How Shepherd Intelligent Systems got its start is the way University of Michigan officials anticipate a lot of future start-ups will launch.

The 5-month-old U-M spin-off began as the project of U-M engineering student Jahan Khanna. He was creating software that gives riders the real-time position of university buses and realized it had broad commercial potential. So Jahan teamed up with U-M MBA student Adrian Fortino to start the firm, which now employs four people in downtown.

Today the self-funded firm (it doesn't want to go the venture capital route) is working on a pilot project with the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority. The program would let users of one of AATA's routes see the location of their bus and its estimated arrival time on their computers or smart phones. The idea is to eliminate long wait times or missed buses.

"I'd like the company to become the key transportation service for several mid major cities across the country," Fortino says. "We'd like to be at least dominating Ann Arbor with our service."

The company plans to target mostly college towns across North America next year. The idea is the software works better for smaller transportation systems at this stage of its development.

"Those college towns will be a really good fit for us," Fortino says.

Source: Adrian Fortino, CEO of Shepherd Intelligent Systems
Writer: Jon Zemke