No matter the subject, young people will always find a way to be concerned about it. From study groups, to politics, to that awful dining hall food, or to the latest party over at x's house, there is a guarantee that young people, and students especially, will be worried about it. Well, today's featured venture has a lot to do with the hee-hawing within social circles be it watching the latest movie to deciding who the dungeon master will be. Openvote Inc., founded by Jason Freedman and Colin Van Ostern, both attending Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, thought that giving people the vote on a topic or issue would lead to a better understand of what people want in that specific community:

"Openvote is a website where people in any real-world community can poll each other, vote, and see what everyone thinks. On Openvote, members of any community (like a college campus) can create new polls, vote, discuss, and check poll results. Each group or campus has its own section, accessed through the Openvote website or through our Facebook application. Openvote is currently completing a private beta and beginning a national launch."

The compelling idea behind Openvote is that it will always appeal to communities at large; from older-aged groups to younger-powered universities communities that thrive on the web will be able to access and take advantage of the power of the Internet and a simple community space. A potential problem behind Openvote is that although there might be a lot of transperency within the process of voting and responding to topics, there might be room for abuse/trolling within the communities as well as power fights to how these communities will be moderated. To amend this potential problem, Openvote might employ a new strategy to create a seemingly democratic system where no one can really abuse the functions available. Hopefully the beta testing will be a success so that they can launch and raise a venture round for this coming Fall.


To see more details about these businesses you can login at StudentBusinesses.com to view full business plans for these and other top startups around the country.

Labels: entrepreneurship, Openvote, Openvote Inc., student startup, studentbusinesses.com

Posted at 6:38 PM