Student Businesses: Young Entrepreneurs in Action

By: Mariam El Sayed

@mariamabdalla2

Students at AUC are showing their entrepreneurial talents as they bring their innovative ideas to life with a variety of start-up businesses on and off campus.

According to a study by Santander, a Spanish multinational financial services company, around one in 10
students in the UK run a business alongside their academic work at university. During the course of
their college careers, students are exposed to various fields which influence them to experiment with
new things, monetize their hobbies, and turn them into professional business ventures.

But the boom of startups is not limited to the UK. Knowing how important startups are to a country’s
economic growth, Egypt is supporting youth startups through the Youth Entrepreneurship Program, which according to Amideast, an American nonprofit organization, was launched in 2020.

Mohamed Samer, an Electronics and Communications Engineering graduating senior and PR and
Community Director of Tutoruu, talked about the background story for their website that connects users with private tutors in numerous classes.

“CEO Seif Amr, and CPO Youssef Abdelhamid were literally sitting in their dorm room, struggling with a
class and came up with the idea,” said Samer

The website was created a little over a year ago. Tutors can create a professional profile to market themselves on the platform, and students can sign up and book a session for whichever course they
need.
He explained how they had to then differentiate themselves as a start-up from other competitors.

“The idea behind Tutoruu is that it guarantees you to connect with a high- achieving student [who] went through the exact same class with the same professor, and get help by paying less than half the money students spent in tutoring centers,” said Samer, in response to how Tutoruu is different from other tutoring organizations.
He mentioned the biggest challeng they faced when they started the project was having enough profitability to operate the business.

“We take a commission fee on each session, and that’s our main revenue stream, but it wasn’t enough,” said Samer.

To tackle this, they joined business incubators which are organizations that help innovative start-ups to
grow by providing them with useful resources.

“We joined a wide range of incubators, from NYU Startup Sprint in New York to Ma’an Social Incubator
in Abu Dhabi to Plug n Play in Egypt. Some offered us office space, while others supported us financially and yet all of them were an integral part to the development of the business we have today,” said Samer to explain how the shareholders managed to have some funding for the project.

He explained their future plans to expand, so more users can use the site and do more than just book a
tutoring session, therefore generating additional revenue. As of now, the website can only be used by students willing to pay for a session. The plan is to build a social platform that can be used for free, in addition to the option of booking a tutoring session.

“We are trying to make a freemium model, [where] tutors can make blog posts, share notes, upload tips
and tricks videos, answer and ask questions anonymously,” added Samer.

Shifting from entrepreneurial work in academics, Computer Engineering graduating senior Yara Yahia shared her experience as the owner of Candlic, an online business for 100% eco-friendly customized scented candles.

“I have always loved candles, the sense and how they make you feel more relaxed. So, I decided to start
making my own. I tried many times to find the right vibe for each one,”Yahia said.
Yahia, too, expressed the challenges she faced with managing her time between her studies and her business.
“I always try to make the orders ready as early as possible. And if I don’t have time, I get some help from
a friend.”

Lydia Kamiel from the Venture Lab at AUC explained the two different approaches they take when it comes to helping students with their start-ups.

“We have a couple of different programs helping start-ups grow, either to get into the market, or
finding good funding through investors,” said Kamiel.

Kamiel further explained how they do this by delivering sessions, mentorship and coaching. The second
approach involves giving start-up owners the exposure to help them connect with potential stakeholders.
Most of the start-ups working with the venture lab are comprised of graduate students in their late 20s
or early 30s who see their endeavors as a full-time jobs. The Venture Lab at AUC has helped accelerate over 230 start-up businesses for graduate students since 2013. Kamiel also simplified the main
objective behind the Venture Lab’s processes for helping out graduate students with bright ideas for fast-
growing enterprises.

“We’re always looking for innovation, either innovation in the product or service, or innovation in
the business model itself,” added Kamiel.