Members of the Rumie team – from left, Sam Pennock, Carson Zylic, Patrick Phillips and Tanner McCraney – make their pitch to judges in the final round of the Gillespie Business Plan competition. The group took first place in the competition with their buy/sell app for college students.Â
Members of the Rumie team – from left, Sam Pennock, Carson Zylic, Patrick Phillips and Tanner McCraney – make their pitch to judges in the final round of the Gillespie Business Plan competition. The group took first place in the competition with their buy/sell app for college students.Â
OXFORD • What began as a desire to rid themselves of a few lamps has turned into a prize-winning business idea for four Ole Miss students.
Four Ole Miss students were recently awarded first place at the 18th annual Gillespie Business Plan Competition at the University of Mississippi.Â
Patrick Phillips, Tanner McCraney, Sam Pennock and Carson Zylicz recently received the first place prize at the 18th annual Gillespie Business Plan Competition at the University of Mississippi for their work on the app Rumie. An acronym for Regulated University Marketplace Internet Exchange, the app helps college students buy and sell clothes, furniture, books and more.
Phillips and fellow Rumie mastermind McCraney have been friends since high school. Both young men hail from Jackson.
Upon moving in their freshman year, Phillips and McCraney realized they had a few too many lamps for their dorm room. They decided to try and sell the extras on Facebook Marketplace and other social media outlets but found the process to be unreliable.
Thus, the idea for Rumie was born.
The young app creators decided to finally invest money into their app idea in the spring of 2021. Since then, the app has found great success on Ole Miss' campus.
"Rumie is a college exclusive marketplace," Phillips said. "The easiest way to describe it is Craigslist, but for college students," the soon-to-be Ole Miss graduate said.
The app is specifically designed for college students, even requiring a student email address to sign up. The premise of the app is to buy, sell and even rent products from other college students.
Upon graduation, the two founders will attend graduate school at the University of Mississippi. Their goal is to continue operating Rumie and potentially turn it into a full-time gig.Â
"Ideally, we want to spend the summer at student orientation promoting the app to upcoming freshmen students," Phillips said.Â
The students-turned-entrepreneurs received a cash prize of $10,000 for their first place finish and another $5,000 for the Stephen E. Rowell Entrepreneur Award.
On top of the cash prizes, the young men also won a free office space at Insight Park to utilize next year.Â
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BROOKE BULLOCK BURLESON is a digital producer for the Daily Journal. Contact her at brooke.burleson@djournal.com.
