“Today has been excellent, we didn’t expect this great of a turnout,” said Zo Zappitell, who is a co-foudner of a new app called “Conecter.”
Zoe Zappitell and Brittany Urich are the founders of a new app Conecter, which held their launch party last Friday.
“It’s a dynamic platform where you can find study buddies, you can find someone to take a run with, you get to do all these activities with people you never would have met,” said Zappitell.
The duo first met on study abroad two years ago, and teamed up together to find a way to connect students.
“We decided an app would be a really good way to do that,” said Zappitell. We narrowed on the problem a little bit more, and conecter is the solution.”
However, Urich and Zappitel aren’t the only student’s bringing their ideas to life.
“This person forgot their jeans and their iclicker at home and it’s going to be hard to do well in class without it,” said Lazare. “So if i click on it, it shows me a little bit about the run, it shows the jeans they need delivered, it shows the exact route of where it would need to be picked up and drop off.”
Junior Jarrett Lazare was just a freshman when he and his roommate Danny Meltser first noticed a problem.
“We started realizing how many times people needed something from home,” said Lazare. “They would post on Facebook, ‘hey, anyone still in the West Bloomfield, Northville area? I forgot this at home if someone could bring it back that’d be great.’”
So Lazare and Meltser came up with the idea of “Bringitt,” an app that helps students retrieve items from home by other student drivers, and their app already has 40 drivers and 500 downloads.
“We just had our first few runs, is what we call our deliveries, completed,” said Lazare. “We had a driver make $40 just last week on her way back to campus.”
And where do these young entrepreneurs get their support?
“They come in and use the space anytime they want, they can move the chairs, the tables, we have some extra video screens for them to use if they want a dual screen,” said Paul Jaques, who runs “The Hatch”, which is a space for MSU students to come and grow their entrepreneurial ideas.
“We’ve seen apps, websites, food ideas, it’s all over the boar,” said Jaques.
“The Hatch” is a part of spartan innovations, which gives students access to more than just a work space.
“You get access to 13-15 interns and then you also get access to free money, through 2 foundations,” said Jaques.
“Bringitt” and “Conecter” are just two of the many student companies that have been launched in “The Hatch’s” three year existence, and their founders have a simple message.
“Too many people and students nowadays have an idea they think ‘wow, that’d be great if we had it but nah, i’m not the one to do it,'” said Lazare. “I want to do some major things in my lifetime, and I know I need to start now if I want to achieve those things.”
“If you have enough passion to get up every morning, work on it for as many hours in the day as it takes, there’s nothing holding you back really,” said Urich.