Kyle
Gonzaga students Josh Erickson and Shane Roach have launched a startup for Gonzaga students that can easily be adapted to any college campus in America. The concept behind easyzag is pretty simple, simplify the college students internet experience.
Easyzag.com takes the most frequented sites for Gonzaga students and puts them in a portal of sorts. If you’ve been through the post internet college experience than you’ve probably experienced the difficulty in finding the shuttle schedule from the home page of the schools website.
Some of the best institutions in the world, Gonzaga included, have so many sub-level domains within their website infrastructure its impossible to find the basketball schedule, much less when your professor is going to be out for three days.
That’s the problem Erickson and Roach are solving for Gonzaga students right now and hopefully more schools in the future.
We got a chance to talk with both co-founders. Check out our interview below:
What is easyzag?
Our startup is easyzag.com, or “eZag” for short, and our mission is to simplify the college student’s internet experience. Our site currently hosts twenty of the most frequented sites by Gonzaga University students, aka “Zags”, in a convenient, user friendly way. That’s what we are aiming for–convenience for the student on the go and in the classroom. Easyzag.com serves as a one-stop directory for students looking for the seemingly impossible to find links buried within the school’s website.We began by laying out the links in an easy to read, simplified format. We feel that this grid, in school colors of course, is the perfect way for Gonzaga students to find the sites they need as quickly as possible. This is something we pride ourselves on: making the Gonzaga student’s user experience more efficient.
Recently, easyzag.com underwent some changes. Shane and I added a background image of Gonzaga’s Kennel Club, the basketball student section, as well as a Wikipedia search bar. This search bar allows easyzag.com to serve its purpose as the Gonzaga student’s one-stop location for their most frequently visited sites, as well as providing direct access to every college student’s best friend–Wikipedia.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
Josh Erickson is a Information Systems and Operations/Supply Chain Management major in his Junior year at Gonzaga University. He is a social media enthusiast with an entrepreneurial mindset, always looking for the next big thing. Josh loves anything sports-related and is a huge Gonzaga basketball and Seattle Mariners fan. He is currently an Information Technology intern at Costco Wholesale and is learning a lot about both the operations and technological side of a Fortune 25 company. He is the Co-Founder and Chief Technological Officer of easyzag.com.
Shane Roach is a Marketing and Entrepreneurship/Innovation major in his junior year at Gonzaga University. His passion is in marketing and entrepreneurship and plans to intern for an online marketing or advertising firm this year. His dream job is to work in marketing and advertising for a big clothing company. As of now, he enjoys working as a marketing assistant for his best friend’s start up clothing company, Evoba Clothing, as well as putting in time to make easyzag.com a great tool for Gonzaga students.
Where are you based?
Spokane, WA
What is the startup culture like where you are based?
From our experience, there is not a huge startup culture in Spokane. This is something we hope to change with easyzag.com. We hope to learn more about various startups in Spokane, as well as establishing ourselves in the area.
What problem does easyzag solve?
Easyzag.com solves the problem of countless time spent searching for links that should be readily available to students. As students, we frequently cannot find the links we need on a university’s website, and know that others struggle with this issue as well. These links include an academic calendar, intramurals site, health center, student body association, etc., all of which are difficult to find in a timely manner within our university’s site. Easyzag.com eliminates this problem.
What is one challenge that you’ve overcome in the startup process?
Our biggest challenge stemmed from the fact that neither of us have any experience in the startup culture. We had an idea and a plan, but did not necessarily know how to turn the idea into a working product, and eventually a licensed company. After we created the site, the next step was to gain exposure on campus and establish our site as Gonzaga’s go-to website.
Who are your mentors and role models?
Josh: My role model has to be Marc Benioff, the Chairman & CEO of salesforce.com. Mr. Benioff started his first business at 14, creating a software program that paid his way through USC, only to intern under Steve Jobs at Apple, Inc., and work his way up at Oracle. Benioff inspires me to take a chance with my own startup, just as he did, and to put my heart and soul into something I believe in. I one day hope to work for salesforce.com in San Francisco, CA, and be able to tell Mr. Benioff, in person, how much he has influenced me.
Shane: My role model has to be Rob Dyrdek, professional skateboarder, and more importantly, entrepreneur. I want to pursue a career in marketing in the clothing world and Rob is the ultimate marketer, and anything he touches turns to gold. He has four clothing companies, and is a big investor with his hands in many things, which all seem to be doing well.
What’s one thing the world doesn’t know about you or easyzag?
That through easyzag.com, we plan on changing how college students surf the web.
What’s next for easyzag?
We are in the process of making major renovations to easyzag.com, and will be launching a new version of the site in the fall. Currently, Shane and I are working on additions to easyzag.com to monetize the site, as well as providing a unique service to students and their families.
We are building three new pages, “Eat” “Sleep” and “Drink”, to house subdirectories of the most popular restaurants, hotels and bars in the Spokane area. This will add a new dimension to the site, expanding our reach beyond only students. Easyzag.com will become the stop for where to dine, where to stay, and where to consume adult beverages for both students and those who do not know the area.
This coming fall, easyzag.com will be targetting the incoming freshman class and establishing ourselves as their primary source for Gonzaga’s content. We remember, as freshmen, how lost and confused we were in the university, not to mention the university’s website. Easyzag.com will aim to ease the transition for freshmen students, and provide them and their parents with the best that Spokane has to offer.
Linkage:
Check out easyzag here at easyzag.com
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