5 Month Summary: A College Startup
Looking back 5 months ago, everything was brainstorming and theories. We had the vision, but the road ahead wasn’t paved. No one else was going to do it besides us. We knew that it would be tough, but we were going to love every single second of it.
I remember when I was confronted by my two other co-founders telling me the idea. I was ecstatic. We brainstormed for 45 minutes before I had to go to class. We literally spent about a week and a half before we even picked our final name. NuGrad
The thing about a startup is that there is always work to do. Always. Whether you’re reaching out to potential users, enhancing your product, or running social media, there is always work needed to be done. But, the other thing about a startup is that you’re so damn passionate about the work, so it doesn’t feel like work. It’s more of a constant learning process. You’re always learning how to be more efficient with your processes. There’s a lot of trial and error. You have the opportunity to do whatever you want, however you want.
Here’s how we did it
Once we had our idea, it was time to execute. Within 2 weeks, we had our logos made and the first version of the site up. Luckily, we are at a university where we are well-networked and started to spread the word to our friends. Research was the first big task we had to do. We needed to see if the problem we were theoretically fixing was even a real problem to students. Pretty quickly, we realized it was a huge problem. That’s when we knew this could have the potential to be successful.
Like I said earlier, the trial and error process is huge. Basically, you’re beta testing different ideas with a small set of users. For us, the users were our friends who fit the parameters. That’s the beauty of starting a business while you’re at college. You have access to thousands of users or even potential customers. After we found our users, we just played around with options and ideas until we found patterns that worked and some that didn’t. We still change things up every day.
Now that we had some testing under our belts, we wanted to start on outreach. Once you start, it will never end. EVER. The grind begins and won’t end until your company does. But, what the hell were we going to say to someone if they asked what is NuGrad? Back to the whiteboard.
We brainstormed for days about what our values were. Why did we even create this company? What do we do? How do we help people? We finally hashed out a solid response to, “What is NuGrad?” But still, we needed to fine tune 30-second pitches and other forms of pitches. We had to make it not sound like a traditional sales pitch. We needed it to have value, meaning, and show that we cared for our customers.
Once we fine-tuned our pitches, we reached out to anyone. Literally, anyone. See, students don’t realize that they are in the best position possible. 95% of the time, a person/company will not turn down giving advice or help to a student. If they do turn it down, then they probably don’t have good advice. So that’s what we did. We spoke to HR/Recruiting professionals, professors, business owners, and students. We found out what some common problems were in the industry we were heading into and exploited them. We found trends and patterns that only further supported our idea and our cause.
Then, the grinding and hustling started to pay off. We had about 50 students who signed up looking for us to find them jobs. We had to quickly start interviewing them and keeping everyone organized. But, that was only 1/2 of the battle. We had to find companies to work with now. Our CEO was primarily talking to companies, but we needed to make it a team effort. We pulled together every business card we collected and emailed them all. Of course, we crafted a solid email before sending them. The return rate was small, but that was understandable. These days, marketing professionals get happy when they have a 5% success rate.
The First Sale
You know the feeling you get when you drive a new car for the first time or when you ace a test, imagine that feeling times 100. That’s what it feels like when your startup makes a sale. You get this rush of adrenaline that makes you get excited about everything. Thanks to some great connections and opportunity, we found the perfect person for a job. Packback was our first sale. We matched a former student for a position with another startup formed out of the same school we go to now. But, like biting into a piece of your favorite pie, you don’t just want one. You are hungrier and hungrier for more. That’s where we are at now. Knowing you made a sale was great, but how are you going to get more? How will you beat that? Do you set goals every week? These are the things you want to ask yourself after the first sale.
What now? Sometimes I find myself wondering this. The answer? Keep grinding every day. Like Gary Vaynerchuk says, hustle every day. We are working harder than ever to provide value for students and for companies. We make sure our social media content is as impactful and strong as possible.
Just recently, we filmed our informational video and it was an absolute blast. Throughout all the work and grinding, we still managed to have fun constantly. That’s the best part about a startup(especially a college startup). You get your shit done, then you have fun with the team. We filmed all day, then grabbed a few brews and pizza after. Nothing but simplicity.
Closing Remarks
College is a big time commitment if you do it right. Creating and running a startup is even a larger time commitment. It’s not always glorious. Sometimes your friends are out on a Friday night and you’re working on a pitch strategy.
There is always work to be done. This one speaks for itself.
Use your friends for support. You’re in college, use everyone as a resource. Need a graphic done? Reach out to a designer. Need help with social media? Grab advice from a Marketing student. Utilize all the resources that are given to you while at school.
Take in everything. The amount of “real-life” experience you’re gaining is remarkable. How often do you really send out potential sales emails? When do you get the chance to pitch your company to business professionals? Utilize everything that you do.
Super cliche’, but have fun. Enjoy everything about it. Your company is your baby, be passionate about it. When you’re fully passionate and love what you do, you will absolutely give it your all.
