The cost of travel can be rather demanding for a typical student, so a number of MSU entrepreneurs are looking to lessen this burden. Statistics senior Patrick Chouinard and 11 other students have created a Kickstarter campaign, in which they plan to raise $20,000 to gut and refurbish a used bus into a traveling roadhouse.
Inspired by other entrepreneurs, Chouinard joined the staff of Tech Twurl, a entrepreneurial student venture. As business increased, he and multiple other students were invited to the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. Flourishing with startup businesses and wide-eyed investors, this festival can act as the driving force for worthy startups.
Fed up with the increasing costs of travel, Chouinard is looking to avoid the expenses of plane rides and hotel stays all together. So he came up with a plan to create the student entrepreneurship bus.
“My main goal is to eliminate the cost that the university and sponsors have to spend year after year. Now we can send more students for a cheaper price,” Chouinard said.
But sponsors aren’t just donating money to this cause, they are also investing in their own business. The student entrepreneur bus is going to act as a national advertisement bus. With professional advertising done by Capital Imaging, for every $50 sponsors receive 1 square foot of ad space, while $1,000 earns a sponsor 10 square feet of ad space and the students will pass out the apparel of the business at the conference.
“With 30,000 attendees, people come from all across the world. Entrepreneurs come form Berlin, London, and South America,” Chouinard said. “This bus will be taken to conferences all over the U.S. and it will even be paraded around campus during welcome week.”
Once the bus is completed, the students’ only expense will be gas. It will be a flat nose bus that will consist of three bunks, a kitchenette, a long table for workspace, a bathroom and a large lounge area that is also used for sleeping. There will be a sink and a water tank, in which they will also set up outdoor showers constructed at the back door of the bus.
With 20 days left of the Kickstarter the Student Entrepreneur Bus is 5 percent funded, raking in $1,096.
“I’m calling for Michigan State alumni and Michigan businesses to support student entrepreneurship by backing this bus,” Chouinard said. “The biggest support is more exposure, show friends and family what Spartans are doing.”
Around campus there is excitement surrounding the bus, and international relations junior Nate Rajpoot believes that students will have a greater benefit and experience by riding on the bus.
“The bus is a great idea as it gives a chance for students to focus on the reason why they go to conferences, without having to worry about overheads,” Rajpoot said.
Mechanical engineering sophomore Anthony Nova admires the business side of the project.
“I thought the idea behind the advertisement space was great. It makes it so both the students and the sponsors are benefiting,” Nova said.
