#webcred

The below recap on Jim Cash’s session is courtesy of Connor McEwen of Webcred:

Folks close to this year’s Summer@HIGHLAND program (link) may recognize these two fellows – Connor & Nam. We first met late last winter when I was at Boston University speaking to a group of students about the program. They were sophomores at the time and decided to apply and were ultimately accepted. BTW, you can track some of their experiences at (100) Days of Summer (as they were the first team to arrive, they get some extra exposure).

Their startup (Webcred) is focused on building trust online for those looking to rent, buy, sell and share through the Internet. As Summer progressed and they developed stronger clarity around the opportunity in front of them, they began to contemplate next steps with respect to where to take the business. Startupbootcamp Berlin caught their attention and the Berlin/European startup scene made a lot of sense given the collaborative consumption area they’re in. So they decided to apply and see if they could get in. If they did, they would take some time off of school to focus on Webcred full-time.

As an aside, many student entrepreneurs face the same choices and decisions as Connor & Nam. It’s ultimately a personal choice, although there can be a number of key variables that can help tilt the decision one way over the other. Based on seeing a lot of examples play out over the years, it’s a topic for a SXSW speaking slot that I’m under consideration for (here).

Enough of that plug and back to Connor & Nam. Well, they made the first cut as one of the 20 finalists for Startupbootcamp and were invited to Berlin in early August to interview & pitch for a slot as one of the final 10 teams selected. The program would officially start three weeks later for those teams selected.

They were now were faced with a decision – should they invest in the costs to fly over to Berlin in early August and how to plan their travel over the extended period with the uncertainty of the selection process hanging over their heads?

So they took the path that many committed entrepreneurs who believe in themselves and their idea would pursue – they went all in. Connor & Nam bought one-way tickets to Berlin and packed for the next four months. They were selected and haven’t looked back since.

The Boston Globe featured Summer@HIGHLAND in a profile on "cool summer internships" for students across Boston.  Summer@HIGHLAND is a bit different that corporate internships and it was really viewed in the spirit of the closest thing to an "internship" for entrepreneurs that were further building their startups. Team Wellframe is highlighted in the picture and the online article can be found here.

Jacob Sattelmair and his partners worked on a mobile application that helps heart attack victims navigate and monitor their recoveries.

Why intern for somebody else’s company when you can start your own?

That’s the idea behind Summer@Highland, a program by Cambridge venture capital firm Highland Capital Partners, which gives student entrepreneurs free office space, expert guidance, and $15,000 cash — all with no strings attached.

The program, launched in 2007, has already hatched several successful companies, including Boston online custom jewelry maker Gemvara,which recently raked in $25 million during a round of fund-raising that ended last month.

Summer@Highland is open to undergraduates, graduate students, and recent graduates. This year, 257 teams from across the country applied for 14 spots. The winning teams operate out of Highland’s Cambridge and California offices for 10 weeks, developing their businesses while making connections with chief executives, founders, and venture capitalists brought in by Highland to give presentations and chat with students.

This summer, interns at Highland’s Cambridge office are working on a variety of projects, including a headband by a team called Axio that reads users’ brain waves and sends a visual representation of the data to a screen. Another team is writing software that would help build trust between strangers online who want to swap houses or carpool.

The latter project is the brainchild of Boston University juniors Nam Chu Hoai and Connor McEwan, both 20. Their idea, called Webcred, is to give users a universal online login that can take “trust” earned on any website — a positive buyer rating on eBay, for example — and display their trustworthiness wherever they go online.

Hoai and McEwan met as freshmen when they were assigned as roommates. Now they’re running a company, something that has proved more difficult than anticipated. In part, that’s because their idea has both technical and business obstacles to overcome, such as winning over websites that could benefit from the product.

“We’re sleeping in the office half of the nights. It’s frustrating at times,” Hoai said. “You have to be somewhat crazy to do this.”

Highland vice president Michael Gaiss says the company is looking for interns with passion, natural leadership qualities, and a history of entrepreneurship that might stretch back to childhood lemonade stands.

“I know they can go take more lucrative summer internships from Microsoft or Facebook,” said Gaiss, “so we’re really looking for those who want to forgo the more secure opportunities in order to change the world with their visions.”

Many of the business ideas will fail, Gaiss said, but that’s OK, too.