507 East Green Street

Champaign, IL 61820

October 10, 2014

Mike Butcher
Editor At Large of TechCrunch
410 Townsend St,
San Francisco, CA 94107
Dear Mr. Butcher,
I know you cover technology startup news and think you will find the innovation
occurring at the University of Illinois campus interesting. The University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign hosts some the top-performing students in the digital
space today. Ranging from computer science engineers to business consultants
and creative advertisers, participation in Illinois entrepreneurship curriculum
grows each year.
The University of Illinois isnt necessarily the first institution you think of when
considering the top technology/startup institutions. However, innovation is more
present than ever before through the new entrepreneurship courses offered at
Illinois.
Students are organically growing businesses by creating core ideas, crafting
business canvas models, coding program software and promoting their final
products. For example, John Zhao, a 2014 Engineering graduate, developed the
popular smartphone app, Zondr. Zondr generates live data of campus bar
statistics such as wait times for entry, ratio of males to females and drink
specials.
Campus teams are constantly forming across campus to develop ideas for new
businesses. Coders are befriending advertising and marketing students to invent
products and start businesses.
LinkedIn recently ranked the University of Illinois number 12 in leading Software
Developers and number 14 in leading Software Developers at Startups among
colleges nationwide. Its not surprising considering several notable alumni have
developed startup ideas and partnerships while at Illinois. Notable alumni
include: Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, two of the founders of YouTube who
studied computer science together on campus; Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO and
one of the founders of Yelp who earned his undergraduate degree in computer

engineering at Illinois; and Max Levchin, one of the four founders of PayPal who
earned his bachelor degree in computer science at Illinois as well.
I believe this is pertinent for your readers who are looking to hire talent or
students seeking a University that offers an entrepreneurship program.
Entrepreneurs looking for business partners may also be interested in the talent
coming from the University of Illinois. Your weight in the technology startup
community can shine light on the many overlooked accomplishments the
program and its students.
Please contact me at (708)-269-8221 or klsutherland222@gmail.com if you
would like more information about the entrepreneurship advancement at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign or wish to highlight any current or
former student. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Kelsey Sutherland
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign I Student