Entrepreneurship

Building Their Network Inside and Outside of College Fraternities
by Kenneth Johnston (Recommended resource)

As most graduating seniors at the University of Arizona are scrambling to secure jobs in this less-than-optimistic market, three others have been turning down promising prospects. It’s not that they think they can work for someone better – they think they won’t have to work for anyone at all.

Justin Shane, Adam Carr and Chris Risi have begun the process of starting their own social networking website geared towards the fraternity and sorority communities – a.k.a., the Greek community.

The site, ugreekrow.com, is starting as a web forum for Greeks and will become a hybrid of a Facebook—or Myspace—type page which focuses on socializing and a monster.com-type site which focuses on job opportunities.

"The site will provide social and professional networking opportunities for Greek organizations," said Shane, a co-founder who is also a finance major. "It will allow people to use the fact that they were in a fraternity or sorority to find a job after college."

The three plan to get undergraduates on board first, and then focus on getting alumni involved. "Eventually the site will be a source for everyday chapter management as well," said Carr, co-founder and accounting major. "Members can go online to pay dues, take attendance, and just socialize."

"It will help better the Greek community before, during, and after college," said Shane, a member of Phi Gamma Delta. "People who are thinking about rushing can look at the organizations before coming to college, people already in college can do things like collect house bills and look for jobs on the site, and alumni who are interested in hiring a person from their Greek network can post jobs on the site."

The founders all decided they wanted to start a business together in the fall of 2007. After that, they began the brainstorming process.

"We’re all very driven people," said Carr, a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. "We wanted to be working towards something, not just working for someone else behind a desk for someone else."

They all made the commitment not to work for someone else. Carr turned down interviews with the so-called Big 4 accounting firms as well as a job offer for a money management firm in Los Angeles, and Shane turned down a job offer with 23 Capital in New York so they could focus on the development of their site.

"It was a tough decision," said Shane. "My parents were probably expecting to cut me off and send me into the real world and now they’re going have to support me for a little longer."

"We’re all very confident in our idea," said Carr. "We’d be wasting our time if we weren’t."

During the brainstorming process, Shane brought up that many members of Greek organizations look for those associations for help with jobs but get caught in an encumbered process where it is difficult to connect and present yourself.

"I was thinking of my future and making connections and realizing it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be," said Shane. "I wasn’t able to leverage the fact that I’m in a fraternity to help find me a job."

The membership sites available for Greek organizations to this point have been largely informal, social and geared more toward younger fraternity and sorority members such as greekster.tv, greekchat.com, frattinghard.com. Some like blackgreekforum.com and oldrow.net are geared to specific portions of the Greek community. These sites are built chiefly around forum platforms though they offer personal biography information for members. Some sites give tips on behavior and etiquette but offer little help beyond that.

Shane saw the possibilities and pitched it to Risi, a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and Carr, who both agreed it was viable.

"Shane brought us the idea over winter break and we all nit-picked at it until we were happy with it," said Carr. "Everyday it still changes a little bit."

Once they had the initial idea, they used what they had learned in their management courses to draw up a business plan, which they planned to fish around to angel investors.

While they were discussing the idea, Risi’s father, an established entrepreneur, overheard them and expressed interest in being the sole investor. He was attracted to the opportunity because it meet various unmet needs for an established market.

"He has not given us a disclosed amount," said Carr. "But he knows it will take start up money to successfully launch the site."

Currently, ugreekrow.com is still in the development phase. They’ve hired the website design and developer.

"We work on it everyday," said Shane. "I had no idea how hard it was to do simple stuff like making a logo."

They plan to launch the website in August 2009. They will start it at UA and Arizona State University where they hope the Greek systems will pick it up for the rush process. After that they plan to take it to other schools where Greek life is big such as Michigan State, the University of Texas, and the University of Southern California.

They hope to rope in more undergrads by making a Facebook application for people to opt-in that will make it easier for new members to join and for people to spread the word.

Initially the site will be free to users to post résumés and take advantage of the other tools offered. The revenue model of the site is based largely on advertisement and affiliation fees. Once it is popular they hope to charge membership fees and plan to take it to the national base of the Greek organizations where they plan to get alumni involved.

Overall, they hope the site will be a tool to improve the condition of Greek organizations. They want people to feel free to share their personality and the fun aspects of their lives but also to show that they have a serious responsible side.

"A lot of the time employers go on Facebook and see photos of prospects doing some undesirable things, while offering no information that might be impressive or connect the employer with the person" said Shane. "We just want to help people get a better job and use their connections after college."