Innovating and creating while still in school has given some Emory students the chance to home in on their passions and create businesses even before receiving their diplomas.
Emory Report spotlights three undergraduate students who have spearheaded different business projects and startup ideas:
Gerald Yao, a senior at Goizueta Business School, is CFO and co-founder of FiscalNote, a tool that aggregates, analyzes and predicts how government will act using data-mining software and artificial intelligence.
"We thought that government was one of the last industries that needed to be [innovated in new ways] based on our past experiences, and decided to tackle the problems ourselves," Yao explains.
FiscalNote tracks legislative activity in state legislatures and city halls around the country in real-time and around specific industries and uses predictive algorithms with "high accuracy" on whether or not a bill will pass, according to the FiscalNote website.
Yao, who is currently taking a semester off from Emory, has helped his startup raise $1.2 million in seed funding.
Kaeya Majmundar has started several businesses, but says she is best known for her patent-pending collapsible storage box concept, the BZbox.
Thinking outside the box led to Majmundar’s first place finish at the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization 2012 National Elevator Pitch Contest.
Majmundar, an Emory College junior, says she wants to finish her degree in economics and sociology while simultaneously growing her businesses and expanding her network.
Stephanie Chan, a senior majoring in anthropology and minoring in media studies, is co-founder of Posterfuse, a website aimed at transforming digital media photographs into tangible, physical posters. Users create the posts from their Instagram and Facebook photos.
In the past, Chan has interned for two startup companies founded by Emory alumni.
Chan wants to create more collaborations with current Emory students. She says she has a few ideas on the drawing board.
Chan will be graduating this month and working in the tech and entertainment startup scene.
Resources at Emory
Resources for budding entrepreneurs at Emory are available through the Student Entrepreneurship Committee, a campus-wide group that recently formed, as well as through the Emory Entrepreneurship and Venture Management Club.