Today we’d like to introduce you to Vishwa Mudigonda.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I have always had a strong entrepreneurial spirit. My business partner, Viraj Patel, and I met at a party while attending the University of Georgia. We both had previous startups fail in the past and suddenly realized there was an issue that could be addressed right in front of us. Everyone at the party was on their phones instead of talking to one another. We thought there was a need to increase meaningful social interaction.
Viraj and I started KemNu to help spark social connections. We decided to create KemNu to fix the way that college students and people our age (Gen Z’s) socialize. When we were students, we would show up to the first meeting of the club because maybe there’s a free pizza or free food but after that, we noticed people would stop showing up, which caused us to stop showing up. There was no good way to meet other people even though we were surrounded by them.
So we started KemNu as a hangout platform to connect all students based on similar interests. From there, we went through Georgia State’s Main Street Entrepreneurship Seed Fund and Georgia Tech’s Create-X Accelerator. This, along with adding additional members to our team, made us realize that we had to refine our market. As we continued with customer discovery, we realized that we needed to build a platform to improve quality engagement for college students.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have been plenty of obstacles crazy turns. We both had a failed startup in the past. We haven’t done as well as we’d hope in certain startup competitions. We also had to pivot because of the pandemic. We originally wanted to focus on in-person interaction and taking users offline to meet in person, but due to the nature of the pandemic, we had to include virtual events on our platform. And we are glad we did since there has been a huge spike in user downloads.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
KemNu is a singular platform that brings students, college organizations, and local businesses together. We have gamified the process of getting students more connected and involved in student life on campus. Our app tracks student engagement and participation in virtual and in-person events, which students, in turn, can earn Kenmu Coins. These coins can be redeemed for exclusive offers at local businesses or campus bookstores.
This app benefits the students by providing them with exclusive offers at local businesses by promoting their business to the student population, and the university by increasing student engagement on campus. We are currently building out a logistics and metrics dashboard to help track membership dues, set board member roles, and organize different administrative tasks.
KemNu is the only app organizations will need going forward. With chat features, logistics, gamification, reporting, safety features, and event posting, organizations can say goodbye to GroupMe, Eventbrite, Instagram, and Excel. KemNu combines all the features they need in other apps all in one simple platform.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
One of the most important characteristics for success is being a learner. The world and our lives are full of answers and lessons. Many people choose to ignore them and only absorb the big ones, but someone truly successful pays attention to the small everyday lessons and learns from them.
Contact Info:
- Email: vishwa@kemnu.com
- Website: kemnu.com, https://kemnuinc.medium.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kemnu/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KemNuApp/
