A student turned entrepreneur is preparing to launch an official app for his alma mater, just weeks after graduating.
Ross McLean left the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen with a master’s degree in data science las month.
During his time studying, he began developing what would later become a business named Keedo, working alongside several of his now-former classmates.
“It originally started as an undergraduate project to develop a business plan,” the 25-year-old said.
“At the end of it we had all this documentation and thought we would try to start if off.”
Combining his passion for app development with his need to create a degree project, last year Mr McLean began planning the first feature of his app, a way to find a free desk in the university’s nine-storey library.
Since then a timetable finder, bus journey planner and catering menus have been added to the app.
He has also moved his business into RGU’s digital incubator on Garthdee Road, which houses several other start-up companies looking to get off the ground.
He said: “It has taken quite a bit of time to get to this stage, I’ve been working full time on it for the last six months.
“The university have been really supportive..
“You get nothing but people listening to you and wanting to talk through your ideas.
“We have a great place with the incubator as well.
“It means we can spend all our time working on it there with all our equipment, desks and phone lines instead of having to sit in a coffee shop all day.”
Mr McLean is now working on a system to report maintenance issues in student accommodation.
He has also made his app available to a select few students in order to monitor how it can be improved.
“So far, so good,” he said.
“We have a lot of people using it on a daily basis which we didn’t expect so soon.
“We are really impressed. We can see it’s being opened very frequently.”
Once the app has been fully launched and tested, Mr McLean and his Keedo team are hoping to expand their services out to other universities across Scotland.
He said: “We truly believe that these mobile apps are the way forward.
“When I started out I thought I would knuckle down, get good grades and get a good job at the end of it.
“Then I decided to give this a go.
“I want to make the system that I wished was in place when I was still a student.”
