Tufts students, alumni dive into growing startup world

Harvard may be able to boast the founder of Facebook, but Tufts has several notable success stories of its own in the business world. Both past and current Tufts students have founded and currently run successful startup companies, and according to Getable founder Kevin Halter (A ‘03), flexibility is key to getting a startup off the ground.

“In the beginning, you need people who can wear multiple hats,” Halter said. “Whether you are on the business side or the technical side, if you don’t know how to do something, learn how to do it. So it’s exciting when you work at a smaller company, you have less resources but you learn more because you are forced to.”

Getable aims to make equipment rentals easy and manageable through mobile phones, with a broader aim to change the way that people consume. According to Halter, Getable experienced early success partially due to good fortune procuring investors. The company raised $1.4 million a year and half ago and $1.8 million more recently. Halter maintains, however, that money is not the only thing that matters.

“We’ve been very fortunate and I think what helps is not only selecting the right team members but selecting the right investors. If you select the right investors and are able to get them excited about your vision and the market opportunity, that can steamroll things in a good way,” Halter said. “They tell their friends and they tell their friends and the next thing you know, you have a great group of investors.”

“But I think, to raise money, you have to have a big vision,” he added You have to think big, you have to go after a big market opportunity, you have to put together a good team and you need to have a good product idea. They really need to see that you are going to try to have a ‘change the world’ type of idea,” he said.

Finding investors can be one of the major obstacles for young entrepreneurs looking to launch their own startups. A new platform called AngelList helps to connect people with potential capital investors, helping to break down the barriers that exist for those who are not initially well connected. In addition, last April Congress passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act in support of entrepreneurship and small business growth. The JOBS Act eases federal regulations and allows individuals to become investors in an effort to encourage small business and startup funding. Still, turning a profit remains difficult and many new companies fail.

So what does it take to create a successful startup? Forming strong partnerships, says Halter.

“You can start out solo, but usually it’s better to have a teammate because you go through a lot of extreme highs and lows, and it’s nice to have someone there to support you,” Halter said. “You’ve really got to find some people that you see yourself working with because you are going to work long days, long hours, but it shouldn’t feel like work.”

Beginning and maintaining a startup is about balancing the early energy and excitement with a realistic business model, according to Neil Blumenthal (A’02), cofounder of Warby Parker. Warby Parker sells prescription vintage-inspired eyeglasses and sunglasses at a reasonable price. Founded in 2010, it has largely operated through online sales but will open its first flagship retail store in New York City’s Soho neighborhood on April 13 and a shop on Newbury Street in May.

“You need a sound business idea, and the best business ideas solve real problems,” Blumenthal told the Daily in an email. “You test them by learning as much as possible about your potential customers and you build your model on that information. When it comes to execution, entrepreneurs need to be task managers. They see a cliff that needs to be jumped, and they break that leap into a million tiny steps,” he said.

Blumenthal stressed the importance of balancing personal needs with those of a target demographic, using the Warby Parker Buy a Pair, Give a Pair campaign — which distributes a pair of glasses to those in need for every pair sold — as an example.

“Pick something you’re passionate about. That’s number one. But it’s also crucial to know your client base — their taste, their motivations, what they are passionate about,” Blumenthal told the Daily. “Just because somebody identifies with your mission doesn’t mean it’s the primary incentive in their mind for doing what you want them to do, whether that’s shopping online, downloading music, whatever.”

Junior Jack McDermott is the CEO of Balbus Speech, which creates apps for speech therapy for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. McDermott founded his company for very personal reasons.

“I’ve stuttered my whole life, so I went through speech therapy ever since I was three, so for about 15 years

I struggled a lot,” McDermott said. “Finally, when I was going into tenth grade in high school, I enrolled in an intensive speech therapy program based in Boston ... [it was] painstaking work.”12