For Derek Pacqué, there were two options for a night out at the bars in Bloomington: don’t wear a coat and freeze, or bring the coat and hide it at the bar. Pacqué always went with the latter until one day his coat was stolen.
This was the inspiration for Coatchex, the coat checking business Pacqué started as a student at IU.
Sixty-six percent of millennials want to start their own business, according to a Bentley University study. Kelley School of Business entrepreneurship professor Wes Pennington said he believes this stems from their desire to change the status quo.
“They have a product or service that they wish existed, but doesn’t, or it’s not specifically catered to them,” Pennington said.
For millennials interested in entrepreneurship, Pacqué said it’s hard work, but it’s incredibly fulfilling.
“You may have this vision for 10 years down the road, don’t be scared to take that first step,” Pacqué said.
Here are three businesses to serve college students you didn’t know were started by millennial Hoosiers:
1. Drizzle
Imagine getting paid to text, turn off your alarm and surf the web. This is the concept behind current IU students Ben Mizes and Vinayak Vendantam and alum Deepak Baranikana’s Android app, Drizzle. Users are paid “drops” by watching advertisements, which can be redeemed for gift cards.
“It started as the simple idea that you get paid to turn off your alarm when you wake up in the morning,” Vendantam said.
The company plans to launch an iPhone version of the app in the next few months, Baranikana said.
2. Coatchex
Pacqué opened Coatchex to provide a service that wasn’t being met for college students going to the bars in Bloomington.
“I was going to Kilroy’s on Kirkwood and Sports,” Pacqué said. “That constant problem was that you froze in line and didn’t wear your coat, or you had to hide it somewhere.”
Now with Coatchex, students can use their smartphones to check their coats in Bloomington at Kilroy’s on Kirkwood, Kilroy’s Dunnkirk and Kilroy’s Sports Bar.
Since graduating, Pacqué was featured on Shark Tank in 2011, in which he turned down Mark Cuban’s $200,000 offer for a 33 percent stake in the company.
3. CollegeFashionista
CollegeFashionista began as a personal blog in 2009 during founder Amy Levin’s senior year at IU. Now, the company is at more than 500 schools with 1,500 student contributors every semester. CollegeFashionista stemmed from a need that wasn’t being met, Levin said.
“I felt like no one was focusing on college students when it came to fashion and really elevating them,” Levin said.
Through CollegeFashionista, students anywhere can now connect online and see street style fashion, beauty and décor trends at any campus across the country.
