Prototype Your Idea and Get Paid Fast: Interview with Ara Bagdasarian, Co-Founder, Omnilert

When we visited University of Maryland at College Park for the Entrepreneurial Bash, I met up with Ara Bagdasarian , Co-Founder of Omnilert, a mass notification system widely used on college campuses. Ara started Omnilert after his first idea to develop a real estate texting service failed. Inspired by an article about a student murdered in her dorm room, he saw a burning problem: a need to communicate safety information to students. At the time most people were not using text messaging. Despite that, Ara created a prototype for messaging students and set out to see if his idea could pass the critical test of any new business: will a customer pay for it? The answer was yes, but even after securing his first customer the road was not easy. In this interview hear how Omnilert created a superb reputation and how they continue to stay ahead of competition. Ara has great advice for entrepreneurs and lives by the belief that “our customers are our investors”.