IU student’s business saves paper expenses

Junior Anuraag Tripathi said he hopes to save the planet with his business.

PrintEco is a plugin software company that saves paper and ink. Available to Microsoft Office products, the software resizes the text on the page and eliminates the extra page, ads and banners.

“We want to really grow it to every business in the United States and provide it free for individuals so they can save ink and paper,” Tripathi said. “We noticed it saves like 17 percent of printing costs in the long run. Save the planet and create a business. That is the plan.”

Tripathi, along with co-founder and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign senior Arpan Shah, is currently working to develop the software for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. The software will be available to download by the end of May on www.printecosoftware.com, Tripathi said.

Tripathi attended the Princeton University-sponsored BASES Conference at Stanford University April 7 -10 to pitch PrintEco in a competition against 40 teams.

“We made it to the final round so we’re top eight,” he said. “It was a great experience. We got to meet new friends and make a lot of new connections.”

PrintEco has interest from RR Donnelley publishing company in Chicago to start a pilot program, Tripathi said.

“For the summer, we want to actually start our pilot program and get the development out of the way,” he said.

PrintEco is funded by a $25,000 grant from IllinoisVENTURES, Tripathi said.
“We participated in the Cozad New Venture Competition,” he said. “We made a connection with someone there. They heard our pitch and funded our idea.”

Currently, there is no actual location; however, PrintEco has one office in Champaign, Ill., funded by IllinoisVENTURES and one office in Chicago.

Tripathi, who said he is planning to continue with PrintEco after graduation, said being a student entrepreneur is great.

“I wouldn’t have had the opportunities that I have had,” he said. “For example, going to the conferences, talking to my professors and getting the feedback before we actually launch the business.”