The Story of CampusGroups
Discover how Yorick Ser started CampusGroups and progressively built a powerful platform that is changing the face of HighEd.
Learn More »In May 2003, Yorick Ser, an engineer from France with 6-year experience in IT, applies and is accepted at
NYU Stern School of Business
to do his MBA.
Yorick had majored in Nuclear Engineering with an exchange program at MIT, but decided to take is first job in IT at AXA in Indonesia, as part of the French Cooperation program. He then worked in New York as a developer for 2 years, at a local consulting firm, on his own online travel agent startup (similar to Priceline), and for CapitalIQ. He then returned to France to work for Accenture in the financial services business unit.
An MBA student, Yorick is elected Co-President of the Entrepreneurs Exchange at the NYU Stern School of Business in March 2004
Yorick takes on the role for a club which has been almost completely inactive for the past 12 months and sees an opportunity to reboot the club. When he stars, he is simply given access to a network folder and a list members stored in an Excel file, as well as an FTP account for the website of the club and an email address.
Yorick develops a small web platform to send emails to the members of his club in April 2004
Yorick, having built web platforms in the past at Accenture and for his own startup, decides to put together a few ASP pages that would allow him to log on to a private space, with a list all club members. The system would allow him to send emails to members, and track who is opening and clicking on these emails. Yorick calls the platform CollegeMailer.com and designs a logo with the hope of his brother Erwann.
Addition of the RSVP feature and successful tests at Stern in 2004.
A number of events are organized by Yorick and his Co-President, using CollegeMailer to send invitations and track RSVPs. Another 2 clubs at Stern have started to use CollegeMailer too. At the same time, he spends the summer doing an internship at JP Morgan in London.
Nov 2004: Decision to launch CollegeMailer for all student clubs at NYU Stern in Sept 2005.
Two meetings with Stern's Student Activities and Stern IT lead to the decision for Stern to launch CollegeMailer for all clubs in September 2005. Before launch, Yorick will have to develop more features, including the ability to join clubs and pay membership dues online.
Building CollegeMailer: 6 month of development in 2005.
Yorick is busy finishing his second year at Stern, and spends a semester in exchange in China at CEIBS in Shanghai. Outside of the classroom, Yorick is coding to prepare CollegeMailer for the launch, adding features requested by Stern's Student Activities.
Summer 2005: Final tweaks!
Yorick graduated in May 2005 and accepted a job at JP Morgan in London. He spends the summer studying for his FSA while preparing the launch of CollegeMailer at Stern. All students clubs have been added to the platform and are ready to go live!
Successful launch of CollegeMailer in September 2005!
Stern's Student Activities announces CollegeMailer@Stern and invites all MBA students to join clubs and pay their membership dues online. All club officers have access to their new members, and start sending emails & newsletters. $250,000 membership dues are paid by students via PayPal in just 2 months. Yorick is monitoring days and night, while attending JP Morgan's graduate program and taking exams in NYC. It's a very busy time!
2 years of system improvements at NYU Stern
Yorick lives in Londgon and keeps working on CollegeMailer@Stern as a side project, adding more features and learning the ropes of managing a web platforms. Lots of bug fixes, new features and support emails.
Oct 2007: Yorick is back to New York to work full-time on CollegeMailer
Yorick takes the leap! He leaves his investment banking job in London to move back to NYC, and starts marketing CollegeMailer to other business schools.
2007-2009: On-boarding 8 new campuses, including 4 major business schools.
Yorick is learning how to run a business and market & sell his product. It is a very intense time, with very little resources (no investors). NYU Stern allows Yorick to run his small business from one of their offices (thank you NYU!). Yorick hires interns and goes to conferences to meet potential new clients. CollegeMailer is renamend CampusGroups and is launched at a few major business schools: University of Michigan Ross, UC Berkeley Haas, Northwestern Kellogg, SMU Cox, and non-business schools institutions too: Fordham, Cardiff University, CUA, OCCC
2009-2011: 4 employees, more features, 8 new prestigious
business schools
Yorick goes back to France in 2009 and runs the company from Paris. More top business schools join CampusGroups: Columbia Business School, London Business School, Cornell Johnson School of Business, Duke Fuqua, Carnegie Mellon Tepper, Notre Dame Mendoza, Hong Kong UST, USC Marshall. And non-MBA programs: LeMoyne College, Michigan Pharmacy College, Meharry Medical College.
2011-2015: constant product improvements, consolidation and learning how to deliver a outstanding support. Restarting our marketing toward Undergraduate Colleges.
Yorick goes back to France in 2009 and runs the e.
2015-2017: first major launch at a non-business school institution, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)
Yorick goes back to France in 2009 and runs the e.
2018: second growth inflection with 7 universities coming on Board
Yorick goes back to France in 2009 and runs the e.
2019: third growth inflection with 35 more universities come on board
Yorick goes back to France in 2009 and runs the e.