By the time I had run The Anvil and launched Quasi, I realized something was still missing from Purdue’s startup scene. There were founders scattered across campus, but no shared identity — no place where they could consistently talk, build, and push each other forward. Programs existed, but they were top-down, slow-moving, and often disconnected from what student builders actually needed. I wanted to create the opposite.

So I launched Purdue Founders, a grassroots founder community built by students, for students. No gatekeeping. No pitch decks. Just a place where builders could show up, share what they were working on, and get better — together. I designed the brand, built the online community, and created a clear reason to join: real conversations, ongoing feedback, and support for actually launching products.

I announced the community with one LinkedIn post. It hit over 20,000 views in days. Within the first week, over 100 student founders had joined. And more importantly, they stayed — not because they had to, but because they wanted to. We created an internal culture of public building, fast iteration, and shared accountability. It didn’t matter if someone was launching a startup or a side project. What mattered was that they were doing the work.

As momentum built, we expanded into real-world events — everything from workshops and founder dinners to Catapult, a 36-hour product sprint that attracted 300+ participants across 25 disciplines. Suddenly, entrepreneurship on campus didn’t feel theoretical anymore. It was happening, in real time, with real people.

Halfway through, Purdue’s administration threatened legal action over the name “Purdue Founders.” So we rebranded to The Founders Club, but the name change only reinforced our independence. We weren’t just another university org — we were building a new model for what startup culture could look like in a place where it had never really taken root.

The Founders Club proved that you don’t need institutional backing to build something meaningful. In fact, sometimes it works better without it. What you do need is a clear point of view, a strong community standard, and the guts to build in public. That’s what we created — and it’s what continues to shape how I think about community, leadership, and momentum.