TerriblyClever launches iPhone applications targeting universities

Sindya Bhanoo — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:10:08 -0500

A start-up called TerriblyClever is creating iPhone applications specifically for universities and their students.

TerriblyClever piloted its first five applications less then two months ago, in partnership with Stanford University. The set of applications, called iStanford, is available for free on iTunes. It includes a university directory, maps, real-time information about school sports, and a course directory.

So far, about 11,000 people have downloaded iStanford, said Kayvon Beykpour, the co-founder and CEO of the company. Ironically, only about 4000 students, faculty and staff at Stanford have iPhones, he said.

Beykpour is an undergraduate student at Stanford, as are most of the others on TerriblyClever's eight person team.

"We're not salespeople," he said. "We're approaching this as a students and developers. We use these applications ourselves."

The company hopes to create more applications in the near future - including one for campus transportation, with a real-time view of where campus buses are. They also hope to develop more applications for universities throughout the country.

"Every university has similar services and needs directories, maps and ways to add and drop courses," said Aaron Wasserman, Managing Partner of TerriblyClever. "The more schools we get, and the more applications we develop, the better foundation we build for our product."

This semester, Stanford also offered a computer science course in iPhone development, taught by Paul Marcos and Evan Doll of Apple. It's a move on Apple's part to get more bright, young programmers to create innovative applications.

Loopt, another company started by Stanford undergraduates three years ago, uses a cellphone-based GPS system to let users visualize where their friends are at any given moment. The Loopt iPhone application has seen great success. After the application's launch, investment bank Allen & Co. reportedly valued the company at $500 million, according to VentureBeat.

The founders of Loopt took time off from school to work on the product, which turned out to be a good bet. The company has raised more than $13 million from venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates, according to the VentureBeat story.

Next semester, Beykpour will also take time off to work on TerriblyClever.

"I don't think any of us undervalues the opportunities we have at Stanford," Beykpour said. "But when you're working on this idea you're really passionate about, it makes you prioritize things a little bit."

To download iStanford, click here. To see how iStanford works, watch the video below:

iStanford Commercial - Stanford iPhone Apps from Kayvon Beykpour on Vimeo.