UF seniors Aidan Augustin and Neal Ormsbee found their direction in life.
They just had to stop going to class to do it.
The 21-year-old best friends, roommates of three years and now business partners are the co-founders of Feathr, a startup that has created a smartphone application designed to change the way people network professionally.
It all started with an idea: What if the concept of the business card could be revolutionized in the form of an app? One year after that initial idea was born, Feathr has become a completely student-run company complete with its own programming team, investors and office space.
“What people currently do is use paper business cards, but no one has the time with a stack of new contacts to put in all the info, for instance after a conference,” Augustin said. “Automating that process and making business cards digital so they can sync to all your devices facilitates the online, social-media culture we live in.”
The electronic “business card-like” interface is designed for efficiency, allowing the user to store new contacts’ information all in one place. There are buttons for email, phone, Twitter, a website or online portfolio, and they’re accessible with one tap.
The seed for Feathr was planted when Augustin interned in Silicon Valley, Calif., during Summer 2011. He realized while at a networking event as he and other interns tried to clumsily swap information that there was no standardized way to electronically give people his card.
He remembers joking with one woman about how “we are some of the smartest people with supercomputers literally in our pockets, and we can’t figure this out.”
The idea was still in the back of his mind when Augustin participated in a Start-Up Weekend in Tallahassee last fall, a competition that challenges entrepreneurial college-age students to create an entire concept and business model in two days.
By the end of the weekend the concept was called CardSync, which would eventually become Feathr.
His idea didn’t win one of the prizes, but it was selected to be among the top 10 that were judged at the end.
After trying to work on the company that semester while also taking classes, Augustin realized he couldn’t pursue his business model as a fully enrolled student. But everything seemed to be lining up in favor of the company. Ormsbee, a computer science major, came fully onboard to assist with the programming.
They decided over winter break of 2011 that they would drop out of school the next semester and work on their company full time.
“We sort of had a ‘come to Jesus moment’,” Augustin said. “The thing was, I said to Neal, ‘You’re going to have to become a software god.’”
Flash forward to Fall 2012, and the Feathr team has expanded to include programmers Gabe Busto, Tasha Hankewych, Andrew Kennedy and designer Will Newton.
“One of the neat things about startup life is that the teams are small, and everyone onboard is there because they love and believe in what they’re doing,” Ormsbee said.
The Feathr office is located in the brand-new UF Innovation Hub that opened last January and is not much bigger than a study room at Library West. But it’s one of the most decorated and lived-in on their floor.
Computers, wires, smartphones and whiteboards covered in programming language are all over the office.
The walls are plastered with inspirational quotes like “Innovation is War,” which reminds them that disrupting the way things are isn’t always easy, and the “V for Vendetta” movie poster because “we view ourselves as revolutionaries,” Augustin said.
Though the office energy is inspiring, one of the downsides of nurturing a startup is struggling for funds to keep it alive.
“They certainly aren’t doing it for money or to build a reputation,” Ormsbee said. “We don’t have the funds to pay anyone what their talents are really worth.”
In just about a year, the Feathr team has become a family, and Augustin and Ormsbee have big plans for the future. The app was released to its first group of users last week.
Currently, a group of 1,200 people are beta testing the app for basic user-friendliness and to detect bugs.
Augustin hopes to have the app available through the iTunes App Store by the end of January.
A year from now, he predicts up to 1 million people using Feathr on their phones.
And in five years?
“By then I think we’ll have sold Feathr and be millionaires by 25,” Augustin said with a smile.
Aidan Augustin, a 21-year-old industrial engineering senior, is hard at work at the Feathr office, located in the UF Innovation Hub. The Feathr team is the only student company currently occupying the building.
