Five UM students launched Miami Venture Studio, a startup company designed to connect students with company executives, leaders and investors.
The idea for MVS originated about nine months ago. Yusif Gurbanli, a fourth-year Ph.D. student studying mechanical engineering, and Jaron Mohammed, a junior also studying mechanical engineering, found themselves overwhelmed by companies asking them for help with coding and other tasks.
“At some point, you just can’t keep on saying yes to the companies. You can say yes like twice, but you just can’t do ten projects at the same time,” said Gurbanli. “But, you know other people who can do probably as good of a job as you could have done and you want to give them an opportunity.“
With a rough idea in mind, the pair joined forces with three students they knew from a mechanics lab and other classes. The other three founders are all juniors majoring in various disciplines, giving MVS leadership a diverse set of skills.
Sebastian Cervello is studying mechanical engineering, Audrish Chattaraj is studying business analytics and AI and Daniel Gregor is studying business administration and computer science with a minor in economics.
The founders described MVS as a “bridge” between UM students and companies interested in hiring students for help, or investing in student ideas.
Despite MVS only opening to students about three months ago, the initiative already has more than 100 student applicants. MVS has also already formed relationships with seed-stage companies to large enterprises mainly in the Miami and South Florida region.
The networking process flows both ways. Students reach out to larger companies asking for investments or advice, and companies reach out looking for talented students or new investments.
MVS is also tapping into UM’s alumni network to build relationships and spread the word about the initiative.
While UM has similar programs to support entrepreneurs — like The Launch Pad and UStart — the MVS founders still felt that the startup scene in Miami is compartmentalized. MVS aims to unify these disconnected groups and create one community, much like Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator, where students, founders and investors can meet and exchange ideas.
“Our primary focus is to connect the students to the local people that would need that help and stop the brain leakage out of Miami,” Gurbanli said. “A lot of talented students by junior year … already have offers from San Francisco from New York, and that kind of drains the talent out of the city.”
The next step? MVS wants to host weekly coffee chat events where everybody is treated as equals, whether student or CEO.
“It’s more about everybody trying to get to know more people, learn what everybody else is doing, polish their own knowledge, add something,” Gurbanli said. “That’s when things truly take off, when there’s a symbiotic relationship in the community, when nobody’s trying to look for personal gain, but they add on to each other, so eventually you’re going to end up in a positive.”
While the founders are keeping MVS independent of UM at the moment, they are open to working more formally with the University in the future.
MVS is more than a company matchmaking service. The founders see it as a community and an accessible way to break into the world of entrepreneurship.