A new Iowa City-based startup is helping college students find collaborators on their own campus.
Comigo is a web-platform that allows college students to find on their own campus.
“Comigo was founded on the idea that collaboration in college should be easy,” said Isabel Reed, founder and CEO of Comigo. “And unfortunately, due to campus silos, that’s not always the case.”
Reed gave an example of when she had a passion project of my own and had difficulties finding students to help her with her project.
“I had a web series I was trying to produce and needed actors. I tried to connect with the theatre department across campus but the channels to connect with them were incredibly slow and bureaucratic,” Reed said. “After weeks of trying, I had no one. For my last resort to solve the problem, I actually made a Tinder account to recruit students and after one really uncomfortable week, I had my team.”
Using the Comigo platform, students are able to browse the student projects and startups that are happening on your campus that are seeking some kind of support. On the other end of that, if you have a project of your own, you can find your team or the one person you really need to have a conversation with.
Comigo will be launching at the University of Iowa this fall.
Initially, Comigo will focus on getting their platform into local schools that are close to or in Iowa.
“The reason for starting out local is that it allows to be close to every campus we’re launching at,” Reed said.
Reed recently graduated from the University of Iowa and took part in many of the university’s JPEC programs during her time there.
“The JPEC programs at the University of Iowa have been invaluable. I was introduced to all these resources was through the IdeasStorms competition,” Reed said. “Before that, I had no idea that any of the JPEC resources programs existed but once I went to that competition, they kind of pulled back the curtain to all these really awesome things that are happening.”