This semester, the Dingman Center will be conducting interviews with the 11 student startups participating in our in-person New Ventures Practicum!
Founder: Moughil Nandakumar ’25, Information Science & Cybersecurity
DC: In two to three sentences, how would you describe your startup?
Nandakumar: Our product works as an item manager for laboratory research groups and eliminates the time and emotions spent organizing multi-departmental equipment. It serves as enterprise software and a SaaS business that can be implemented virtually anywhere there is a business or organization that needs help to categorize, schedule, and create terms of usage for their assets. Less internal emails for better organization.
DC: What or who is your biggest influence on your startup?
Nandakumar: I am a huge fan of uncomplacent products, businesses, and people. I think my favorite startup story would be Travis Kalanick and the founding story of Uber, and how they had to compete with Lyft in the San Francisco Rideshare market. The different tactics that Uber used to scale their business across the United States and the world are truly inspirational.
DC: How did you come up with the name of your venture?
Nandakumar: LabMats – what I love about our name is everything you need to know about it is within the 2 words.
DC: What’s the most important thing you are working on right now and how are you making it happen?
Nandakumar: Building an all-star team that is able to take ideas and make them into interactive products that people can use and see, even if it means at the most basic level. I’m making this happen by talking to everybody, and really seeing what projects and experiences they have that may be valuable to our team.
DC: As a student business owner, what motivates you?
Nandakumar: Make an idea where no one thought you could make an idea. Build a better product than the multitude of outdated legacy products people unnecessarily use. Being able to have a team that believes in the business you are building equally as much as you do is what motivates me in the end.
DC: If you could give advice to any aspiring entrepreneurs, what would it be?
Nandakumar: There will be plenty of people who are willing to dig a ditch for you before they choose to understand the full scope of your idea. Build, build, learn, educate, build more. It will take time to find people to get onboard and understand your idea’s nuances and features. But, in the end, you and your team are the driving force and will always be the driving force for your venture.
Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship 