Every Camosun student develops their own path in life; sometime students end up in places they thought they’d never be. Camosun College Business major Connor Foreman, for example, has found himself entering into the world of app design and getting a head start in the business world.
Foreman says that his app, Locus, aims to connect people heading out for a night on the town and to streamline their night by allowing them to see who’s going where and what shows are on. He says that the process of getting to this point of app development was natural for him.
“It just all started with brainstorming something that is really popular with my generation and the rest of the people that I see as phone users,” he says. “I came up with the idea of ‘okay, going to bars and nightclubs and going to meet people is a big thing.’”
Of course, no business venture is complete without its struggles. For example, the actual coding and developing of the app was something that Foreman wasn’t able to do.
“Since I’m not a developer myself, I realized I’ll have to hire a company to do it for me,” he says. “So I kind of just started looking online and found a company that I was interested in working with, and maybe two weeks after I found them we were in talks, already starting the development process.”
Foreman says that he was really encouraged along the way by the support he was getting from family and friends, as well as the enthusiasm he saw from others who learned about his app.
“Something that I found encouraging is that everyone who I’ve told about it seems to think it’s a good idea,” he says. “I don’t know if they’re lying to me to be nice, but it seems to have gone across well to anyone I’ve told. It’s humbling that people are accepting my idea and I’m getting the help I need.”
Foreman says that while it’s possible that he would still have ended up designing Locus if he had studied at somewhere other than Camosun, he feels that his education at the college was an important part of his becoming an app developer.
“I’m really proud of the education that I get here at Camosun,” he says. “Something that I’ve been able to do is apply what I learned at Camosun directly into what I’m doing with the app. I do feel fortunate to be coming out of Camosun. I really want to give Camosun some of the credit that the program deserves. Sometimes they get overshadowed by UVic a little.”
Foreman says that anyone looking to start their own business needs to remember that sometimes we are our own worst enemy.
“Just try to deal with the self doubt,” he says. “If you believe in what you’re doing, then keep going.”
Foreman says that a January release is set for Locus for both iPhone and Android.