Campus Commandos' Success Helps Fuel Detroit Startup Scene

DETROIT, Feb. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Detroit's startup scene continues to grow, as College marketing agency Campus Commandos, a company launched through entrepreneurship accelerator Bizdom, today announced it has begun making equity investments back to the Bizdom fund that initially seeded the company. Bizdom is a non-profit and will redistribute the funds to launch four more Detroit-based startups through the Bizdom program. Campus Commandos has grown its revenue five-fold and tripled its client base in the past year.

Founded in 2010, Campus Commandos has helped brands such as eBay, Hewlett Packard, New Era, and Nike build brand loyalty among the growing college demographic by placing on-campus representatives on the front lines of student events and organizations.

"Campus Commandos knows that to build lasting relationships in the college demographic, brands have to get in the trenches of campus life and truly interact with students," Grant, 27, said. "Our campaigns combine a mix of traditional and digital tactics to put brands front and center when students pull out their wallets."

According to a College Explorer survey, current college students hold a record $417 billion in spending power. Campus Commandos assists brands in capturing this lucrative market by recruiting and training hundreds of student reps each year to infuse student life on campuses across the country. This empowers students to represent major brands while attending school.

Grant's vision for his business took shape while working as an on-campus rep for major brands during his time at Michigan State University. Grant launched Campus Commandos while in the Bizdom program, which was founded by Dan Gilbert, Founder and Chairman of Rock Ventures and Quicken Loans, and Majority Owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Bizdom, which also receives financial assistance from the New Economy Initiative and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, was created to launch waves of startups in the urban cores of Detroit and Cleveland.

"Adam's equity distributions are a huge milestone for him and Campus Commandos," said Ross Sanders, CEO of Bizdom. "What Adam has done with coming from outside the city to create a diversified, profitable and growing company in Detroit is truly special. What is particularly unique is that this company born in the city is now helping other businesses get created. Additionally, Bizdom continues to hold an equity share in Campus Commandos, as well as an equity share in the businesses created from it, and future distributions resulting from these equity shares will be used to seed even more Detroit-based businesses. It is a great example of the exponential economic impact these startups can have."

Campus Commandos is currently working on forming more strategic partnerships that will create more student marketing programs and will continue to be a resource for brands for new concept ideas.

"A big theme around the company is keeping a game changer mentality by telling ourselves that we are the only ones who can put ourselves out of business," said Grant.

About Campus Commandos
Campus Commandos (www.campuscommandos.com) is a college marketing agency that ignites brand enthusiasm on college campuses. The company connects businesses with self-motivated student representatives who engage other students while stimulating brand awareness on campus with the goal of converting their peers into lifelong customers. Campus Commandos' battle-tested reps infiltrate every aspect of campus life, using targeted, results-oriented strategies to build lifelong brand loyalty. For more on Campus Commandos, visit www.campuscommandos.com.

About Bizdom:
Bizdom helps aspiring entrepreneurs turn their ideas into well developed, client focused business concepts and get their startups funded, by surrounding them with top business, sales, marketing and technology experts. Bizdom is a non-profit, entrepreneurship accelerator launched by Dan Gilbert, Founder and Chairman of Quicken Loans Inc. and Majority Owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The goal of the Bizdom program is to create an entrepreneurial hub in Detroit. For more information, visit www.Bizdom.com.

SOURCE Bizdom