T o the growing list of the "dot-com" companies floating around in cyberspace-that modern-day field of dreams-add one more: startemup.com. This new student-run Internet venture hopes to rev up the entrepreneurial spirit and energy of students and turn their ideas into viable businesses that may some day come to stand beside such powerhouses as Yahoo.com and Dell Computer.
The idea began in fall 1998 on a road trip from Washington, D.C. to Durham. Four Trinity seniors, all living in Mirecourt Dormitory, had been bitten by the Internet "start-up" bug and decided to create their own web site.
When they returned to the University they faced the daunting task of designing a site, finding initial capital investments and getting competent advice and guidance. "We came back to school after break and we were toying around with a lot of ideas and we said, 'Why don't we develop a site that speaks to these questions and that market segment?'" said Matthew Weiss, one of the co-founders of the venture.
With some of their friends and other college students already jumping into Internet start-ups directly after graduation or foregoing their diplomas altogether, they decided to gear a site to the more entrepreneurially minded. "We feel that the college market has a good concentration of ideas that haven't been flushed out yet," said David Huang, another co-founder and a staff photographer for The Chronicle. "We wanted a site that would actually search for these ideas."
In order to start up startemup, the group raised "a significant amount of money privately," Weiss said, and they are talking with a group of investors who are waiting to see how the challenge turns out at Duke but are interested in the idea.
The "Dough 4 your Dot Com" challenge, sponsored by startemup, is a contest that will accept Internet business concepts from Duke undergraduates from now until March 1. Startemup.com will assist the winners of the challenge with initial web site design and planning, capital outlay and advice from an experienced and well-connected board of advisers-an assistance package that startemup's founders value at $20,000. In exchange, startemup will receive a 20 percent share of the resulting venture, an amount that Weiss said would be negotiable.
John Quintiliani, another co-founder, said the group plans to branch out to other area universities where they would conduct seminars and create publicity for the project on an individual basis. "We're first doing it at Duke and we'll obviously take it to other campuses, such as [the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill] and Wake Forest... If you open it up nationwide, that can be intimidating to students."
The business has already attracted two Duke professors to serve on the board of advisers and is currently working to recruit other experts in a diverse array of professional fields.
Michael Hemmerich, an instructor of real estate development in the Fuqua School of Business, said he was approached by co-founder Brad Minsley, who had previously worked as an intern for him. Hemmerich said he liked the idea of "taking the creativity and energy found on college campuses and helping to put it into a business plan."
Hemmerich, who is also a Duke graduate and president of the Dilweg Companies, a real estate development and investment firm, added, "I see a number of business plans come across my desk, and to the extent that these guys could be a filter for those ideas, there could be great benefit on both sides."
Although the four young entrepreneurs who now gather regularly on the couches in their dorm rooms and commons room haven't received proposals yet, they are encouraged by the word-of-mouth inquiries that have come back to them since they formed their company in September. "If they're serious about it, we feel that with startemup we can help them get their idea on the road," Weiss said.
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