Student Success Story - Alessandra Camargo

The journey from student to entrepreneur was a natural, yet unplanned, one for Alessandra Camargo, a current senior at Utah Valley University majoring in business management with a minor in marketing. In high school, she participated in business competitions for fun and, upon arriving at UVU, she noticed a similar opportunity being offered here called Skills USA. She was eager to become involved, and ended up competing in the entrepreneurship category. Alessandra described the experience at Skills USA like a shark tank pitch. Her team had to come up with a business idea and plan, and pitch it to a panel of judges. The idea they came up with has since evolved into what is now her company Bidmycrib.

The idea arose from a desire to help students, who often find themselves having to sell their leases mid-contract, which can be extremely difficult. A lot of complexes are moving to 12 month contracts, with no other options, but students are at a point in their lives where their situation is always changing. They go home between semesters, get married, want to live with friends, or get new jobs. As students who are always trying to save money, paying rent when they aren’t living there or having to pay for two apartments at once is terrible and unnecessary. Even worse, apartment complexes don’t work with students, or even help them find a replacement renter. Instead, renters are on their own to find someone to buy their contract.

 Bidmycrib was created as a website solution to this problem, where students can have a place to buy and sell their leases. The idea did so well at Skills USA, that Alessandra decided to seek help from her brother and business partner, Nick Camargo, to bring the idea to life and see how far it could go. She explained that they have differing personalities, which can make working together interesting, but also fun and beneficial when each of their differences are able to be utilized. Together they launched the website and, since Bidmycrib became live about a month ago, it has already seen about 100 people using it. 

Balancing a business and school can be tricky, but since it is a website based company, Alessandra describes the experience as convenient and flexible. While still working other jobs and having full time school, her and Nick typically spend their free time and weekends working on Bidmycrib. Together, Alessandra and Nick hope to take Bidmycrib nationwide and become the Zillow of student housing. “Right now there is just nothing out there dedicated to students or to partial leases,” she explained.

 

“If you have a dream-if you have an idea, just take that leap,” Alessandra encourages other student entrepreneurs “...it can be really scary, because I think everything thinks ‘oh what if it fails…’ but I’d rather put everything into this and have it fail than in the future look back and say ‘oh what if I had done that.’ You just gotta do it.”

Trying to sell or buy a contract? Check out Bidmycrib! 

 

If you have a business and need resources, or an idea and need help getting started, make an appointment with the Entrepreneurship Institute. You can become an entrepreneur (and we can help)!