What began earlier this year as only an idea has become a budding entrepreneurial project for Eliecer Trillos and Daniel Niquet. Trillos, a UVU graduate, and Niquet, a freelance webpage designer, were seeking an easier way for students to connect with peers that have like-minded interests.
“Sometimes I want to do something,” said Trillos, a UVU business management alumnus. “But I can’t always find people who want to the same thing as me.”
They came up with Activatize.com, a social networking website, which aims to improve the ability to meet and spend time with people who share similar interests. The premise of Activatize is simple: log into Activatize.com, select an activity of interest, and connect with other ‘Activatizers’ in the area looking for friends to join in.
“A lot of times you see a lot of the students from Utah stick with friends they made in high school,” said Nathan Turner, a UVU sophomore from Wyoming. “I think something like this could help build school unity.
The website already has 400 registered members and students are excited about the prospects this will offer to the UVU campus.
“We have talked to a lot of advisors and students,” said Trillos. “They really like the idea. We are focusing on getting people to register on the website.”
Trillos and Niquet, both Utah Valley residents, entered Activatize into the Grow America competition this past spring. Grow America is an organization devoted to promoting new businesses and ideas and is the largest organization of its kind in Utah. At the competition, Activatize made an impressive debut, making it into the final round of the competition.
Activatize.com will be fully functional in the fall. In the meantime, Trillos is using on-campus advertising and word-of-mouth to get students excited about the website’s launch.
Participation is key for the success of Activatize. Students can get involved by registering their e-mail at Activatize.com or by liking their Facebook page.
By Alex Gee
News Writer
