It is 10:37 on a bright, spring Wednesday morning here in the charming town of College Park. You are feeling slightly hung-over from last night’s loose Tues. at Turf, yet fully motivated to jumpstart your future. You slowly start to remember all of those original and innovative application and website ideas you and your friends were brainstorming the night before.
“But wait!” You think to yourself, “I do want to launch the newest and creatively groundbreaking mobile application that combines the likes of Tinder, Instagram, and Facebook while also helping me figure out what I should wear tonight!” This is where the VentureStorm platform steps in, and aids its’ users through the technical process while being mobile and user-friendly all at the same time.
Basic concept of the company and how it works – Okay so let’s say you have a great concept of what could be the next best mobile app. In this scenario, one that makes sure no two girls wears the same Tobi dress to formal. “This idea is going to be bigger than Uber,” you think to yourself! The design and concept are all in place, but since you’re not some computer tech-genius, you don’t have the technical skills to make it big on your own; oh no! VentureStorm allows entrepreneurs, students like you, to make conceptual projects a reality–applications you may not be able to create on your own. The other side of VentureStorm does the opposite. In other words, developers, also meaning students like you, can sign on and choose which projects they would like to create and develop with the entrepreneur.
How you guys came up with the idea – The University of Maryland’s very own Akash Magoon (Freshman), Tyler Denk (Junior), Taylor Johnson (Junior), Ephraim Rothschild (Junior), and Tommy Johnson (Junior) started working on their website about five months ago. After coming up with an idea for a mobile application to help find new music, Taylor, CEO, and Tyler, COO, realized it was extremely difficult for college students, like themselves, to find the right developers on their own.
“When we spoke with friends in and out of classes, we realized how many people have great ideas for mobile applications and websites, but lack the technical skills to build them. Thus we decided to create VentureStorm, an online platform that facilitates entrepreneurs’ needs to find development,” says CEO Taylor Johnson.
Working on design interface, coding formulas at all hours of the night while sponsoring events like Maryland’s very own Bitcamp, The VS team does it all–just so you can launch your ideas into something greater. Their goal is to reach as many university students across the nation while also maintaining their original goal of increasing technology entrepreneurship on college campuses.
So give me a full run-down how the process works from start to end – Well first of all, any university student can sign up as either a developer or as an entrepreneur. But, here’s the catch… to make sure you have the skills to match the project, to be a developer you have to be asked by the VentureStorm team, invite only. ~oooh exclusive~ In order to be a registered entrepreneur, you must sign up with an @edu email address.
Let’s go through the entrepreneur side of things first: you log in on the website, then post your project idea online–this is where you can state your idea followed by the equity and compensation being offered. Developers will then be able to log on and see the projects that are available at their university. If a developer is interested in the project, they will either contact you or apply to your project through the VS platform. From there, VentureStorm will act as the trusted third party that will assist you and your developer in the process of launching the next best idea.
The team made the site extremely easy for any user to navigate, so that entrepreneurs who may lack software skills will be able to figure things out with ease.