Written by: Nicole Moshe
Former UCF student and founder of the popular Party Tutor smartphone app, Brent Henderson, was at the Blackstone LaunchPad in the Student Union on Oct. 28 giving students a presentation on how to start an app business.
“Young people for the first time can build a business that connects to everyone on a global scale because now with the Internet you can reach millions of people,” Henderson said. “Applications are taking information that’s on the Internet and organizing the information into applications that make our lives easier.”
Since its launch in June 2011, the free Party Tutor app has had almost 50,000 downloads and provides information on drink specials, food specials, and gives you access to everything you need to know around college campuses, which include UCF, FSU, UF, USF, UA, UK and UofL, that can help students save money.
“With party tutor we want to bring out students more to the businesses and to the community and save them money,” Henderson said.
During his presentation, Henderson said the idea for the app arose when one night him and his friends were trying to figure out where they wanted to go out and they had to search on multiple websites to figure out the specials local bars and restaurants were having.
“I built the app based on a problem I was having as a student,” Henderson said. “When I had the idea I didn’t know how to make an app or website, I had never started a business I just new it was a good idea. A business idea comes from a problem that you’re passionate about and working on how to solve that problem.”
Freshman Andrea Prado attended the presentation and said since she uses Party Tutor a lot, going to the presentation would be a good way to spend her time.
“Brent taught us how to look at an idea, make it our own and how to progress as an entrepreneur,” Prado said. “I love how he said we have to look at the world we’re living in and then see the world we want to live in and then make it happen.”
Henderson said launching an app is a lot more complex than just a good idea.
“I first started out with a website, so I found a friend who had made a website and contacted his developer and he built the website,” he said. “Then enough people were using it that I thought it was time to pull the trigger on making it an app. I built it as a student building my dream app.”
After listening to the presentation, Prado said she really enjoyed what Brent had to say and he presented the challenges that come with starting a business in a way that allowed her to understand the importance of overcoming these challenges.
“If I ever do get a random idea that I think could be helpful to others I’ll look back at this event because it was super helpful,” Prado said.
The best advice Henderson said he could give to students wanting to start an app business is “to figure out what you love doing and build a business around that.”
To stay informed about local bar and restaurant deals around UCF download the Party Tutor app or visit www.PartyTutor.com.
