Wildcat Software, a student-run organization, is making its debut tailoring the website of their parent organization, Wildcat Ventures.
Wildcat Software is designed to offer clients unique solutions while giving students real-world workplace experience.
“We’re not going to sell you out-of-the-box software,” said Stephen Martin, chief executive officer of Wildcat Ventures. “We’re actually building it for the company based on what they need as opposed to something you might pick up from Microsoft. We build custom websites, custom apps, things you can’t just go pick up in a store.”
Wildcat Software was founded in the spring through a series of interest meetings that eventually formed a student advisory committee and selected Martin, junior information systems and business management major from Fallon, Nevada, as the company’s first CEO in the spring.
“Right now, our primary project is a website for Wildcat Ventures, the student entrepreneurship organization here through the College of Business Administration,” Martin said. “They were in need of a website to express what they do and what their companies are. Being that we’re a member of Wildcat Ventures, they came to us looking for that solution.”
Dr. Brad Crisp, director of the school of information technology and an adviser for the new company, said that while Wildcat Software could have been independent of Wildcat Ventures, they decided to work under its banner.
“Their mission is to encourage student-run businesses, and we thought there was good alignment between what they wanted and what we wanted,” he said. “Their interest is to encourage more student involvement, and they want any funds that are raised to benefit student scholarships and student programs, and we’re happy for our results to benefit that.”
In the fall, the company began hiring students for the Wildcat Ventures project.
“As we bring in new projects, there may be more hiring,” Crisp said. “It takes a while. You have to have many interactions with a potential client to understand what they want, to build credibility with that client so that they see you as a viable source for their solution.”
The solution for Wildcat Ventures is coming along well, Martin said.
“We’re making pretty decent progress on it, but it won’t be up for a while yet,” he said. “We’ve still got to get some of the details worked out before it goes live.”
Wildcat Software is up and running, but much like its first project, it is still in early stages of development.
“I would still consider us in the launch process,” Crisp said. “I told our CEO that our goal is to get at least one project done this semester. If we do that and have a satisfied client, then that’s a great start. That’s not where I want to stay, but it’s a starting point.”
