Founder Fridays: CampusLIVE

CampusLIVE  http://www.campuslive.com

2) What's the elevator pitch?

CampusLIVE is a network of college communities built on top of the Facebook Open Graph. We provide millions of students a channel through which they can socialize around their dorm, their classes and the trending topics on campus. Built into this real-time stream of discussion, we've added local restaurants, businesses and huge giveaways. At its core, college is a game, and we've provided these students with the ability to play, earn points and grab achievements all for just engaging with the features provided.

 

3) When did you know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur by the age of fourteen. I had a little notebook in which I documented everything good, bad and WOW worthy in every website I visited and every game I played. By fifteen, I was learning to make these changes. I started my first business - an e-commerce/web development shop - at the age of 17 (in 2003). 

4) How did you meet your co-founders?

College! We met at UMass Amherst in 2006. No better time to start a web company than in between beers!

5) What was the best advice you ever got?

Take one thing at a time. Break down your long-term goals into achievable segments. If you always think "big picture" you're never going to do the small things required to make it a reality. Raising capital is the #1 most de-focusing thing of all time, and all entrepreneurs think it's going to change their product, their sales, their marketing. They focus on raising the money and forget to run the business.

6) What Startup(s) are you most excited about today? Why?

SCVNGR is going to do great things. The team they've built over there is more impressive every day. The folks over at NextView Ventures seem to have the right mindset for investing... going to be following their portfolio closely.

 

7) What's your favorite part about being an entrepreneur?

Access. I forget where I read this, but the idea that a CEO of a 5 person startup can get a meeting with the CEO of a 500 person public company is fairly accurate. In many peoples minds, if you're the "Director of Marketing" for a tiny startup you can (and SHOULD) be calling upon the DOM's of much bigger startups. Size doesn't matter nearly as much as you would think.  It's a psychological thing I've noticed to be very effective.

8) If you could recommend one book for entrepreneur's to read, what would it be and why?