Neal Sales-Griffin faced a tough decision.
He had recently graduated college and had just been offered two job opportunities. Should he accept the position of product manager on President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, or should he take what he called “a phenomenal opportunity” to work with a software development company in Uruguay?
The SESP (’09) alumnus and former ASG president instead chose to launch his own Chicago-based web design company called Code Academy, which trains people how to code web applications.
Alongside School of Communication alumnus (’10) and successive ASG President, Mike McGee, Sales-Griffin began working this past spring on a project that would teach people how to code Ruby on Rails, a web application framework, as well as other coding skills.
“Out of the three options, we chose Code Academy which was a difficult decision for us, but we did it because we felt we could make the most impact, just in general, but also in Chicago,” Sales-Griffin said.
Sales-Griffin and the other Northwestern alumni who helped him start this company represent the entrepreneurial spirit in the Northwestern community, where students are creating their own employment opportunities in this shaky job market.
Lonnie Dunlap, the director of University Career Services at Northwestern, believes the poor economy may increase the number of entrepreneurs out of college.
“I think the economy has identified that there are some opportunities here but I think some people have looked at it as, ‘Oh, if I can’t get the traditional type of position, I’ll look into something in terms of starting my own business,’” Dunlap says.
SESP alumni (‘11) Claire Lew and Maggie Jim joined the Code Academy team. Non-computer science majors themselves, the group hoped to offer a cost-effective entry into programming available to any skill level.
“We realized that we needed to create a place that allowed and enabled a lot of other people to do what we have been doing and to do it in a way where they’re actually working on meaningful projects,” Sales-Griffin said.
The 12-week program costs $6000 and divides those accepted to the program into 12-person groups led by a teacher and several mentors. The first round of classes begins downtown Chicago on October 3 with 35 accepted students.
Another recent initiative of Sales-Griffin and McGee’s team making waves in Chicago is Code Mountain, a website that manages people’s progress as they learn how to code, similar to the physical classroom of Code Academy. The website won $100,000 worth of prizes at S.P.A.R.K. Chicago, a competition for entrepreneurs working with startup companies.
Though the Code Academy team has found success in their entrepreneurial endeavors, Dunlap says it takes a certain skill set to create a successful startup.
“It requires somebody really who is motivated by self-direction, who knows how to be effective with resources, who is good with decision making, and creative, and looking at things in a new and different way where they can put the business plan together to be successful,” she said.
Entrepreneurship on Campus
On-campus organizations such as the Institute for Student Business Education (ISBE), a group in which Sales-Griffin was president during his undergraduate years, and offshoot organization Northwestern Student Holdings (NSH) provide students with real world business experience by finding a need in the community, creating a business model to fill it, and providing the service.
For example, NSH is a holdings company that controls several student-run companies. Weinberg senior and NSH president Prateek Janardhan explains that Northwestern is a prime university for future entrepreneurs.
“Especially because the economics department is so big at Northwestern, it leads to Northwestern having a lot of students interested in business and entrepreneurship,” he said.
NSH has four fully operational businesses: Wildcat Express Delivery, NU Tutors, Northwestern Transit Co., and CouponCat. Another one, Project Cookie, was on a test run last year and hopes to return later this year fully operational. NSH is considering acquiring new businesses as well.
“Entrepreneurship is just very exciting a concept, to be able to start something from the ground,” Janardhan said. “People kind of associate it with risk, thrill. So I think a lot of people just want to get that experience in college, and I think it’s unique to be able to get that sort of experience in college. I think that’s what really attracts people to NSH.”
SESP sophomore David Harris, one of the founders of Project Cookie, joined NSH because of his interest in business.
“I was really excited about entrepreneurship, and I knew that I wanted to be involved in a group of students that seemed highly ambitious, driven, and excited to make a real impact in their four years on campus,” he said.
Project Cookie sells and delivers homemade cookies to Northwestern students. It hopes to perfect its business model this school year and become an official NSH business.
University Career Services works with these groups and with individuals by connecting students to faculty, alumni, and other students with similar interests and expertise. Career counselors also work with students to focus on and build skill sets for the specific industry on which they’re focusing.
Looking back on the Northwestern student body where he was president of ISBE and helped launch what became NSH, Sales-Griffin offers a helping hand to fellow Northwestern students who plan to follow his entrepreneurial lead.
“If they want to do startups and if they think what we’re doing is cool, email me and I’m happy to help them out however I can because I love helping fellow Northwestern students,” he said.
Editor’s note — David Harris was originally referred to as the owner rather than the founder of Project Cookie. The project’s NSH status has also been clarified.