Nov 30, 2014

Fate Brought Three Alumni Together Around Entrepreneurship Nov 29, 2014 - Will Schmidt for the National Edition Back in the 1940s and 1950s fraternities and sororities would put old study materials, like the previous year’s exams, in coffers – or treasure chests as some might call them. At Virginia Tech , the tradition is still alive today, but Michael Rihani, the co-founder and CEO of Koofers.com , has brought it into the digital age. Over time, students replaced the ‘c’ in coffers to a ‘k’ and started pronouncing it ‘koo-furs’. However, the principle still remains intact; students want to get their hands on the Math 101 exam to study from it. Rihani went in search of the Koofers.com domain name to take his idea digital, but it turns out it was already owned by somebody else. As fate would have it though, the owner was a fellow Virginia Tech alumnus, and he didn’t just sell the domain to Rihani, he teamed up with him. The third co-founder of Koofers.com was a computer science guy who, unbeknownst to the other men, was also a Virginia Tech alumnus. He was combing the web, buying up Koofers.net and Koofers.org when he contacted Rihani in an effort to buy the .com domain. Rihani told him that the .net and .org domains would never hold up against the power of a .com, and ultimately they were able to convince him to join the team and build the site out. Sometimes destiny hands you dinner on a silver platter. Jen Consalvo sat down for a fireside chat to learn more. Here’s the video: