Many know senior Pat Shea for his work in media. Before serving as current president of Emory Media (formerly known as Emory Media Council), he was vice-president of ETV for two years. With these credentials, it’s evident that Shea knows how to lead a team. But these days Shea comes as part of a team developing Campus Bubble.
“It all started with Ian,” Shea said.
During his freshman year, current Emory college senior Ian McCall wanted to make a site that would compile all Emory online articles onto one site. He initially proposed the idea to university sectors such as Emory Marketing. These departments were not interested in McCall’s idea.
Finally, last year McCall made a proposal to Emory Media. Shea was very interested in the project and decided to partner with McCall.
Because neither McCall nor Shea had experience with website building, they contacted Nir Levy. “I heard he was good with website building,” Shea said. “He also introduced us to Giovanni.”
Goizuetta Business School student Nir Levy and Emory College student Giovanni Hobbins made the team a foursome. They quickly began work.
They first tried raising money to hire outside web developers. When this proved difficult, the four decided to build the website themselves.
“I spent last summer teaching myself how to code PHP, HTML, and Javascript,” Shea said.
Within six months, the website was ready. The BETA version of Campus Bubble was launched in October 2011.
Shea explained that this version was setup for the team to get feedback from Emory students.
That same semester Hobbins, Levy, and Shea took an entrepreneurial class in the Goizuetta Business School. It was there that they met Steven Burgess, who became in charge of finances for the business venture.
As a class assignment the four students assembled a 45-page business plan for Campus Bubble. They submitted this same business plan for the Queen’s Entrepreneurs’ Competition, the world’s largest such competition for undergraduates. The Emory team made it to the final round and traveled to Toronto in January 2012. While they did not take home first place, they earned a $10,000 reward.
Shea and Burgess will graduate from Goizuetta and McCall will graduate from the College this spring. Hobbins and Levy are third-year students and will graduate in spring 2013.
After graduating, Shea plans to work full-time on Campus Bubble. He suspects others from the team will also join him.
Meanwhile, the Campus Bubble team intends to release their latest feature of the website. After spring break, students may visit preview.emorybubble.com to access all events related to Emory including those on campus and nightlife features. Students will also be able to access deals in the area pertaining to food, clothing, and other aspects of college life.
“Right now we’re mainly looking from feedback from students,” Shea said. “We want to give them the best experience possible.”
Visit preview.emorybubble.com after spring break to find about Emory events, nightlife, and special deals from area venders.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Emory chapter.