Innovation Straight from Campus: 6 Startups Founded by University Students
Driven by the success Zuckerberg, Jobs and many other important entrepreneurship figures of our age, many startup founders decide that their student days are the best possible time to create a company.
Judging from the number of success stories that include some big names such as Oracle, Dell, and Dropbox, they are usually right. Now it may be hard to believe that the founders of these global brands once operated from their dorm rooms, but this is exactly why their stories are so inspiring. It seems that all they needed was an awesome idea and readiness to dedicate their time to developing it.
Of course, some strategic steps had to be taken, as well. These are mostly related to pitching to investors and collecting funds, but even this doesn’t have to be that difficult for students. On the contrary, these figures clearly show that the amounts of venture capital raised by graduates are by no means negligible. With $4.1B raised by Harvard graduates and $3.7B raised by those from Stanford, these two universities prove that college days can truly be a great time for success.
Below, we present six recent startup success stories that started at college and that we hope will inspire you to follow your business dreams.
1. InDinero by Berkley’s Jessica Mah
Only a day after graduating from UC Berkley’s computer science program, Jessica Mah, an already experienced entrepreneur (at the age of 20!) joined Y Combinator for a summer program. After three months, she managed to raise $1.2 million for the seed round of her new company that achieved a notable success shortly afterward.
Mah’s company InDinero is software that combines accounting, payroll and tax filing services to help small businesses handle these issues more efficiently. The idea came after she herself faced similar problems and saw that no such help is available to the people like her. She also understood that accounting is the field that calls for innovation and she worked out a plan to change it. The company now counts over 75 employees and more than $8 million angel investments.
2. Hoot.me by Michael Koetting from University of Texas at Austin
The brilliant idea to connect social networking and homework has already been featured in one of our blog posts. This is mostly because we believe that Michael Koetting’s Hoot.me represents a revolutionary network for modern age students, who are used to spending a great deal of time on social networks.
Developed during Koetting’s studies at the University of Texas at Austin, Hoot.me emerged as a way to make social networking more productive. By connecting Facebook with LMS like Canvas and Blackboard, the network enables students and instructors to communicate more efficiently. The idea was initially presented as a business plan at a UT Business Honors Program, where Koetting realized he could actually build something from it. Today, Hoot.me engages thousands of students and instructors all over the world.
3. Lickability by NJIT’s Matt Bischoff
New Jersey is a growing community for high-tech startups, where early-stage companies have lots of growth opportunities. Students at New Jersey Institute of Technology are often a part of this community, regularly introducing new projects and ideas to the market.
One of the best success stories coming from this renowned US University is the story of Matt Bischoff, a Human-Computer interaction major who founded his own app development company called Lickability. His initiative and quality of work are recognized by many major brands and he was recently hired by The New York Times as a mobile software developer. Bischoff is a great example of a student whose innovation potential and dedication paid off.
4. Naturi by Carnegie Mellon University graduates
The idea of a startup whose aim is to provide the market with another type of yogurt may not seem all that innovative at first. However, Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business graduates Aditya Dhere, Anes Dracic, and Jennifer Mrzlack knew exactly what they were doing when they were starting their company. Naturi produces premium, organic Greek yogurt with exotic ingredients and low amounts of sugar.
The primary wish of the founders was to provide the market with a fully natural Greek yogurt made of organic ingredients. Dhere, an American-born Indian and Dacic, a Bosnian refugee to whom Naturi was a graduate project, both have mothers who made home-made yogurt. Thus, it could be said that it is in their blood to make a good and natural yogurt, which is what makes their idea original. The startup is supported by the University’s Open Field Entrepreneurs Fund whose goal is to provide funds for early stage businesses started by the University’s alumni who have graduated within the past few years.
5. Grant Fellow LLC by Penn undergraduates
Grant Fellow LLC is another idea that was conceived based on problems the founders themselves faced at a certain moment. Realizing how complex the process of applying for grant funding is, University of Pennsylvania undergraduates Grace Truong, John Lu and Nick Liu decided to offer a solution. Their idea was to simplify the whole process and help students who face similar problems when trying to apply for grants. Considering the success that followed, their idea was huge.
Grant Fellow LLC is only one of such stories coming from Penn, where people with a great idea have enough support to develop it. For example, enthusiastic entrepreneurs from Penn also have the support of Penn Center for Innovation, which helps the most exciting projects enter the market as commercial products. PCI works in partnership with the University, providing more opportunities for Penn innovators to achieve their goals.
6. Kokonuzz by ESADE’s Alexis Batista
Somewhat unexpected on the list, Kokonuzz definitely deserves a recognition as one of the craziest and most successful graduate business ideas. Founded by ESADE University’s graduate Alexis Batista, Kokonuzz develops wicked characters and markets them to brands in Asia.
The company is dedicated to “making the world a happier place,” and their idea is unique in that they have an excellent business model for their creative work. Of course, the credits should primarily be attributed to their creativity, but their ability to segment the market and seize the opportunities is probably what paved their way to success. This is precisely why Kokonuzz is on our innovation list – the way they managed to combine creativity with business skills is rather amazing.
Conclusions
The companies listed above constitute only a tiny portion of the current startup ecosystem, but they all have a potential to become huge some day. More importantly, they prove that almost any worked-out innovation plan is likely to succeed, even if one doesn’t have a background in business and entrepreneurship. Apparently, recognizing market gaps is not a job for business analysts only; students can be quite great at it, as well.
