Our very own Brendan Batliner, a computer science major in the Raikes School of Computer Science and Management, has found success starting a company called Omnipointment (http://www.omnipointment.com/). He placed in the Top 64 of the Student Startup Madness (SSM) tournament. We had the opportunity to interview Brendan this past week:
- What gave you the idea for Omnipointment and when did you start working on it?
It was actually my co-founder, Vinesh Kannan at the Illinois Institute of Technology, who came up with the original idea. At our high school, the Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA), we had both experienced the problem of finding common times for our teams to meet, but we were both dissatisfied with existing solutions. It was soon after we started our fall semesters at university that Vinesh called me and said that we needed to start building Omnipointment, because finding common meeting times is an even bigger problem on college campuses. Our first working prototype was completed in November 2015 at WildHacks, a hackathon at Northwestern University in Chicago.
- What makes Omnipointment unique?
Existing solutions to find common meeting times for your team are only solving half of the problem. They make it simple to find out when everyone is free, but leave the burden on you to decide a final meeting time and communicate that to your team. Omnipointment builds on those ideas by giving meeting creators the tools they need to schedule meetings as quickly and painlessly as possible. Our timegrid aggregates everyone's availabilities into a color-coded chart so you can decide on the best meeting time at a glance. Additionally, tools like filtering certain teammates in and out of the timegrid and automatic time suggestions make our meeting creators better leaders by letting them adapt to their busy teams. For team members, Omnipointment gets easier to use the more you use it. If you respond to one meeting and say you're available at 9am on Tuesday, Omnipointment will remember that and will automatically fill in other meetings you respond to.
- What was your experience at SSM like?
When we received the email saying we were selected for the top 64 (or "the big dance", as they called it), it spurred us into action. We spent the next week writing tons of code, building our social media presence, and just trying to hype up Omnipointment. It was the first week we really dedicated ourselves to the company. Although we didn't make it to the next round of SSM, we're grateful for the experience and the publicity that kick started our efforts. Since SSM, we've received more press that you can find links to on our website, omnipointment.com.
- Have you always been interested in Computer Science? What first sparked your interest in the field?
I've been interested in computers ever since I experimented with making my own websites in middle school. I think it comes from my natural love of problem solving, and I see computer science as the most powerful way to solve problems in the 21st century. At my high school, IMSA, there was an entrepreneurship program called Total Applied Learning for ENTrepreneurs (TALENT) that showed me for the first time that I could use my computer science skills to help people. By teaching me the lean startup model and rapid prototyping, among other things, I learned to critically think about the world around me and how I could use my technical skills to advance the human condition.
- What attracted you to UNL?
I'm a part of the Raikes Program, whose values align closely with mine. I was attracted to Raikes' focus on application and practical use of both computer science and business. I'm looking forward to seeing what Raikes will enable me to do in the future.
- What are your plans for the future? Do you plan to continue work on Omnipointment?
Yes, actually! Vinesh and I originally were going to strive for "12 startups in 12 months", where we'd work on 12 new ideas throughout the year, but we both believe Omnipointment has a future and is solving a real problem for students. Right now, we're gathering tons of feedback from the communities around us and trying to build an awesome product that people love to use. We don't know where exactly Omnipointment will take us but we both agree we should keep working on it.
For more information, please refer to the following articles:
http://www.dailynebraskan.com/news/raikes-student-creates-web-app-to-help-students-manage-their/article_053018b8-ceda-11e5-9633-c7776da9bde9.html
http://studentstartupmadness.com/field-of-64-begins-2016/
Way to go, Brendan!