A supportive campus culture inspired students Boris Revsin, Jared Stenquist, and Jeff Cassidy to develop CampusLive.com and to create their logo in UMass Amherst’s school colors—maroon and white.
Go-To Guys
CampusLIVE founders rack up the hits on college campuses
It’s been three years since Boris Revsin teamed up with roommates Jared Stenquist and Jeff Cassidy in their Southwest dormitory. The trio merged complementary computer skills and a shared desire for a new type of website to form a company that took college campuses by storm.
CampusLIVE.com arose out of a need for a website that students could use to find information all in one place about on- and off-campus happenings.
Originally developed for UMass Amherst students CampusLIVE.com was equipped with Dining Commons menus and local restaurant offerings. With new feeds from the Daily Collegian and CNN, and links to academic websites and social networks like Facebook, CampusLIVE.com was designed to serve as a single internet portal students could check before heading off to class in the morning.
After creating the site, company founders decided to take their $20 budget and “advertise” in the UMass Parking Garage using a tarp to print their message: “Go to CampusLIVE.” In no time, the campus was using the new customized gateway.
Now, after redeveloping the CampusLIVE.com website to work for any campus in the country, the company has created individual sites for 60 colleges and universities. Its founders have aspirations to build one for each of the 40,000 nationwide. “We want to take what we’ve created and bring it to every college campus, and maybe even to high schools and alumni networks,” says Revsin, now the company’s chief operating officer. “We want to become a household name.”
Fortunately for the founders, their startup was recognized nationally. Last year, Business Week magazine named them number three among the top 25 entrepreneurs under age 25.
Because the business grew so rapidly, the founders took time off from their studies and have put off completing their degrees for now. Thankfully, says Revsin, “UMass Amherst is a very entrepreneurial campus.”
–Kathryn Misata ’09