CANVAS IS A CENTRAL PART OF ACADEMIC LIFE AT NORTHWESTERN, BUT FOR MANY IT CAN BE OVERWHELMING. ONE WEINBERG FIRST YEAR IS WORKING TO MAKE IT MORE ORGANIZED AND MORE MOTIVATING.
Sahil – My name is Sahil Agarwal. I’m a freshman at Northwestern, and my startup was originally called CanvasIQ but we’re rebranding to Gambit this Monday.
GAMBIT CONNECTS TO STUDENTS’ CANVAS ACCOUNTS AND PRESENTS THEIR WORK IN A CLEANER, MORE INTERACTIVE WAY.
Sahil – “Basically what we do is connect with students’ Canvas accounts and display a gamified dashboard of what they have to do in the day or in the week, and a bunch of other small, fun things”
HE SAYS THE GOAL IS TO SIMPLIFY CANVAS — NOT JUST MAKE IT A GAME.
Sahil – “It helps students find assignments faster and just declutters Canvas a bit, which has been a pain point for a lot of people.”
SINCE LAUNCHING BEFORE THE SCHOOL YEAR LAST SPRING, GAMBIT HAS DRAWN THOUSANDS OF USERS.
Sahil – “Right now we have around forty-five hundred users, and maybe a hundred to a hundred fifty daily active users.”
AGARWAL BUILDS THE PRODUCT FROM THE GARAGE, NORTHWESTERN’S STARTUP INCUBATOR.
Sahil – “The Garage is obviously a really helpful place. I do a lot of work in there and have some friends in there.”
HE’S ALSO PART OF HOMEBREW, A NEW CLUB FOR STUDENT FOUNDERS.
Sahil – “Homebrew started this year, and it’s kind of the place for builders on campus — students interested in entrepreneurship. It’s really good at Northwestern to have a tight-knit community of builders. There aren’t that many of us, but we all come together, support each other, and help each other out with whatever we’re building.”
FOR SAHIL, STARTING A COMPANY IS LESS ABOUT PERMISSION AND MORE ABOUT ACTION.
Sahil – “You really don’t need anyone else or anyone’s advice to start. If you have the skills to build the first version of your product, just do it. You learn the most by doing.”
AND FOR NOW, THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HE’S DOING BY MAKING CANVAS JUST A LITTLE EASIER FOR EVERYONE ELSE.
I’M NEHA YADAVALLI, AND THIS IS WNUR CAMPUS AND LOCAL.