Collin Gauck and Jacob Kautman brought their business idea to Iowa State, where they found the support and resources to help them nurture it — and bring out their inner innovator and entrepreneur.
Collin Gauck and Jacob Kautman’s clients are from the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, Turkey, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Canada and Japan. They turn to Collin and Jacob to learn about managing their money.
Many are college students … just like them.
Collin and Jacob run Campus Town Trading, a subscription-based, online community designed to help mostly young people gain a better understanding of finances and investing.
“Watching people’s financial literacy grow is the most rewarding part of this,” Collin says. “We take a lot of pride in seeing them learn and make money.”
Trading on their entrepreneurial interests
Friends since elementary school, Collin and Jacob demonstrated entrepreneurial tendencies early on. As an eighth grader, Collin hired out his video-gaming skills to help players complete certain levels and obtain gear for their in-game characters. Jacob also had a video game-based venture and did day-trading.
Working with an idea they had in high school, the two shaped Campus Town Trading in CYstarters, the entrepreneur accelerator program that is one component of Iowa State’s “Start Something” network, which provides Iowa State students with the support and resources designed to help them nurture their ideas and bring out their inner innovator and entrepreneur.
Each CYstarter receives a $6,500 stipend, an office in the ISU Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship and access to experts in entrepreneurship and business.
—Jacob Kautman
Invested for life
Collin, now a senior majoring in finance who plans to pursue a master’s in entrepreneurship, and Jacob, currently a junior in education and history with a minor in entrepreneurship, always intended to be Cyclones, yet they were blown away by the university’s investment in programs aimed at supporting students with entrepreneurial ambitions.
“I knew as a freshman I wanted to be a finance major at Iowa State, and I knew the Ivy College of Business was strong, but I had no idea about the Pappajohn Center and the events and opportunities they provided,” Jacob says. “The opportunity to use the resources that Iowa State provides is huge.”
“I didn’t know they had all this entrepreneurship stuff available,” Collin echoes. “You start learning about it, and the connections just start happening.”
