What is CampusLIVE, Inc.?
CampusLIVE is a tool that students can use to connect to the brands that they use every day. We post challenges and social games that students can do. The challenges are sponsored by brands such as Peter Pan, supermarkets, and Victoria’s Secret. Usually these things are tough to afford for college students. Students can get them for free just by participating in the challenges. For example, with the Oscar challenge, you go through steps, answer questions like “Best Director” questions, “Best Movie”, etc. CampusLIVE is giving away multiple movie tickets. We create fun environments for them.
Was CampusLIVE originally a one-stop shop student homepage?
The quick links are a tool, but not the core focus. The main focus of CampusLIVE moving forward is to be that engaging platform between students and brands.
What is your tactic to make these challenges less like a lottery?
Right now there is a grand prize, which is the great awesome thing you can win. Now, you can win for sharing the companies page with others, answering questions correctly…there are tons of different ways to win. Everyone who enters gets a prize, so there are a lot of ways to win.
What challenges do you think have been the most appealing to students while simultaneously promoting the company?
Peter Pan bus line is a large bus company, and a big part of the business is to take students from campus back to home and vise verse during holidays. They realized they weren’t doing a lot to engage the students. CampusLIVE provides the brand of Peter Pan to the student. CampusLIVE is also offering free groceries for a year and free Peter Pan for a year.
How many employees are there?
There are 12 full-time staff not counting interns, and eight are UMass graduates.
Where did you create CampusLIVE?
It started in JQA in Southwest. Quite a bit of guys were here from the beginning.
How do you personalize CampusLIVE to other universities?
There are hundreds of campus reps who give us feedback, and in exchange they get tons of stuff.
Where are your offices?
It is in Boston, but we are opening up an office in New York, in Manhattan.
Did you graduate from UMass yet? What was your major? Did your major help you with CampusLIVE?
I took a year off my junior year. I was a Comp. Sci. major. The experience that I had definitely helped.
What was your favorite weekend activity in Amherst?
Our office was right next to The Pub, so every single Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights we’d see the standard scene in the parking lot, and we’d always sort of be sitting there and watching. The CampusLIVE office was a great place to be because it was right downtown. We always had a good time at CampusLIVE. If your office is right downtown at UMass, that’s the place to be.
What advice do you have for students who aspire to be entrepreneurs?
I would say the number one piece of advice is to do it in college, where you have the resources and the time to try something on your own. So, don’t push it off. Once you have a full-time job and a family it is much harder. People are always amazed about how young entrepreneurs are, but that’s when the easiest time is because you don’t have as many things going on.
CampusLIVE is hiring, and encourages students to apply for a variety of positions. It’s amazing to come from a school where such a successful business was started. Give your support and enter their challenges! After all, what’s better than WINNING?!
Click on our pink links to be directed to the challenges and the CampusLIVE UMass site!