Syracuse Student Wins Entrepreneurship Award for Digital Marketplace Technology
Jackson Ensley
Each year, the Hunter Brooks Watson Entrepreneurship Awards recognizes four entrepreneurial-minded Syracuse University who are actively pursuing a start-up venture. Four awards of $2,500 are presented annually at the Syracuse University Libraries Launchpad Competition, held virtually in March 2021.
2021 recipient Jackson Ensley, a fourth-year marketing student at Syracuse, took home an award for his platform ModoSuite, a program that hopes to make building and hosting online marketplaces more accessible and affordable for small business owners and start-ups.
“My sophomore year I founded a business called Popcycle which hosted on-campus pop-up shops that stocked student-made clothing,” Ensley said. “Paul (ModoSuite’s co-founder) and I spent the entire pandemic building Popcycle into an online marketplace, with our MVP doing thousands in sales in the first week. Now, we’re dedicated to helping others get their marketplace MVPs up and running fast, with the mission of building the future of connection through the expansion of marketplace technology.”
Modosuite will give businesses streamlined access to the infrastructure needed to create online marketplaces to sell their products or services, including authentication, databases, payment processing, hosting, and an Application Programming Interface, a set of functions that allow applications to access data and communicate with external software.
“For start-ups, the idea of creating a marketplace is extremely enticing, but the reality of building one is incredibly complex. On top of this, current marketplace builders are either too restrictive to fit the needs of most start-ups, or too complex and expensive for a small team. This leaves many companies in a difficult position, with most being forced to build their entire marketplace themselves despite the complexity.”
Users will be able to access professionally designed online marketplace templates that are fully managed and hosted and have access to tech support, lifetime updates, and personal customization support.
Hunter’s Fund
Hunter’s Fund honors the life of Hunter Watson, a young man of extremely diverse talents who was killed at 20-years-old when he was fatally injured as a passenger in a distracted driving collision.
Through distracted driving education and awarding grants to help young people’s involvement in performing arts, music, computer science, and entrepreneurship, Hunter’s Fund empowers young people in their careers and keeps Hunter’s spirit alive.
Are you a young entrepreneur interested in applying for a grant from the Hunter Watson Memorial Fund? Click here to learn more.