It was a fall afternoon at the University of Missouri Kansas City in the “Advanced Software Engineering” class where three geeks sitting in the corner of the room looked at each other and agreed to become a team for their class capstone project. This serendipitous grouping turned out to be an aha moment for Merwan, who explained the problem and a plausible solution to Cameron, and Tonderai. With Cameron’s technical leadership they aced the class project and built the groundwork for a robust prototype.

When it became apparent, they had built more than a class project, Tonderai encouraged the team to take this to the next level by forming a company and participating in startup competitions.

After a successful year of winnings in the Kansas City area, another serendipitous moment happened when Merwan met Kashif, the guru - problem solver and a serial entrepreneur. They were acquainted with each other for the last five years and would often chat about airplanes and flying, but it was an immediate connection for Kashif when Merwan unwrapped the story of Air Traffic Awareness.

After a few fun and productive meetings, and several co-creative sessions, the three Geeks and the Guru found meaning and synergy to startup Air Traffic Awareness as it is today.