FEATURESTORY
BE YOUR OWN BOSS:
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START-UP CULTURE ON CAMPUS
WRITER: Paul Gonzalez EMAIL:pgonzalez@mercedsun-star.com PHONE: (209) 385.2464
Starting a business is a goal many students have, but you don’t have to wait years after graduation to put your plan into action. Successful corporations such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft were all started by college students and recent graduates. Here are some new and exciting start-ups with ties to a campus near you.
Tin-Bin: Tin-Bin is a promising new software startup from UC Merced. The venture originated as the side project of UCM graduate Tyler Shaddix whose “Simple API for Google Analytics” called OOcharts has generated an enormous user base, including companies such as JP Morgan Chase and Forever 21 . The popularity of OOcharts, an application designed to let users organize their Google analytics, led Shaddix and his partners Jorge Marquez and Jared Calinisan to found Tin-Bin, a company based around the OOcharts product. OOcharts is just the first step though, according to Product Manager Jorge Marquez. Tin-Bin plans on publishing a portfolio of applications in the near future including a legal billing application that is already under construction. To that end, their personnel count has expanded from three to six, and as Marquez, Shaddix and the rest of the team realized, they needed additional man power to continue the business’ growth as they look to expand operations throughout Northern California and the Central Valley. Tin-Bin’s success is due in part to their “new age” business approach where the team works when they can from wherever they are. It’s an unorthodox model, but for a business that started in a living room, that flexibility has produced an impressive result. ////SEE PAGE20
BUILDING SUCCESS Top left to right: Juliane Soria, Claudia Canates. Bottom left to right: Tin Bin partners Jared Calinisan, Jorge Marquez, and Tyler Shaddix.