DoubleSpot, a startup cofounded by two University students and an alum, aims to streamline scheduling, event coordination and overall facility operations onto a single management platform.
The team behind DoubleSpot includes Sean Chang, senior in AHS, Wei-Jui Chen, senior in Engineering and Chien-Hsuan Chang, University alum. Inspired by his experience as a business strategy and analytics intern for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2022, Sean Chang saw the potential to innovate facility operations.
“I was fascinated with stadium operations and facility management … so I had this idea and brought it back to campus,” Sean Chang said.
DoubleSpot’s journey began with support from the iVenture Accelerator, a program at the University designed to help student founders bridge the gap between college and full-time work.
Through iVenture, the DoubleSpot team received hands-on guidance from industry professionals and crucial funding to develop and test their software, preparing them to launch and eventually secure their recent partnership with the Siebel Center for Design.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
Steve Miller, a founding partner at Origin Ventures and University alum, actively funds entrepreneurial initiatives and scholarships at the University. He spoke highly about the iVenture program, emphasizing its resources.
“The iVenture program is the perfect venue for startups like DoubleSpot to gain access to mentorship, potential business partners and even potential investors,” Miller said.
Manu Edakara, the director of iVenture, highlighted the program’s commitment to fostering student-led innovation.
“Each team that comes in … gets up to $20,000, which is non-diluted … and we do that so we can stay on the student’s side during the entire process,” Edakara said. “We ran (DoubleSpot) through a 10-week accelerator program at the SCD, where we … really pushed them to think about what it takes to make a successful company.”
The early support from iVenture laid the groundwork for DoubleSpot’s most recent milestone — a five-year contract with the SCD.
Nicholas Puddicombe, senior associate director of operations and experience at SCD, said he was actively looking for a more user-friendly facility management software when DoubleSpot reached out.
“Multiple times, I have gone through the market to see what existed for scheduling software,” Puddicombe said. “When (DoubleSpot) came to me, I was an open book about … what I did and did not like about products that were out there … I helped them along until they had a product that was actually ready, and we talked about using it for SCD.”
With the partnership officially underway, DoubleSpot will be implemented to manage daily operations at SCD. The partnership aims to streamline SCD’s facility management processes and allow DoubleSpot to refine its product in response to SCD’s specific needs.
Collaborating closely with Puddicombe and his team, the DoubleSpot developers will gain valuable insight to inform future updates, potentially making the web-based software adaptable for use across other University facilities.
“The partnership with SCD shows that we have tangible and successful cases that are able to show other facilities that our solution actually works and is better than our competitors,” Sean Chang said.
As DoubleSpot continues to evolve and refine its product through the SCD partnership, the team is learning valuable lessons and real-world applications.
As a former student entrepreneur, Sean Chang offered some advice for aspiring students in business.
“Be humble and willing to learn because we are outsiders,” Sean Chang said. “We have the idea, but an idea is not expertise … Be polite and be consistent.”
