North­eastern Uni­ver­sity was well rep­re­sented in BetaBoston’s recent 25 Most Inno­v­a­tive People Under 25 list, which high­lighted the entre­pre­neurial spirit, cre­ativity, and social media prowess of five young alumni.

Those grad­u­ates are Julian Jung, founder and CEO of Tablelist; Laura Marelic, founder of Scout, Northeastern’s student-​​run design studio; Christo­pher Wolfel, co-​​founder and chief rev­enue officer at Mavrck; Eliz­a­beth Barno, com­mu­nity man­ager at Green­town Labs; and Ben­jamin Anderson, co-​​founder and CEO of Amino Apps.

Four of the ven­tures got started through IDEA, Northeastern’s student-​​run ven­ture accelerator.

The list was com­piled by the edi­to­rial staff at Beta­Boston, The Boston Globe’s tech­nology and inno­va­tion sec­tion, and released last month. The selec­tions were based on sub­mis­sions span­ning sev­eral indus­tries, including health, music, and technology.

We caught up with four of these extra­or­di­nary alumni to find out what it takes to be con­sid­ered a top inno­vator in the Greater Boston area.

Eliz­a­beth Barno, SSH’13

Barno was the first employee hired at Green­town Labs, a Somerville, Massachusetts-​​based incu­bator that offers space and tools to help entre­pre­neurs grow their busi­nesses. As a com­mu­nity man­ager, Barno makes sure Green­town member star­tups have every­thing they need to grow.

“We have cre­ated a real sense of com­mu­nity and col­lab­o­ra­tion at Green­town,” Barno said. “It’s really awe­some to see a com­pany reach a funding mile­stone or have to get a bigger office space because their staff is growing.”

Julian Jung, DMSB’13

While at North­eastern, Jung gave up a lucra­tive real estate busi­ness to fully devote him­self to Tablelist, a plat­form that makes it easy for users to book out­ings at their favorite nightlife spots. That deci­sion has paid off, as Tablelist now has more than 175 venue part­ners across the country.

“I had to give Tablelist my all,” Jung said. “It is wild to see it come from the IDEA lab to seven cities.”

Laura Marelic, AMD’15

Marelic cer­tainly left her mark on North­eastern, founding the university’s student-​​run design studio, which is based in the Col­lege of Arts, Media and Design. Since its launch two years ago, Scout’s team has worked on projects for var­ious clients and events, including the Curry Stu­dent Center’s 50-​​year anniver­sary; an exhibit for Northeastern’s Our Marathon dig­ital archive; and Cof­feebar, a first-​​​​of-​​​​its-​​​​kind all-​​​​natural energy bar infused with a full cup of fair trade coffee.

“The work we’ve done the past two years was above and beyond what I expected,” Marelic said. “The atten­tion that Scout got and how badly people wanted to get involved was a big accomplishment.”

Chris Wolfel, DMSB’13

As co-​​founder and chief rev­enue officer for Mavrck, Wolfel is charged with mar­keting the company’s plat­form that helps busi­nesses con­nect with and acti­vate their most influ­en­tial cus­tomers. Wolfel also sits on IDEA’s advi­sory board, where he works with up-​​and-​​coming ventures.

“One of things I tell most new entre­pre­neurs is ‘Your idea isn’t that spe­cial,’” Wolfel said. “It comes down to how can you exe­cute it. There are prob­ably four or five people having the exact same meeting we are, the only ques­tion is who can do it best.”

Ben Anderson, AMD’12

Founded in 2011, Anderson’s Amino Apps is a mobile-​​based social ser­vice aimed at con­necting users with spe­cial­ized inter­ests. Amino iPhone apps have been down­loaded more than 500,000 times in more than 50 countries.

“Our vision is to own the interest market and become the best way for users to expe­ri­ence their inter­ests on their mobile devices,” Anderson told news@Northeastern last year. “I see a future in which we have an app for every pop­ular book, movie fran­chise, you name it.”

Read the original story at news@Northeastern →