April 28, 2015 by Marina
1871: The Perfect Creative Space for Young Entrepreneurs
A few weeks ago I got a life changing email. A few professors at Loyola University encouraged students in my class to apply for a 3-day startup weekend-style event, where the 20 smartest students from The University of Illinois, Northwestern University, The University of Chicago, The Illinois Institute of Technology, and Loyola, come together to ideate, create, and bring to life a real startup of their own… and I was one of the lucky students who got an acceptance letter.
The competitive weekend event is called Campus 1871, which is hosted by the Silicon Valley of Chicago, 1871.
This is the core of Chicago’s tech community and is an incubator and a community full of resources to help make entrepreneurs successful. The 75,000 square-foot hub is home to over 325 start-ups, including Grub Hub.
Other than providing me with food and a beautiful hotel room in Downtown Chicago for the entire weekend, I learned so much about entrepreneurship and more about the future of apps in the tech realm from inspirational speakers, as well as other brilliant students.
Over 100 students split up into different teams to collaborate on the ideas we liked the best. The idea that I felt strongest about is called Purshable (Purchase + Perishable goods).
Purshable is a fresh produce app that notifies users through push notifications andbeacon technology when local and chain groceries stores have an overstock on certain items, therefore getting amazing discounts on the items, instead of the stores throwing them away (which accounts for 45 billion tons of waste by the grocers each year).
I was passionate about the idea when I heard of it, because not only does it help consumers save money, but it benefits the grocers make a profit and most importantly helps environment reduce waste.
Interestingly enough, out of 100 participants, I was the only communication student among 99 other mechanical engineers, biotech, information systems and coding majors.
Because of this, I knew I would be able to do a great job making the presentation and was the one to chosen to pitch our idea in front of judges to represent all nine of my teammates.
Although Purshable did not win for overall best app, I was thrilled when several judges approached me and my team at the end and told me I was the Best Pitcher of all 12 teams.
Marina Peric pitching during CAMPUS 1871 for Purshable in 2015 for Loyola University
Even though I did not speak coding or java, watching the young developers on my team make a full-functioning app in less than two days was amazing.
One of the most inspirational speeches came from a Chicago-based app, Spot Hero, and my tweet was even retweeted by Howard Tullman, the CEO of 1871!
