Meet the campus start-ups

**Ever grumbled how things just don’t quite cut it, or saw the ‘clear gap’ in the market, but never acted? Our following four sets of entrepreneurs cast aside such mutterings: they sought to exploit such opportunities – and turn a profit in the process.**

Students are at a unique age to start up a company. We juggle flexible schedules, live off next to nothing and any bold ventures are largely risk-free. We are pioneers of social media-based entrepreneurship – tech is cheap. And in a depressed graduate job market, even if our innovation falls short of a illustrious future IPO, one’s derring-do will gild a CV and teach some hard facts about business.

The launch of Entrepreneur First, an initiative inspired by TeachFirst to support endeavouring graduates has taken on 30 in its inaugural year. It is a telling bellwether on the vitality of the Plan B route. So Money searched campus for the best of student innovation and entrepreneurship. We hereby showcase four of the best start-ups that Warwick has spawned.

**Our first, [Splat Uni](http://www.splatuni.com), is a student discount card with a twist**. Set up five years ago, it has refocused its sights solely on Leamington and Coventry after earlier expansion nationwide. It offers sizeable savings on restaurants, private accommodation and nightclub entry – all for a tenner. One half of duo, account manager and undergraduate, Tom Watson sees the card as honing a ‘tailored and premium experience’ that enlist businesses that ‘bring something to
student lifestyle’. Its ties with home-cooked meal franchise Cook, as well as with Heritage Properties in Leamington, illustrate a firm understanding of student tastes. However it is its most popular deal with the management at Smack (who in turn own Evolve, Moo, and The Duke) that will guarantee you an unprecedented free guestlist at the above clubs, on varying nights of the week. Splat Uni too promote their card through Brand reps, who earn commission as well benefit
from other perks. Tom holds their ‘experience in the market’, that has seen off competition from erstwhile university cards as proof to assert their card a mainstay in the future.

**[ThisIsUni](http://www.thisisuni.com) is an online university noticeboard.** Specific to Warwick; users browse, post, comment, and rate up or down anything from ritual memes, lost keys looking for their owner or upcoming society events. Established by Engineering Masters student, Andrew Jordan after a year in the City, ThisIsUni grew out of frustration with simple communication obstacles on campus. ‘There was no way to organise a spontaneous football kick-about … I wanted to change that’, he recounts. Interactive and functional, it is steered organically by its online community. Already boasting 1000 signed-up members and bolstered by private venture capital, Andrew is optimistic. His experience as a web developer, which allowed him to liaise with top digital agencies, has elicited the site’s sleek interface. A solitaire-style reshuffle of content when scrolling down is one such flourish, engaging students to continue browsing; whether in ‘discovery mode’, or actively seeking the squash racquets or ipads on offer. Andrew works full-time on the site and will introduce revenue streams from next year.

{{ quote Entrepreneur First’s launch is a telling bellwether on the vitality of the Plan B route to the default grad job }}

**Rival [UniBubble](http://www.unibubble.co.uk) is rather similar to ThisIsUni at first glance.** A so-called ‘hyper local marketplace’ it too allows users to post content. It however cuts more to the thrust of connecting buyer and seller – already offering over 150 second hand books and gadgets. Set up by three Warwick business school undergraduates last year, its creation was fruit of the difficulty in finding second-hand bikes to cycle in from Westwood, believes co-founder Stevan van der Fluit. Organising fast transactions between parties, UniBubble eliminates ordinary waits and uncertainty of sites such as Gumtree. It is indeed more compartmentalised, overcoming the relative pain of having to search for individual items on ThisIsUni’s page. Theirs nonetheless is blander and less interactive, with little facility for promoting memes or society events. They aspire to run the company from a London start-up office next year and quote Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn’s maxim, ‘entrepreneurship is jumping off a cliff and assembling a plane on the way down’.

Our last start-up is also online-based. **Ever wished for more detailed study notes to complement your lecture slides and further reading? [The Notebook ](http://www.the-notebook.co.uk)is your saviour.** It forms a social marketplace for students to buy and sell course notes in PDF form. Established by three WBS students, all notes cost £5 and the seller earns £2 per download in that pursuit to add that sheen to your arguments. You may preview select pages to see what you are buying, and rating system indicates the most popular sets of notes. Having rolled out the venture to seven universities, the website is growing but remains in its formative days. Co-founder, Surojit Chakraverti sees the sites’ popularity as ‘self-generating, with a good selection ensuring repeat custom’. If certain notes are of good quality, students will keep on buying. It could indeed earn you a stream of income paid through paypal, with just an initial upload. Obvious doubts about plagiarism do warrant consideration. The Notebook responds to these however with a clear disclaimer about such activity. So much the better that the site lends itself to problem-based courses such as Economics, Maths and Engineering rather than the discursive nature of Humanities courses. These follow a predetermined framework, less vulnerable to copying.

So there you have it. If any of the above provide a valuable service, check out their websites. And if your own business acumen remains in the starting blocks, consider Andrew Jordan’s sage words: ‘now is the best time in your life to create something. You can’t lose: either you
create something people love or have gained experienced employers love’.

Got an idea? Take his advice. I urge you.