Student entrepreneurship at UVA is on the rise across Grounds. From student and alumni businesses featured in the yearly Galant Challenge pitch competition to the ventures brainstormed as a result of the coursework of McIntire’s pan-UVA Entrepreneurship Minor—and representing schools and alumni from everywhere in between—there’s no shortage of great ideas to better our lives and new ways to tackle problems coming from members of the entire University community.
One example, RoomMe, was recently featured in business education website Poets&Quants for Undergrads as part of their annual Most Disruptive Business School Startups article series.
In an interview with one of its Co-Founders, Brian Bernard (McIntire ’24), the P&Q piece discusses the RoomMe startup and its role in changing the college housing process. The app, which aims to give students better control over their choice of roommates, offers chat abilities and filtering capabilities and helps like-minded would-be roommates connect via data intelligence based on real estate, property, and other resident information.
Bernard, who was interviewed for the article, launched RoomMe with fellow Class of ’24 McIntire student Dmitriy Telemtayev and Sebastian Oliver (A&S ’23), explains that the company has already received some funding from an Audience Choice Award at UVA Launch and as part of Darden’s iLab Incubator. Bernard credits Professor Eric Martin’s Managing Innovation course and the Strategic Value Creation course from the Integrated Core with providing him and his Co-Founders the business valuation and financial projection skills that have already helped more than 6,000 students find roommates.
Read the full interview with Bernard at Poets&Quants for Undergrads.
