepare for meaningful managerial roles. Through immersive seminars, intensive coaching, and consultations with industry experts, we refined our value proposition and competitive positioning, defined key requirements to develop initial test versions of our novel educational and training software, and finalized our go-to-market strategy. Upon graduating from the I-Corps program, we formally launched our venture in April, 2022.
CSU Demo Day, Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship Our invitation to present at the inaugural CSU Demo Day in October, 2022 provided us with important exposure and new contacts. Hosted by California State University Long Beach (CSULB) and sponsored by Sunstone Management, this event brought together promising start-ups affiliated with the California State University system and successful equity and angel investors. Sunstone
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Management and CSU collaborate to nurture early-stage technology entrepreneurs. CSU Demo Day was a mutually beneficial opportunity for us to pitch our business strategy directly to investors and for those investors to identify the viability of our business venture. We were honored to deliver the kickoff presentation at this promanent event, and to showcase the competitive advantages and market potential of our venture. Not only were our plans for the educational market validated, but we were encouraged to also set our sights on the corporate training industry.
The Brink SBIR Science & Technology Research Workshops In August 2023, we completed a series of Science & Technology Research workshops offered by the Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), and sponsored by Brink at the University of San Diego.
Brink is one of a handful of specialty SBDC in the country focused on innovation. SBDC is an arm of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The sessions were targeted on preparation for highly competitive Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants. The relationship between the SBIR and entrepreneur is mutually beneficial in that it helps the U.S. government meet its research and development goals towards the commercialization of innovation.
We gained expert insights into all aspects of the grant process, including strategy, accessing capital, work plan, budget, letters of intent, productivity and innovation, and other areas required for small business growth and expansion through four intensive weeks of training.
Business Simulation & Experiential Learning (ABSEL) Conference 2024 As experts in the field of business simulations, we remain current by attending conferences, showcasing our key product, and participating in workshops on the latest technologies. We will be presenting at the Association for Business Simulation & Experiential Learning (ABSEL) Conference 2024, one of the oldest societies for gaming and simulation.
Further, ABSEL is connected to International Simulation and Gaming Association (ISAGA). Attendees at ABSEL will be from the U.S. as well as other countries, e.g., UK, Asia.
Our presentation focuses on what students think about simulations.
Qualitative data were collected from eight capstone undergraduate online strategic management classes (263 students) taught from Summer 2020 to Summer 2023. Students in each class played one of four different computer simulations in strategic management, in which the names of the simulations are deliberately not noted.
Key findings were that students enjoyed computer simulations, believed they are a useful tool for understanding the ins-and-outs of running a business, thought they were effective in demonstrating how companies strive to stay ahead of or keep up with the competition, thought it was important that computer simulation be realistic, believed they must reflect the issues that managers face, and thought the level of complexity was not significantly important.