By Sydney Dzenutis || Contributing Writer
Gregory Morford, a sophomore computer science major at Franklin & Marshall College, has taken to heart the innovative qualities that any successful entrepreneur desires. This past semester, Greg participated in the Incubator Program run by the Entrepreneurship Initiative, which aims to provide helpful advice and structure to aspiring student entrepreneurs in a semester-long program. Gregory came to the program with his app, Inside F&M, which serves as a hub for student information including class schedules, professor emails, meal transactions, Student ID numbers, and more. He originally made the app for himself to better navigate the college landscape, but quickly realized through the collaborative nature of F&M that his app could be beneficial for all.
“I was working on it in my common room and some of my hallmates saw it and they said ‘Hey could you make this feature and make it available to us?’ and I said ‘Yeah sure!’ Then I thought maybe I could make it available for all of F&M to use,” Gregory explained. “I thought if I could use my programming ability to make F&M students’ lives easier, I should do that.”
Through participation in the Incubator Program, Gregory has been able to take his app to the next level. He felt, “It was almost tailor fit for me. I had an idea and a prototype, and I want to take it to the next level and make this a real business.” The combination of the structure of the program’s events and the ability to create a full pitch to real investors as the culminating piece was an invaluable experience. Those connections he made with investors have allowed him to continue the development of his app in a professional way. Greg is currently taking a gap semester to continue to develop his app and work on furthering the partnerships he has created with higher education institutions, thanks to the panel of investors to whom he pitched at Demo Day, the incubator’s final presentation. He explains, “That’s the step I’m at right now, trying to get this built out so that other colleges can use it as well.” All of us at F&M are excited to see what Gregory continues to do for the rest of this semester and beyond!
Photos of app’s interface courtesy of Gregory Morford.
Sydney Dzenutis is a Contributing Writer. Her email is sdzenut@fandm.edu