Mount Royal students team up on the golf course and in the boardroom to launch TLink
LaunchPad helps made-at-MRU business tee-off BY BRENDAN GREENSLADE
It’s nearly impossible to call a hole-in-one from the tee box while the ball is still in the air. When the trajectory is straight and the wind is just right — you can hope it’s going to be one heck of a shot. Now, the success of your golf drive might just be getting a little easier to predict. Two Mount Royal students have invented a new tech-savvy device aimed at helping you point your swing in the right direction. 28
SUMMIT – FALL 2014
It’s
a hot summer day at Bearspaw Country Club and Derek Rucki and Stefan Radeta are ready to tee-off. They both stare at their wrists as if they are checking the time. In fact, they’re calculating their next drives using TLink, their flagship invention — a lightweight Bluetooth device that pairs with a smartphone and gives a golfer the front, middle and back yardages to the green. Rucki takes aim, swings effortlessly and the ball takes flight, landing lightly on the green. He smiles with a knowing grin. “My background is golf. I have been playing competitively since 12 years old and did my first two years of university on a scholarship in Texas before coming to Mount Royal,” says the Bachelor of Business Administration — General Management student.
“When GPS golf devices started to hit the market, I tried a few different products, but found them to be bulky, wide, heavy and really just distracting while taking a swing.” Those “bulky” GPS devices are what inspired Rucki to design the first prototype of TLink in 2013, which he debuted at Mount Royal’s LaunchPad competition — a Dragons’ Den-style business proposal event for over $50,000 in cash and prizes. It was during LaunchPad 2013 when Rucki first met Radeta, a fourth-year Bachelor of Computer Information Systems student who was also pitching his own idea, a mobile app. The two quickly saw potential in teaming up. Rucki’s business acumen and passion for golf, combined with Radeta’s technical savoir-faire lead the twosome to combine talents. »