Spring Break
Student launches text service tailored to college life
Amy Schellenbaum
Issue date: 10/13/09 Section: News
Undergraduate student Michael Pearson developed and launched TxTMaX, an on-demand text service that provides valuable, convenient information for university students.
The service is designed to aid students by providing a centralized medium for local businesses and event information. By texting "TxTMAX" to 368266 students are offered a list of categories such as food, nightlife, Greek life and events. From there, the user has access to hours, specials and locations of eateries, shows or clubs.
"It seems like a really useful tool for freshmen like me living on such a large campus," said Meika Freeman, a 1st-semester history major.
"The system was designed to get information to the students as easy as possible. You can text in and receive a text with a list of the specials for the night or visit our mobile site and attain the same information," said Pearson.
For Pearson's enterprise, it was a personal experience that presented a void in the market that TxTMAX had the potential to fill.
"One night while walking with my friends we realized we all wanted a late night meal. We had to go and call each of these establishments to see what their hours were, what their specials were and whether they had student discounts," said Pearson. "I thought to myself it would be so much easier if all of this information was located in one central place."
The service is essentially an electronic catalogue with information accessible to every student who is able to text.
"Why not allow students to access info through the most convenient medium for them?" said Pearson.
While some students were absorbing sunlight and eating watermelon slices in their yards this summer,Pearson was developing his business.
"I had to teach myself how to code, design graphically and host a Web site all in my free time this summer while holding down a 50-hour workweek at my internship," said Pearson.
Pearson's ambitions are typical of any entrepreneur. They include going national and giving other students the opportunity to use this free service.
"I would love for people to reach for their cell phones and be able to grab all of this information for free and give back to college students. Why not let their phones work for them?" said Pearson.
TxTMAX also offers small businesses the opportunity for valuable advertising with their targeted audience, especially important for small university towns like Storrs.
"It's great for the advertisers because they can tap into the $60 billion of discretionary spending by college students each year," said Pearson.
More information about advertising with the service can be found at txtmax.com.
The service is designed to aid students by providing a centralized medium for local businesses and event information. By texting "TxTMAX" to 368266 students are offered a list of categories such as food, nightlife, Greek life and events. From there, the user has access to hours, specials and locations of eateries, shows or clubs.
"It seems like a really useful tool for freshmen like me living on such a large campus," said Meika Freeman, a 1st-semester history major.
"The system was designed to get information to the students as easy as possible. You can text in and receive a text with a list of the specials for the night or visit our mobile site and attain the same information," said Pearson.
For Pearson's enterprise, it was a personal experience that presented a void in the market that TxTMAX had the potential to fill.
"One night while walking with my friends we realized we all wanted a late night meal. We had to go and call each of these establishments to see what their hours were, what their specials were and whether they had student discounts," said Pearson. "I thought to myself it would be so much easier if all of this information was located in one central place."
The service is essentially an electronic catalogue with information accessible to every student who is able to text.
"Why not allow students to access info through the most convenient medium for them?" said Pearson.
While some students were absorbing sunlight and eating watermelon slices in their yards this summer,Pearson was developing his business.
"I had to teach myself how to code, design graphically and host a Web site all in my free time this summer while holding down a 50-hour workweek at my internship," said Pearson.
Pearson's ambitions are typical of any entrepreneur. They include going national and giving other students the opportunity to use this free service.
"I would love for people to reach for their cell phones and be able to grab all of this information for free and give back to college students. Why not let their phones work for them?" said Pearson.
TxTMAX also offers small businesses the opportunity for valuable advertising with their targeted audience, especially important for small university towns like Storrs.
"It's great for the advertisers because they can tap into the $60 billion of discretionary spending by college students each year," said Pearson.
More information about advertising with the service can be found at txtmax.com.
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