Harvard Students Stay Off the Beaten Path

College is all about first-time experiences: living on your own, enjoying curfew-free nights, and doing laundry. In recent years, however, important college accomplishments like losing your virginity have been replaced with more ambitious goals, like founding your own consulting firm.

Since the universal domination of Facebook founder Mark E. Zuckerberg, originally of the class of 2006, Harvard has seen a surge in undergraduate entrepreneurs. While Harvard entrepreneurs admit that having “CEO” or “founder” written on your resume can’t hurt when applying to business school or Morgan Stanley, most of these go-getters insist that only sincere passion pushed them into the cold world of business at such a tender age.


STARTING UP

One of the recent undergrads to hop on the entrepreneurial bandwagon is William M. Ruben ’10. Frustrated with the confusing and overwhelming media coverage of the upcoming presidential elections, Ruben wanted to create a resource to assist “busy Americans and political pundits alike” in making an educated vote, the Quincy resident says.

The result is VoteGopher.com, a Web site devoted to unbiased information on presidential candidates and their views on a wide scope of issues. VoteGopher.com is staffed primarily by Harvard undergraduates who have all taken a “non-partisan oath,” according to the website.

Even The New York Times couldn’t help but be impressed. In October, Times national political correspondent Adam Nagourney, described VoteGopher.com as “unusually extensive” on The Caucus blog. But Ruben remains humble about his achievement.

“I don’t think it could hurt,” he says, “but that’s not the main reason I have done it.” While Ruben, an economics concentrator, is unsure of his plans or hopes for post-graduation life, he is certain that his entrepreneurial experience will help him. “I’ve learned a lot about business and business ventures,” he says. “Those lessons will go with me wherever I end up.”


WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS...OR BRRINGS

One of the most famous entrepreneurs on campus is Daniel “Zac” Tanjeloff ’08, who says, “I’ve been doing entrepreneurial work since I was nine years old.”

Some of his creative ideas have evolved since then to include the now defunct H-Ads, a weekly classifieds publication that allowed students to place advertisements free of charge, and www.internbar.com. Now Tanjeloff turned his attention to Brring.com, which he calls his greatest feat so far.

“This is really the first time I’ve had a full-fledged, comprehensive business strategy that will break the barriers on what I can achieve,” he says. Brring.com gives customers the chance to make a buck or two of their own by signing up online for a free second phone number, which, when dialed, plays a short audio advertisement to the caller.

Tanjeloff, a government concentrator, admits that he has made some sacrifices for his dedication to business; his various ventures often take priority over his schoolwork. But he doesn’t seem to mind. “Never let school get in the way of your education,” he says, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

While Tanjeloff clearly enjoys his work, he scoffs at over-achieving students who start companies simply to pad their resumes. “It takes a lot of time,” he says. “It’s a risk. It takes a really special type of person.” Regarding how his entrepreneurial ventures play into his future plans, Tanjeloff modestly adds, “I hope that it gives me a leg up.”


CLEANING UP

David A. Eisenberg ’07 is living proof that being an undergraduate entrepreneur can give you an advantage after graduation. Eisenberg was on the executive founding team of DormAid, the student-run business that provides professional cleaning services to students living on campus.

“It was a really unique thing to have done during college,” Eisenberg says. “It gave me business experience that few of my peers had during the job interview period.” Eisenberg is now working at a consulting firm in Manhattan, but says, “I’d like to work more permanently in an entrepreneurial environment.”

But do the success of these mini-moguls make the benefits of entrepreneurship enough that every hyper-competitive economics major needs to spend their summers at the helm of a start-up?

Nathan A. Labenz ’06, who founded an essay editing company after graduation, says it best: being an entrepreneur is a “question of priority.” So if your priority is to just get laid, then set aside your business proposal and get on that. You might even learn more in the end.