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WisBusiness: BrainReactions founder’s idea? Build a company around ideas
4/5/2007

By Bryan Manke
WisBusiness.com

MADISON – Call it organized creativity or a focus group on steroids. But however you describe BrainReactions, there’s no denying the idea is gaining attention.

Founded by UW-Madison graduate Anand Chhatpar, BrainReactions is a company that works closely with its clients to innovate new products and to test-market new concepts by conducting brainstorming sessions.

In late 2005, CEO Chhatpar was named one of the five “Best Entrepreneurs Under 25” by Business Week magazine, a designation that has helped spread BrainReactions notoriety in wider circles – and opened the door to international business opportunities.

BrainReactions is a pool of professional brainstormers who create new product features, rack new market segments and develop customer-service improvements for clients such as Bank of America and Proctor & Gamble. These sessions attempt to get the most creative and cutting-edge ideas for companies.

Although this may seem simple, BrainReactions is leading what Chhatpar call the “open innovation movement,” helping companies get inspiration from their most creative customers.

“The point of brainstorms is not to come up with one perfect idea that the company immediately puts to use (although we’ve done that before), but to generate hundreds of new concepts and directions coming straight from their target market that were not thought about before within the client’s company.” Chhatpar said.

BrainReactions works by using a scoring and ranking system. This system helps Anand and his clients find the most unique ideas. Using both research and experimentation BrainReactions is able to come up with ideas that are not only creative but effective.

Three questions Chhatpar asks himself when evaluating an idea are: Will this idea change the customer expectation? Will this idea change the competitive landscape? Will this idea change the economics of the industry?

“The amount of ideas the students generated is truly astonishing and we are all greatly impressed by the breath and extent the entire process has taken, said Amil Husain, global youth coordinator for the Millenium Campaign.

“I have submitted the ideas to our entire global team and am already receiving very good feedback from out coordinators on the ground. I am sure the ideas generated during these sessions will assist our country campaigns to mobilize more young people to take action on the goals.”

The reason these sessions are so successful is due to the screening process used by Anand and his company. First, they find creative 18- to 30-year-olds nominated from various business contests, leadership retreats, or even film-making contests.

From here, the best are trained further on idea-generation techniques to boost quality and quantity of ideas. Finally, the challenge begins when the problem is given to these individuals by the clients.

By the end of these sessions the company receives a web-based report that can be shared within the company, an executive summary highlighting the themes and favorite ideas, and a complete ideas list with concept visualizations including sketches and animations of the most inspiring concepts.

Less than two years ago, Chhatpar was the company’s only full-time employee with an idea. Today, Chhatpar along with two close friends and continual help from numerous ”brainstormers,” has built a company. Not bad for a guy who’s still just 25.

Manke is a student in the UW-Madison Department of Life Sciences Communication.


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