The College of Business and Economics’ weekly entrepreneurship speakers series returns this spring with a new name: Entrepreneurship Unplugged. The series started off with a bang on Tuesday, hosting not one, but two speakers; Josh Smith of TransitioningU and David Robson of SpiralMath.
Joshua Smith, the Dean of the School of Education at Loyola University and Founder of TransitioningU, shared his endeavors to create a mobile platform to help students get more involved in their college campuses.
“TransitioningU is a customizable mobile platform that increases student retention by connecting students to the right information and resources at the same time,” he said.
The app allows students to create their own personalized profile page, which is “a critical component of getting connected with the university,” says Smith. Once the profile is created, the system sends out event notifications to notify students of extra-curricular activities and clubs on campus that match their individual interests.
TransitioningU began “in an incubator space in Indiana all on a whiteboard, chalkboard, just from [the classroom],” Smith said. Smith and his co-conspirators went their separate ways and the idea lay dormant until a year and a half ago when a 22-year-old graduate student named Mustafa Wahid approached him about reigniting the project. Smith was so impressed by Wahid, he tapped him as CEO of TransitioningU.
Smith said what sets the company apart from its competitors is its student-centric design and mission.
“All students deserve the right information at the right time,” he said. “We have a social justice component to our company. We care most about first generation students. We care about students who have been given access to higher education but have not been given the tools to success.”
The second speaker came from the Ed-Tech entrepreneurial realm as well.
A science teacher, David Robson most recently co-founded endeavor is Spiral Math–an online support system for math students and teachers. The platform uses a “spiral” method meaning, students are required to look back at the information learned throughout the school year while being exposed to new information in order to encourage retention.
As a serial entrepreneur, Robson has a lot of experience testing ideas. He said in order to be successful, every entrepreneur should: have adequate Writing & Research skills; possess basic website coding skills; have cash flow, i.e. a job; and possess industry knowledge of the field he/she wishes to enter. He added formal education isn’t necessarily a key to success.
“Even though a college degree is helpful, it is not always necessary for entrepreneurial success.”
The next Entrepreneurship Unplugged event will be held at the West Village Commons in room 305 at 12 p.m. The guest speakers will be Joan Kanner and Michelle Bond of Bottoms Up Bagels and Karmic Messenger.
See the full lineup of spring 2017 speakers here.