Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Meta-Startup Aids Potential Investors

When the idea for Trendify dawned on me in February, I envisioned software that could analyze historical data to predict whether any given startup would succeed and determine potential pitfalls that the startup would face. The implications of this technology escaped me, as did the interest and demand it would generate.

Although the abnormal level of snowfall this past winter certainly interfered with many people’s plans, it forced me to stay inside and commit to an idea that would soon evolve into an obsession.

At first, Trendify consisted of manual data entry into a simple Excel spreadsheet: enough to isolate basic patterns and convince people that such a thing lay in the realm of possibility. As it began to grow, its expansion demanded a team larger than just myself.

I persuaded Eamon Cagney (COL ’17), whose aptitude for computer science is only surpassed by his drive, to become Trendify’s chief technology officer in March. Zoe Epstein (COL ’17) then became our vice president of marketing.

Despite its successful start, Trendify faced many early trials. Although it made it to the final round of the Startup Hoya Challenge, Trendify didn’t win, losing not just the prestige but also the $5,000 in prize money that would have proved incredibly helpful. Our data science adviser, who we thought would be instrumental in building the technology, decided he would rather focus on his doctorate and job than work with college students.

Despite these troubles, neither Eamon nor Zoe lost faith in Trendify’s potential. In a matter of weeks, Eamon taught himself the requisite programming languages for any tasks that needed to be completed. Over the course of the summer, Zoe built our social media following to over 2,500 fans, including investors, entrepreneurs and students.

Somehow, a little idea I had in a Village C East dorm room on a cold winter day had evolved into something worth building a team around.

The more we worked on Trendify’s software — tentatively called Bullseye — and the closer we got to launching, the more people seemed interested in our company. After I received a research grant from the McDonough School of Business, startup showcases and news sites began to take an interest: Poets and Quants inquired about our prediction engine, while Startup Dynasty and Gritway ran profiles on us. Finally, Molly Greenberg of InTheCapital wrote an article about our company’s development, highlighting the potential impact of Trendify on the current business world.

Trendify is now securing strong partnerships, including accounting help from Raffa, P.C. and tentative legal advice from the Georgetown University Law Center’s Entrepreneurship Practicum. Further, Victoria Chai (MSB ’15) has done some amazing user interface work for us, so that our free, private beta test can launch early this semester. Experiencing robust demand, we’ve had to cap our beta at 50 users. With this help, we can inspire innovation together.

Rahul Desai is a sophomore in the McDonough School of Business.

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