CADcorporation poised to grow through Friends Learn 3-D video game arm

Wednesday, April 6, 2011 | Source: Concentrate

Higher education has been a major inspiration in Bhargav Sri Prakash's business life. It inspired him to start CADcorporation and reinvent it with a potentially big video game spin-off, Friends Learn.

Sri Prakash started CADcorporation in 2001 after taking a business class at the University of Michigan entitled, "Idea to Ideal in 14 Weeks." A little bit of seed capital and team work later, and the budding entrepreneur began to sink his business roots in Ann Arbor.

"The goal of the class wasn't just to work on a business plan but to start a company," Sri Prakash says. "That got me thinking about how I could do this for real."

Today CADcorporation, a simulation technology firm, has 11 employees and six independent contractors and interns. It began experimenting with video games a few years ago and ended up helping the U-M Law School create 3-D video games, now commonly called Vmerse, to recruit students.

That blossomed into Friends Learn, which is producing a line of 3-D video games that revolve around higher education. About 3-5 people at CADcorporation are working on its video game arm. Sri Prakash expects Friends Learn to develop four game titles with 200,000-500,000 users, while expanding the project team to a dozen people. It's part of his plan to spin Friends Learn out into its own company.

"It's poised to take off," Sri Prakash says.

Source: Bhargav Sri Prakash, CEO of CADcorporation
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.