Almost anyone who has been to college has had an ingenious dorm room idea, often a brilliant brainstorm offering a solution to a vexing problem. 

The vast majority never amount to much, cast aside in favor of studying, partying, or general inertia.

But a growing number of Tippie students are taking the next steps, building their brainstorms into profitable enterprises and showcasing their entrepreneurial spirit. Often with a little help from professors and other mentors, these students are launching real-world businesses before graduation.

Here are two that actually took off!

Volta

For management and entrepreneurship major Broc Hawkins (BBA23), inspiration came his freshman year due to his own procrastination.

He was living in Catlett Hall and lost track of the calendar, waiting until just a couple days prior to Thanksgiving break to contact his parents to ask for a ride back to their family home in the Des Moines area.

“Turns out, they couldn’t pick me up. They said I’d have to find a ride or stick it out,” Hawkins recalled. “Being a typical freshman, I’d waited until the dorms were pretty much cleared out before asking if anyone could give me a ride. No one could take me, so I was the only student in Catlett for a few days. I was broke, hungry, and living off bags of Doritos and walking tacos. That was the day Volta was born.”

Volta is a college-exclusive rideshare platform that helps students arrange transportation with other students, either on campus, in town, or between cities. Essentially, it connects college students traveling to similar destinations utilizing artificial intelligence on an app-based platform. The app launched in August 2024, had 20 drivers signed up by October, and began its first rides by Thanksgiving break. The app is currently available to students at Iowa, DePaul, and Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

The technological heavy lifting was done by one of Hawkins’ club soccer teammates, Alex Atkinson, who recently graduated with a computer science degree from Iowa. Having experienced the pain of soliciting rides home himself, he was happy to jump on board as Volta’s chief technology officer.

“It felt like a real solution to a common problem for students, which made it easy to see the potential,” Atkinson said. “My mind immediately started thinking about how we could build it from a technical perspective, and I was excited to use my software engineering skills from the university in a practical, real-world project.”

Hawkins and Atkinson are quick to point out their burgeoning business likely wouldn’t have launched without help from Tippie faculty, and in particular, the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (JPEC).

Hawkins lauded the JPEC Undergraduate Student Incubator for helping walk them through starting an LLC, customer discovery, legal support, and other new business necessities.

“It’s like having a business library card—they are thereto help—you just have to use it,” Hawkins said.

DYK? Tippie was named the #15 best undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the U.S. by The Princeton Review for 2025!

SeatStock

As a cash-strapped freshman, Josh Cohen bought and sold student tickets on the secondary market to supplement his meager income. The system was pretty much the Wild West—arrangements made via social
media apps like Snapchat, Facebook, and GroupMe—and ripe for rip-offs.

“I know quite a few people on campus who’ve either been scammed or will actually admit to scamming others,” said Cohen, now a junior management and entrepreneurship major at Tippie. 

One of the biggest problems was students Venmo-ing money to an alleged seller, and then being ghosted. Meaning they were both out the cash and unable to attend games.

Like the folks at Volta, Cohen and his partners—Adam Hasan, Brady Stein, and Brandon Egger—turned to technology for a solution. Their student ticket-selling app company—called SeatStock—creates an online bidding process where ticket seekers can place bids on what they’re willing to pay for a seat in the student section and sellers can post what they’re willing to accept.

“We think our solution is the best way,” said Hasan, a finance major whose role with SeatStock is acquiring investors. “Right now, there is no other safe way to sell student section tickets, because SeatGeek and other secondary ticket sellers don’t allow student tickets to be sold.

Our research indicated that around 50% of students who have purchased student tickets via social media have been scammed or know someone who has been scammed, so we help provide safety.”

To date, SeatStock has launched on five campuses and has helped students trade 1,200+ tickets. In addition, the SeatStock team took first place at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) Pitch competition in Des Moines last month and will advance to the natinal competitin in Mexico, representing the University of  Iowa. 

Like the Volta entrepreneurs, the SeatStock team received valuable input and assistance from Tippie faculty and advisors.

Hasan said his involvement with the Hawkinson Institute, for example, helped him become more comfortable having conversations with potential investors and improved his networking skills.

“It’s been a great learning experience, working in the venture capital space and learning about raising angel money and what all goes along with that,” he said.

From a philosophical standpoint, Cohen said it feels like many of today’s Tippie students are more focused on entrepreneurship and launching their own businesses rather than working toward a job in areas like finance, banking, or other traditional destinations.

“I like the fact it isn’t very corporate,” he said. “I don’t foresee myself going to a Fortune 500 company where I have bosses upon bosses upon bosses. There are just so many more tools readily available to help you launch
your own business now.”

This article appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of Tippie Magazine.