吃瓜网

1950 Collective

Angela Jin听鈥�17

Launched by Jin and a friend from her home state of Texas,听听has far more than a plan for future sales. It is already a successful merchandise company that has generated $280,000 in sales in less than two years.

The venture began by marketing T-shirts to fans of the pop group One Direction and has expanded to other products geared toward those who follow other artists. 鈥淭oday, we carry fandom gear, social justice and feminist apparel, skincare, swimwear, accessories, and more,鈥� Jin, whose concentration was marketing with a minor in women鈥檚 and gender studies, recently told听吃瓜网 News.

听gets its name from the number of miles that separate Jin at Boston College and co-founder Nishiki Maredia at the University of Texas at Austin. The company has drawn national attention with听听such as听Seventeen听and听Glamour.

But Jin is quick to say she doesn鈥檛 want to 鈥渙ver-glamorize鈥� what she鈥檚 doing.

鈥淚 think a lot of people think it鈥檚 all about press and fun and running around to New York and all that, and it鈥檚 really not. It鈥檚 me sitting in my room in CoRo packing 100 orders a night and I want to freaking cry. And it鈥檚 me in O鈥橬eill coding a random website,鈥� she said, referring to the College Road dorms. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not that glamorous.鈥�

With a social justice bent, the co-founders direct a portion of the profits to causes such as those aiding Syrian refugees and residents of Flint, Michigan, still reeling from the city鈥檚 water crisis. 鈥淚t鈥檚 incredibly important to us to integrate corporate social responsibility into our mission, simply because it鈥檚 our passion,鈥� Jin said.

She is now in Los Angeles building a career in the music industry but plans to keep growing听听as she did on the Heights.

VenU

Dan Marino 鈥�19 and Ben Li 鈥�19

Pop singers and other performers have a pretty good idea of who鈥檚 buying the tickets to see them, but finding out who鈥檚 actually showing up for the concerts and events is another question. That鈥檚 where VenU steps in, with an app that links up artists with their most active followers.

鈥淚f you have 40,000 seats available and 20,000 transactions, that鈥檚 20,000 unaccounted-for tickets, because you can buy more than one ticket. You could buy five, you could buy ten, you could buy two,鈥� said Marino, whose management concentrations are information systems and finance with a minor in computer science. 鈥淵ou could get sick and give your ticket to a friend. You could be a scalper and sell it off.鈥�

The app is a social media platform that lets artists know who鈥檚 showing up. It also focuses the social media outreach by bringing people together on the basis of activity, not interest鈥攖here鈥檚 a difference, according to the founders of VenU.

鈥淎ll social media today is based on interest,鈥� Marino, a Massachusetts native, explained. 鈥淵ou have concentrated groups of fans, like Justin Bieber鈥檚 90 million [Twitter] followers. They鈥檙e brought together by interest, but who are the ones going beyond interest, who are actually showing activity, showing up, spending time and money, being really valuable to the artists?鈥�

With information of that sort, artists as well as sports teams can communicate with and further engage their most loyal fans. They could offer different recognitions and awards鈥攕eat upgrades, backstage passes, merchandise, and other perks. Through the app, fans check in at events and artists can ask them what songs they鈥檇 like to hear.

During spring break this year, Marino and Li traveled to China, where they obtained seed funding for VenU. Li is a Californian originally from China and majoring in accounting and finance. The app is set to go live this summer.