What is Univa? That’s the first question this title raises.
We’ve answered this question to differing degrees in previous posts, but we thought it be good to give an entire blog over to this question. We want to clearly lay out Univa’s beauty-making features.
In other words, we want to tell you about our platform, Univa. But not just that.
We also want to tell you why Univa exists and how it’s different from LinkedIn. In answering this last question, we hope to show you why LinkedIn isn’t enough for innovators and entrepreneurs.
More is needed.
To begin, the “what.”
What Is Univa?
Univa is our platform for students, alumni, staff or faculty of universities.
While we at Harness design platforms for organizations and universities as well, we thought, “why should students or alumni have to wait for their university to adopt our platform before connecting with other innovators and entrepreneurs?”
We quickly realized that no wait is needed.
As a platform, Univa has several features that make it what it is.
People
In the “People” section of our platform, you gain instant access to thousands of other innovators, entrepreneurs and creatives — much like yourself — where the opportunities to connect, learn and offer your own insights are endless.
These fellow innovators and entrepreneurs are limited to just those with “.edu” emails. This is on purpose.
We intentionally restrict our user-base to those in the university and collegiate setting because we want to maximize the environment for higher-education innovators, creatives and entrepreneurs.
Core to Univa, then, is a desire to connect those in the early stages of their project(s) with those who can assist them in some way — whether this be fellow peers or mentors (more on mentors in a bit).
Jobs
With Univa’s core desire to connect innovators and entrepreneurs with one another, it’s only natural that there also be a space to list relevant jobs and internships.
Univa’s “Job” tab makes hundreds of relevant job and internship opportunities readily available. Through this feature, you gain immediate insight on the companies that are hiring, how many employees they have, what the needs of the company are, and, for the start-up minded, what stage of fundraising they’re in.
All of this, right in one place. The special part? Direct access to the team members of that company or organization right there on the platform.
That can be hard to find on other platforms, if you ask us.
Startups
Believe it or not, it can be a bit of a task getting connected to the right start-up organization. Most people don’t even know how to locate a “start-up.”
Our platform attracts start-ups. So much so that we’ve created a place on our platform entirely dedicated to start-ups looking to onboard new team members.
You’ll find the organization’s bio, location, position needs, and information on their product stage (i.e. live, prototype, beta, etc.).
Much like with the job tab, we make it extraordinarily easy for you to connect with the start-ups that peak your interest.
With Univa, we’ve tried to harness (pardon the pun) our inner entrepreneur and innovator by asking ourselves what we would want on an online platform if we could design it ourselves. Turns out, we were able to design it ourselves.
One of the next features we said we would want is a place to house resources for the local innovator.
Resources & Stories
On the “Resources” tab you will find…wait for it…resources!
The resources are wide-ranging. Everything from legal templates for non-disclosure agreements to board approval templates for stock issuances. You can also find classes for your entrepreneur toolkit and information on events to help support founders.
All of these resources are public on our platform and your’s for the taking.
In addition to resources, we have a space on our platform dedicated to the telling of stories. On this part of our platform, you’ll find success stories of our different entrepreneurs, innovators and organizations who use our platform.
Story is powerful — this we know. It can be fuel for the entrepreneur who is burnt out and feels like quitting. We strive to keep our story section updated and fresh in order to continually energize our communities world-wide.
We want the entrepreneur and innovator to flourish — a perfect segue into why Univa exists.
Why Does Univa Exist?
The reason Univa exists is simple: we want to build communities and drive innovation.
As hinted at above, our Univa platform is purposefully clear and concise in its focus and in what it offers. We pride ourselves on limiting the user experience to just the most important features relevant to an innovator or entrepreneur.
We’ve listed out some of those core features above. Others we’ve not said too much about include our mentoring and advising functionality.
During your profile creation, we ask you whether you’re interested in receiving or offering mentorship and advisory help. This is a crucial component to community building, but it’s also crucial to driving innovation.
Innovation springs forth from collaboration, from bouncing creative (or not so creative) ideas off your colleagues and peers. We’ve purposely designed our platform to facilitate this process as easily as possible.
So, with our most important, beauty-making features of Univa now in view, we think why Univa exists should be transparent: to build community, to drive innovation.
This brings us to our last point.
While LinkedIn is wonderful in many respects, it’s important for us to clarify our difference-makers. After all, LinkedIn also makes jobs available, offers you connection to other people, and has resources of different sorts — so, why would you still choose to use Univa?
Here’s why.
Why LinkedIn Isn’t Enough: Too Much Of What You Don’t Need
Like every social media platform, LinkedIn has its place.
It’s great for building a network and learning about a variety of different job openings. And, if you’ve been on it for any short period of time, you know it’s also a great place for endless amounts of “advice” (sometimes unsolicited).
The advice covers topics like talent acquisition, resume-building, interview tips, etc. Again, helpful but not always what you need, especially if you’re an entrepreneur or innovator.
What do you need if you’re an entrepreneur or innovator? One thing above them all: focus.
Focus
Every entrepreneur and innovator is marked by the rush of creative ideas they have. In some cases, the ideating literally won’t stop. Your friends might even be exhausted by you.
This illuminates the need for focus. Your time is your most valuable resource and it’s one of the few that’s non-renewable (i.e. there’s nothing you can do to make more of it).
With our design of Univa, we took that into deep consideration and made sure you wouldn’t waste your time on our platform. What we’ve made available to you on the platform is there only to help increase your productivity, increase your connection to others like you, and to help you meet your goals.
Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
What’s interesting in all of this is that the thing that makes LinkedIn not enough to the entrepreneur or innovator is a matter of excess, not access.
There’s too much of what you don’t need, not enough of what you do: access to the right mentors, innovators and entrepreneurs to help you with your dreams.
But, of course, we’re a little biased in all this. So, we invite you to check Univa out for yourself.
