Entrepreneur Profile: Jessica Schweitzer, Campus Connect

We hear it every day in the news – small business drives the growth and job creation in our economy.

Independent’s Entrepreneur Profiles celebrates the people out there changing the world every day. We ask each entrepreneur eight questions to give us a little insight into their vision of the future, and their take on building a company.

This month, we feature Jessica Schweitzer of Campus Connect. Campus Connect is a Connecticut-based start up which describes itself as “here to keep [college students] connected with [their] precious dollars while connecting [them] with [their] wider campus community.” They are also the winners of the #GoogleHaven100 gift sponsored by Independent Software.

Eight Questions for Jessica

1. What does your company do?

Campus Connect serves students by reducing the high costs associated with attending college. The company provides a wide range of services from buying and selling textbooks, to the listings of campus classifieds, and savings from local small businesses around campus. We do this by promoting the use of our site through social networks hoping to be the next Craig’s List meets Facebook for textbooks. Campus Connect gives students control of the direct sale and purchase of their goods, instead of using other services which charge them fees. (I.E. Textbook sellers will charge a fee or % to sell your book.)

2. When did you start your company?
I started this company in May of 2008, as a project in an entrepreneurship class at Central Connecticut State University. It then became something that I was passionate about launching, and creating a real service instead of it being just an idea. The website launched October 20, 2009.

Campus Connect

3. What are your funding sources?
Currently, the company is funded primarily by myself, and through friends and family. I bring in a modest amount of revenue from advertising fees, on a monthly basis, but I am looking to explore ways to increase revenue.

4. What have the top three challenges been in your start up process?
The top three challenges thus far are: 1) Finding a partner that is as passionate about my idea as I am, and who sees the potential that my company has to grow and be profitable, 2) Carefully spending of funds . . . it is always a challenge to make money stretch! and 3) Campus Connect is also about process change . . . and getting the college demographic to try something new and adopt your method of “textbook trading” is hard.

5. Define “entrepreneur.”
I feel an entrepreneur is really someone who at the end of the day, when everyone else is turning in the towel, is still pushing their ideas forward. They don’t give up because they aren’t afraid to take chances and fail, but believe in their success.

6. Read any good books lately?
In a start up, you are always short on time, but I enjoy reading when I get the chance.

7. What is your advice to an entrepreneur starting out?
My advice to an entrepreneur starting out is to do your research and due-diligence before you go and simply start-up a company, but at the same time don’t take too long because I firmly believe the real work begins when you actually launch the company.

8. What’s your favorite entrepreneurship quote?
One of my favorite quotes is: “Instead of thinking about where you are, think about where you want to be. It takes twenty years of hard work to become an overnight success.” – Diana Rankin

If you are an entrepreneur in the Northeast and are interested in being profiled, we invite you to contact us.