Adegbola Orobiyi-Rhodes | Contributor
Featured image: Schulich’s Start-Up Day granted Chan the resources to launch their real estate company. | Amir Yazdanparast
A Schulich School of Business undergraduate student has successfully launched a 3D real estate company.
Jimmy Chan, a fourth-year student, and his business partner Sahil Jaggi, founder of Mink Homes, have been working on Odyssey 3D since winning the Schulich Start-Up Day in November 2016.
The system was developed as a means of eradicating the natural way customers view and buy houses by providing a viewing experience in a convenient way through tablets, phones or laptops.
Chan said the aim was to build upon the traditional concept of virtual tours and real estate photography.
“Photo galleries, 360-degree panoramas and fly-through videos lack the perspective and feel that millennial first-time home buyers crave,” he told YFile.
With the use of high-end cameras, Chan is able to capture not just the basic photo of a house, but also the 3D properties it possesses.
“We use the most cutting-edge technology to create virtual reality and open house immersive experiences that make you feel like you’re actually there,” he stated.
Odyssey 3D began as an idea to combat inefficiency in the real estate industry while Chan was studying technology entrepreneurship at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel last summer thanks to an elective course with York’s Lassonde School of Engineering.
Odyssey 3D also serves other clients, such as manufacturing industries, non-governmental organizations and universities, as a way of showcasing campuses to international students.
Viren Harjani, third-year Schulich business administration student, feels that the success of Schulich’s start-up competition will motivate students.
“It definitely shows what Schulich students are capable of. Odyssey 3D has set the bar of expectation high, which motivates me and my peers to achieve and overcome challenges,” he says.
Chan and Jaggi are currently based in the BEST Lab at York’s Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence under a year-long business mentorship from Schulich Entrepreneur-in-Residence Chris Carder, co-founder of Kinetic Café.
With files from Jonny Chard
I’m imspersed. You’ve really raised the bar with that.