Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Spencer Selhi’s entrepreneurial journey can be traced back to 2011 after he watched an inventor on CBC Dragons’ Den pitch a duffel bag that opened into shelving. The demonstration made him think of his own pain point – that of constantly packing and unpacking throughout his career as a pilot with the Canadian Armed Forces.
“I was looking at how travellers interact with their luggage, trying to make their experience a little smoother and without the need to take all those extra steps in the packing-and-unpacking process,” Selhi explained.
“I’ve experienced the pain as a pilot who has travelled on a regular basis, and there was nothing I saw on the market to help alleviate that.”
Selhi, from Brighton, Ont., took his aviation experience with him when he embarked on a mission to make travel easier and more sustainable through innovation.
A graduate of Kingston’s Royal Military College (RMC, Bachelor of Engineering and Masters in Defence Studies) and recently retired as a Canadian Armed Forces Pilot and Commander, Selhi was looking for a “soft landing” for his new company in the summer of 2018. He found that and more at Venture13, where he established his corporate offices.
Venture13 is a collaborative work environment where a start-up entrepreneur can purchase a monthly membership and take advantage of common infrastructure, such as a furnished dedicated seat or office, Wi-Fi connection and printing, 24/7 secure site access, flexible space and meeting rooms, community kitchen, restroom facilities and lockers, and access to seminar rooms and lecture hall for corporate meetings and product demonstrations.
Start-ups at Venture13 work alongside community innovation organizations like Northumberland Manufacturers’ Association and Northumberland Makers, and meet with advisors in residence from Spark Centre, Durham College, Ontario Centres of Excellence and beyond, to connect with opportunities across the regional “ecosystem” of organizations supporting entrepreneurship and innovation in Ontario.
RueBel also partnered on product development and engineering with Design 1st, a firm based in Ottawa. The luggage system itself has gone through multiple iterations, including test marketing on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter.
Looking like a standard carry-on bag with wheels and extendable handle, Selhi’s luggage system also features an integrated hook. After arriving in their room, travellers simply lift it up and hang it (in a closet, or perhaps over the back of the hotel-room door), then open it and pull out the extendable rod where the clothes are already hung up.
“You can open it up, and everything is hanging there with no need to do anything else. Everything is there to access when you need it,” Selhi explained.
“Then when it’s time to leave, you hang your clothes back on the extendable rod, roll it up and close it.”
The suitcase also features removable packing cubes as well as mesh pockets for shoes, toiletries, electronics and travel documents.
Large exterior pockets help the traveller maximize luggage space. Selhi pointed out a side pocket that can hold a water bottle, charger or tablet, as well as large front pockets to make anything you might need more accessible.
At Venture13, Selhi accessed the Community Futures Program and the N1M seed funding program at Northumberland CFDC, which helped him invest in the second version of his prototype as well as his manufacturing solution. The support quickly accelerated RueBel on a path to market.
In the VentureZone at Venture13, Selhi also met Brian Read, a fellow RMC engineering graduate. Read is an honourary colonel (CFB Trenton) and former owner of Horizon Plastics in Cobourg, who offered to help Selhi with key design and manufacturing insights, connections and opportunities.
Selhi is by all accounts a young entrepreneur, but he also looks back on a formidable 21-year career with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He grew up in Georgetown and graduated from Kingston’s Royal Military College (Class of 2001). After flight training, he ended up at CFB Trenton flying the big Hercules transport planes, when not otherwise posted to multiple deployments in Afghanistan and a couple of staff tours in Ottawa.
“I then finished my career as a commanding officer in one of the transport squadrons,” Selhi remarked.
“A fantastic career – lots of excitement, working with tremendous teammates to accomplish missions on behalf of the Government of Canada.
“I look back on all the experiences, and it’s put me in a position…to make the leap into a second career where I didn’t necessary have all the skills or knowledge, but I knew that I could acquire them,” Selhi said.
“And at the same time, I do have the social network to help support me through all the challenges that I experience. It has been a real pleasure having the opportunity to broaden my horizons and learn new things.”
Selhi was aware of such fields as marketing, manufacturing, finance and logistics, but now he is living them in depth as the CEO of his own company. Doing this with the multi-faceted backing of Northumberland CFDC is one “vital key” to his success, he said.
The future looks bright for Selhi and RueBel. The luggage system is a wonder of function and industrial design.
“If it doesn’t solve a problem, there’s no real benefit or value for potential customers,” he said.
For the RueBel customer – a frequent traveller who has spent time unpacking in too many hotel rooms – a solution is in sight.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
