Think you worked hard in college? The following student-launched startups might make you think again.
All at differing stages of development, these five startups have one thing in common: They were all founded by Boston College students who created the companies during their undergraduate years. While this is impressive in its own right, three of these startups have also won prizes at BC’s Elevator Pitch Competition. Take a look, and maybe regret all those late night beer pong tournaments from your undergrad career.
What started as “just a few tees that incorporated our shitty sense of humor” has grown into a booming merchandise company that sells apparel with a feminist and social justice bent. BC student Angela Jin launched 1950 Collective with a friend from Texas about three years ago. The company has since been featured in magazines like Glamour and Seventeen and has amassed 42,000 followers on Instagram alone. The co-founders donate a portion of their website’s proceeds to causes including the Syrian refugee crisis and the residents of Flint, Michigan.
Designed by Pedro De Almeida Rosa Guimaraes and Fernando Simoes Guimaraes Pinto Nazario, co-founders of BusWays and roommates at Boston College, The BusWays app is designed to help parents track their children’s whereabouts from home to school. Each child has their own unique printable QR code, which can be attached to his or her backpack and scanned every time the child gets on or off the bus, sending a notification to a parent’s cellphone. For schools, BusWays provides data surrounding attendance, routes and average velocities. In 2016, BusWays won the Social Impact award at BC’s Elevator Pitch Competition.
Aspiring photographers might be interested in using Darkroom.Tech, a web-based platform that allows any photog to create and sell high-quality prints for free. The startup, which has received funding from the Soaring Startup Circle accelerator, was founded by BC students Theo Chapman and Anders Bill. Their mission is to help budding photographers who haven’t yet acquired a steady income or following be discovered and sell their work. With Darkroom.Tech, photographers can post a print to the site and say how much they’d like to charge for it and how many they hope to sell.
BC juniors Dan Marino and Ben Li launched VenU with the goal of showing musicians and athletes who their most active followers are. Their app VenU shows artists and sports teams which fans show up to their concerts and events, helping them engage with their most loyal fans through offerings like seat upgrades, backstage passes and merchandise. The app is currently under development.
Kayla O’Connor, a BC student studying marketing and finance, recently launched clothing brand Atlantic Addiction for people who love the ocean. The company is selling t-shirts and sweatshirts but eventually plans on branching into other apparel. While working on its website, Atlantic Addiction plans on making partnerships with surf shops along the East Coast.
