At a university whose premise is to gain experience in the professional world early on, it’s no wonder so many Northeastern students and alumni have founded, co-founded and/or work in startups. Young entrepreneurs are left and right these days, especially right here on campus.
Fourth year Northeastern student Mike Behan, founder of Njabini Apparel, has not only began a steadily successful organization, but been able to travel across the world to do it too. A business major with a concentration in social entrepreneurship and finance, Behan experienced a major life change during his sophomore year at Northeastern.
Behan began working with an organization in Njabini, Kenya, called Flying Kites Global. A program director for the organization at the time, Behan decided to found Njabini Apparel in early 2011.
Njabini Apparel’s major operations are based in Kenya, but a team of 15 students led by Behan are based out of Northeastern. Njabini Apparel’s mission is to provide jobs to mothers who are unemployed and can’t participate in the main economy of agriculture. The women make apparel such as hats, scarves and slippers. To date, Njabini Apparel employs eight women, who are now receiving a steady income of $260 US dollars per month, which is four times the national average in Kenya. The organization’s goal is to employ up to 15 mothers in the next few months.
Behan lived in Njabini, Kenya for his co-op in fall of 2011. He will return again for the next co-op cycle. For now, Behan communicates with his management team in Kenya via Skype and cell phone.
When asking Behan what he missed most about Njabini, it was the “27 bright eyed smiling kids” he woke up to in the house he stayed at in town.
Another local start-up solely based in Boston is influencers@, slowly but surely making a name for itself. Founded by former Bentley student, Spencer Bramson, influencers@ is “an influence marketing agency focusing on connecting [your] brand to generation X and generation Y demographic both on and offline.”
A modern day Steve Jobs, Bramson left Bentley after his freshman year and decided to use the money he planned on putting toward his education to invest in building his own company. “I decided to take a leap and hope for the best,” Bramson said. “It’s been a crazy three years.”
In July 2011, Bramson founded influencers@, which has already worked with big names such as Collegefest, Proctor & Gamble and Mr Youth, as well as contributing to the first nation wide Google + campaign.
Bramson now employs two Northeastern co-op students, as well as 22 other interns who work 1-3 days a week at their Brighton office. “We work with students to give them every opportunity to what they want to do,” said Bramson.
There is no doubt that Bramson loves what he does. With an office equipped with Nerf guns and a ball pit, who wouldn’t love to go to work? But, during his experiences, Bramson has also learned a lot. Upon asking him what the best advice he’s received it was to “continue to doing what you love; when it no longer becomes fun [you] need to cut your losses, shake hands, pick up the pieces that were positive and more forward.”
Tying it all together is Greenhorn Connect, a web site founded in 2009 that aggregates everything in Boston startups. Founded by Northeastern alumnus Jason Evanish, Greenhorn was created after the realization that there was not much out there via the web to help entrepreneurs in Boston become successful.
Coined as “Boston’s entrepreneur hub for resources, events & organizations” Greenhorn Connect posts job opportunities and networking events, as well as opportunities for students to become involved in the entrepreneur world.
Evanish and his partner faced many challenges in building the web site, but “Getting traction to start [Greenhorn Connect] was hard,” said Evanish. If there is one thing he has learned, which he now offers as advice to others, Evanish says that it’s easy to get caught up in the romanticism of starting a company. “Always talk to your customers,” Evanish said. “Even the best entrepreneurs, their initial vision ends up changing after talking to them.”
Sources:
Mike Behan, founder of Njabini Apparel
http://www.njabiniapparel.org/
Don’t forget to “like” Njabini on Facebook!
Spencer Bramson, founder of Influecers@
http://influencers.at/
Jason Evanish, founder of Greenhorn Connect
http://www.greenhornconnect.com/