Michael Rihani was not in a fraternity while he was a student at Virginia Tech, but it wasn't the Greek title that made him envious of the exclusive group of bros. Rather it was the fact that fraternities had access to coffers – old exams that they could take advantage of to study for finals – that made him yearn to live in a house cluttered with beer cans.
Rihani thought it was unfair that you had to be a part of such an elite organization in order to open up a filing cabinet and use old papers valuable in test preparation. He thought it was highly inefficient, too. You would have to drive up to the house, sift through tattered pages, and if the exam you needed was already being borrowed, then you'd have to track down the person currently using it.
Yeah, this was before the invention of Dropbox.
So to level the playing field, Rihani launched a website that gave students free, easy access to old papers. It was created as a sort of side project, as a solution to a problem he experienced as a college student. Rihani never thought it would actually develop into a business, but lo and behold it did, and a successful one at that. Dubbed Koofers Inc. – a play off of Virginia Tech's take on coffers as "koofers" – the company is still thriving to this day.
Rihani launched his startup alongside two fellow Virginia Tech alums who he found serendipitously. None of them knew each other, but they all got together around the same idea because they each happened to own a domain name the other wanted.
Rihani noticed Koofers.com wasn't available when he wanted to create it, so he looked up who owned the site and it happened to be Virginia Tech alum Glynn LoPresti. He had belonged to a fraternity and wanted to put coffers online as well, so they joined forces.
The two co-founders then realized that somebody else owned the domain names koofers.net and koofers.org. Realizing that this other guy must have the same idea as they did, they reached out to the owner and he ended up being a Virginia Tech alum as well. Go figure. Patrick Gartlan had graduated from Virginia Tech in 2007 with a BS in Computer Science and Rihani and LoPresti needed a hardcore programmer at the time, so Gartlan was the perfect fit. Plus, he was a Hokie after all.
It was all uphill from there. The trio sat down and determined a long-term vision for Koofers, one that went behind the original idea of making coffers available to the masses. "We wanted to complete the full academic lifecycle of a student," Rihani explained over the phone. That meant incorporating the essentials like professor ratings that don't suck, flash cards that improve students' testing abilities, a schedule maker to ensure 8 a.m. classes aren't the norm, and the most recent addition: a campus recruiting tool to help students acquire their dream job.
Their goal is "to be a one stop shop for all college needs," Rihani explained, a platform that helps students schedule, learn, and earn. It's a lofty mission, but one he, LoPresti, and Gartlan are well on their way to accomplishing.
When Rihani graduated in 2008, he said that Koofers had 50 percent of Virginia Tech's service. They experienced a big high five moment then, as Koofers in Blacksburg became the biggest website behind Facebook and managed to surpass Myspace with its user base.
It's not just the user base that has grown over time though, it's Koofers that has expanded its reach to students as well. For example, while they have a professor rating system that appears vaguely similar to ratemyprofessors.com, Koofers' version is much more academic and professionally focused. They have serious questions, like one posed by Virginia Tech's student government that asks, "is a textbook used?" It's a very student-focused question, one that separates Koofers from its competition.
Looking forward, it's Koofer's campus recruiting tool that seems like it will really be a beneficial asset not only to students, but corporations too. While they only launched the new product a month and a half ago, it's already going tremendously well, says Rihani. "We launched, we're partnering and we're selling to different companies that are buying access to this enterprise campus recruiting tool," he stated with a sense of confidence. And rightly so, for the platform already has about a half dozen paying customers and is generating a meaningful revenue for the startup.
What's unique about Koofer's campus recruiting tool is that it allows businesses to video interview students. It's like a substitute for the phone screening process, a supplement that can be added to career fairs. Companies can get to know potential hires much better by seeing their videos beforehand and use career fairs as a validation event rather than a place to gather résumés.
Twenty years ago only five percent of college students graduated with intern experience and now it's at 80 percent, Rihani said. It's a really new model of corporations coming in and getting connected with students while they're in school. And since there's no true academic or professional platform that targets that niche, there's Koofers.
"We're laser focused on being that niche for college students and college recruiters," Rihani added. "LinkedIn is for workers and professionals that are five plus years out of school and Koofers is for those still on campus."
As for his advice for other students at Virginia Tech and beyond who are interested in launching their own startup, Rihani supplied us with three thoughtful tips.
- Just do it. Build or create whatever you're thinking. I didn't think of Koofers as a business, just a hobby. But if you find the problem that bugs you and make a solution, well don't think twice about it. Don't worry about how you're going to make money. If you create a solution to a problem you have, there's probably a way to make money off of it, especially if other people want a solution to the same problem as you.
- Find a problem you're passionate about and don't be afraid of failure. If you fail once, it's very demotivating, but new, young college entrepreneurs should look at failure as something that ought to be celebrated. You learn a tremendous amount by failing. Having that experience will allow you to be more likely to succeed in the future. Just appreciate everything you go through.
- Don't be afraid to talk to mentors and/or talk to important, big celebrity-like figures. Tim Westergren, one of the founders of Pandora, was on campus and I approached him when we had like 100-200 users. I told him about the website and talked about teaming up with Pandora. When you study you should be able to listen to music that helps you study, right? Well he gave me his business card and I gave him my crappy dorm-made one. We never ended up making a deal or anything like that, but he has been a personal advisor for me, someone that I can bounce ideas off of. Being personable and handing out my business card has helped me out tremendously over the years. Don't be afraid to speak up and talk to potential advisors and experts.
Image via New Atlantic Ventures
