Are you a person?
How are you doing?
Oh hi!
Yes I am!
I have had like 3 empty chats recently.
I get really annoyed when you get on and no one answers
Glad to see that you are real.
The notifications for this aren't super great so people forget about it all the time
Yea. I admit that I have been the cause of another's empty chat a time or two :/ I have it open waiting, but then get caught up in whatever it is i'm doing.
I literally have had several chats where I just talk to myself for like 5 minutes until I'm sure the score will register despite no one answering
and yeah. The notifications don't work at all. Yeah haha! I have gained about 45K points from those.
haha So what's your major?
Computer science. You?
Same here Freshmen? I've only met freshmen on here
Nice. I'm actually in class right now haha. Oh really?
which class is that?
I'm graduating in April. CS 405
Oh nice!  I'm a junior, just have a bunch of electives left Question for you actually since you've already done a couple of electives.  Which ones did you like the most?
Those are the fun ones! Good question! Lets see..
I still don't know exactly which ones I want to take
Have you done any web development before?
i'm also not sure what I want to do yet which can make it even tougher hahaa I've done CS 260
Ok I was going to recommend that class! I loved it.
And worked building basic testing harness's for work that I've hosted
And the skills you learn from it are actually marketable.
yeah, that class along with just basic programming knowledge are like the only real applicable things i've learned so far
I would recommend CS 356 and 456. Those are the UI/UX classes. Great professor and awesome classes.
what other electives have you found interesting or fun Which ones are those?
They involve design as well as the programming.
Which languages do they teach?
So the focus is not just making good code, but creating a user interface or experience that is enjoyable. Any. Well.. The first class we had two projects in it. One Android and one desktop web. Fairly flexible with the languages or frameworks used. And the second class we made a No-UI project using whatever we wanted. I made an Alexa app.
Oh nice!  Is the focus in all of these classes mainly android?  Or do they do IOS programming at all?  because I've worked in Swift a lot before, but wasn't a huge fan of Andr Android Oh nice, are you working on this project at all? Eve, or whatever it's called
I think the professor allowed a few iOS apps. But the focus was andorid at least when I took that class. He was a down to earth professor so you could convince him. And no I'm not haha. But I like the idea! And I like the incentives, of course. And it gives me something to do.
yes!  So question:  Is it the top 4 scores get an ipad pro?
...during class. Good question! Not sure.
or do you get assigned like raffle tickets for a certain amount of points
I would look into the FAQ. Maybe it's there.
hahah, this is a great way to pass time in dull classes
Might be a raffle.
I looked, and it was a little vague honestly
I do recommend this class too! CS 405. Software business. All about creating startups
Like it said top 4 win, but it also said stuff about not being able to win twice which made it sound like a raffle
Oh i see. Oh well! I guess we will find out haha.
Oh I would love that!
You can't win an ipad if you've already won before. But you can win both the laptop and ipad.
I'm a Business Management Minor and was actually on one of the new venture challenge/ launchpad teams this last year
oh awesome! Yeah you'd love this class. Taught by Craig Earnshaw. Successful angel investor who loves teaching this.
Dang, I should've talked to some seniors about this much earlier ahhaa this is great info for me
You're welcome!
Is that class mainly business models and just knowledge based stuff?  Or do you build applications too?
You literally come to class the first day with a business idea. Then throughout the class you build it. You create the software, you make the surveys, you collect data.. You do everything that you would if you weren't in a class.
Nice!  Is it wrong to bring prior projects that i've already somewhat run with? Or do they want a fresh Idea and new everything?
Because he really wants us to be able to start these businesses when the class ends. If they are viable, of course. No that's fine!
Because I have some ideas that I just haven't had the time to run with completely I love that!
There is a guy who did a summer startup thing here at BYU.
Do they allow you to partner up with people in the class at all?
and he is still working on it. Yes. You have to partner up.
Because it's a lot of work going solo on business ideas
teams of 2
perfect yeah I'm totally doing that then Are there pre-reqs to that class?
Yeah, just the experience and wisdom that Craig brings to class is invaluable. He isn't afraid to tell you that your idea isn't going to work. But only to help you get one that will. Not to just make fun of you in the class haha.
nice!  I love professors like that We built and ran with a Quick Serve Restaurant organizing app for several little caesars franchises this past summer
Just you on your own with a group?
but there wasn't a big enough demand/ unique enough niche to make it scalable So my older brother and his best friend had to do a capstone project for their IS masters degrees and they asked me to help out with it so we ran with that
That's way cool though! Great resume builder too.
and decided, "might as well enter the business model competition"
Of course!
yeah!  The seminars and trainings all summer were the biggest help to me!  Even though our idea was a bust, I learned a lot
That's one huge benefit still because you failed quickly.
yup!
Fail often, fail fast. Well maybe not often if you don't have to haha
Then I started running with another Idea for like an uber for finding tutors at BYU But again, too little profit to make it worth the scale Because the tutoring center is great, but they don't have like 2/3 of the classes you want and being volunteers you don't get super great tutoring
You're doing the right thing though by projecting. We learned to do a 3 year projection. If you can't live off of it after 3 years then it's most likely a no go.
So I tried to make a private, paid platform for people to find paid tutors
Oh nice!
Yeah!  And if you cant start scaling after 1 year then something is very wrong with your idae idea
Yeah, I was a TA for CS 142 and I got paid 20$ one time to do an hour long tutoring session Thought about going into it somehow. Never got anywhere with that thought haha
yeah!  But besides random sites, it's difficult to either tutor or find tutors at least here at BYU Anyways, didn't pan out, so if you have a different angle then by all means steal that and run with it hahah
Yeah! Well there is a need for sure. I'll let ya know if I do. I'll send smoke signals.
What kinds of ideas did you and your partner think of?
So that's an interesting one! So I came to class without an idea but was willing to join someone's team. Same as my eventual partner. But what we learned was that there were about five actual startups that exist right now that we were allowed to join basically as unpaid internships. And we work with all the projects the same, just with this already existing startup. So we are working with SkillStruck.com Online coding courses for kids.
oh nice!  I met the head programmer for that during the summer, doubt he remembers me though haha He went to Utah State right?
They are great! And it's been awesome seeing the inner workings of this small team trying to build themselves. Lots of great experience. And I'm not sure where he went! Could be!
That's cool It's so hard coming up with unique ideas
But yeah. On my own I am sort of without an idea right now. I asked Brother Earnshaw about that too.
helps when you can just leverage your knowledge and cash in on equity from someones genius ideas So the reason i'm so into start ups myself is that's what my dad did
He suggested that we graduate, get a job in this really succesful feild, and after 6 months we will have seen plenty of real world areas that need solutions in the work world.
He wiggled his way into being the head Software Engineer for a huge pricing analytics company and when they sold, he was able to start up his own company from his share
Oh awesome!
So that to me seems like the easiest angle into doing well with new companies because you know by the time you join a team that they've tested and proven to some extent their idea saves you a lot of time The whole idea of business start ups is just crazy.  There is so much going on behind the scenes that people just don't seem to get.  Like a lot of these big companies make .. ... it seem so easy when in reality it's not
Yeah! We used to think startups were just smaller versions of companies and that they could be run the same way. Wrong-o! They are completely different. And crazy!
I've got to go get my dog from the vet!  It was nice talking to you.  Thanks for the info on those electives!  I'll have to check those out See you!