Startup City

Looking to be someone?  

Two students in the No. 1 ranked Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship want to connect their University of Houston peers and local startups at the inaugural Wolff Center Career Fair. 

The event this month will include around 25 startups from Houston, Dallas and Austin who are hiring. Companies featured all have less than 100 employees and prioritize innovative and unique business ideas. Junior Rowan Kaul and senior Jake Schnur were inspired to organize the event by Wolff Center Executive Director David Cook, who encourages students to start their own businesses. 

“I was thinking to myself that I would absolutely love a startup, but I didn’t have any big callings of my own,” Schnur said. “I didn’t even know where to find startups. That's when I thought maybe I'll be that catalyst with Rowan. Like Dave says, we got to bring innovation and drive change.” 

“We are always enthusiastic to see our students pushing into new areas of collaboration and partnership,” Cook said. “WCE is a living, evolving organization that grows and changes every year. What we continually strive for is to create stronger stepping stones for our students to become involved with startups, and this presents an exciting and promising opportunity.” 

The career fair is open to all UH students. Kaul and Schnur hope students will leave with a better understanding of what job options are available to them and what kind of work these companies are doing.  

“The career fair is going to be a little bit more interpersonal as these are smaller companies, so the students will be talking to the heads of recruiting,” Kaul said. “They'll be able to build good relationships with a lot of companies because they are small and niche. That's going to help them later down the line when they're getting interviewed to hopefully land a role.” 

By bringing small business employers to campus, the pair said they are aiming to strengthen the relationship between the university and the city’s startup environment.  

“UH truly has a gold mine of young professionals who want to work hard, get their name out there and provide value to this world,” Schnur said. “This career fair will not only give the employers visibility there's some talent here, but it's going to give all of Houston visibility that there are students willing to work hard, have grit and show the tenacity to thrive in these environments.” 

The Wolff Center Career Fair will be on Feb. 24 from 1- 5 p.m. at the Hilton University of Houston. Students looking for more information can contact Kaul at Rakaul@CougarNet.UH.EDU.