The Concourse Group: Fordham's Student-Run Consulting Firm

If you are looking for a hands-on way to get more involved in the local Bronx community, while also gaining real world experience towards your major, look no further than The Concourse Consulting Group. Run completely by Fordham students, The Concourse Consulting Group is staffed with approximately twenty consultants working with five local businesses. As a current member of Concourse, the experience I have gained through the group has been invaluable (and not to mention a great resume builder). Concourse is centered around developing and enhancing the common good in the direct community. When working these local businesses, we seek to help them develop their entrepreneurial ventures by providing pro bono consulting and microloans. Some of the responsibilities of Concourse consultants include developing in-depth business plans, conducting competitor and market analyses, examining the financials of the company, and creating a web/social media presence for our clients. 

Working for Concourse not only allows you to “get your feet wet,” gaining experience with a real company; it also has a social good aspect, making your contributions even more meaningful. Consultants are often working with small fledgling start-ups;their survival may depend on the strategy work that Concourse does for them. As consultants, we strive to provide the businesses owners with the necessary tools to propel their business into success. The Concourse Group is not simply a consulting firm in the Bronx; we are a part of the Bronx. We explore the neighborhood and truly seek to get involved with the diverse, entrepreneurial individuals who live in our area. As we help out these local entrepreneurs, in turn, we receive knowledgeable insight into the struggles and triumphs of developing a business venture.

So whether you are a finance, marketing, accounting, or even a philosophy major, The Concourse Group has a place for you. The relationship that a Concourse consultant develops is one of reciprocity; in your time as a consultant, you will not only share your knowledge with clients but also cultivate a deeper understanding of the startup world and the Bronx community. 

For more information about Concourse click here. 

The Fordham Foundry: The Heart of Innovation and Entrepreneurship on Campus

The Fordham Foundry: home to some of the most insightful and creative spirits of the University. For Fordham students, the Foundry is an idea incubator, helping creative individuals develop their brainchildren into not only financially successful ventures, but also ones that contribute to the common good. One innovator in particular, Josh Choi FCLC ‘19, has been working with the Foundry to develop his social media application, Redplanet:

Large collaboration tables in the workspace

LJ: What are you developing?

JC: We're developing a way to re-architect social media. We wanted to solve a problem within the social media landscape, so we started by asking "Why the heck are there so many social media platforms? Why couldn't there be just one thing that does it all?"  We took the basic elements of Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and consolidated it into one, stand alone platform. It's the first social media app that filters your newsfeeds by dividing them in two: one for your friends and one for the things you're following.

LJ: How has The Foundry facilitated you in your work?

Use the chalkboard walls to brainstorm your thoughts

JC: First off, I'd like to note that there's no substitute for hard work. There is however a supplement to hard work and that is "smart work." The Fordham Foundry provides "smart work" chiefly by bringing together great minds within the same walls. Also, through the of the founders at the Foundry, we were able to meet an engineer who will leverage the NYTimes API to aggregate top stories onto Redplanet. Lastly, because of the Foundry, we are expecting interns this year!

LJ: What is your favorite part of the Foundry?
JC: My favorite part of the Fordham Foundry is the feeling I get when I walk in there. It's just this weird, exciting feeling of having your own place and working side by side with other startups. But most of all, it's nice to have a space dedicated to your startup and the Fordham community, so as our startup grows, and we're going to have new problems to solve internally, we're going to have to bring more people to work with us, and the foundry is the best place to do that.

Words of wisdom on your exit from The Foundry

Josh, like many of the others in The Foundry, are part of a unique community of innovators at Fordham. Particularly in the Gabelli School of Business, there has been a greater interest in majors such as Entrepreneurship. At current, there is one branch of The Foundry on the Rose Hill Campus; however, through a generous grant from NASDAQ, The Foundry will be expanding to Fordham Lincoln Center, set to open in the summer of 2017. 

If you want to be a part of "the new social media" and learn more about Josh's application, Redplanet, you can download it in the AppStore by clicking here .