Title: Entrepreneur

Manik graduated with an IB major and Computer Science minor in 2020 and has since established multiple companies in collaboration with his business partner. 

“If you’re looking to start your own business, pay attention to what is painful, tedious, or a nuisance.  Then, ask how valuable a solution would be to that problem.”

Manik started where he was at – he created a centralized communication platform for all things academic.  For example, if a student is taking Econ 102 they could find people in their discussion section, minor, major and talk with them.  They could also reach out to people in courses they want to take in the future to ask questions.  They had 500 users in three weeks engage in the app at 700 at the peak. 

His second project was a marketplace to connect high school and college students.  He is currently working on an AI tool to automatically generate charts for doctors based on recordings of meetings.  This would cut down 2-3 hours of charting outside of the office per day for practitioners.

His IB degree translates well to the business world – the key skills are problem solving, data driven design and perseverance.   

Contact Christina Swanson at alumnimentor@sib.illinois.edu if you would like to connect with Manik.