It takes hard work and guts to transform a great idea into a viable business or community organization, but University at Buffalo students are doing it every day with support from the university. Each of the entrepreneurs profiled below endured long hours and surprising obstacles to succeed. None regretted it.

Two childhood friends, Eric Reich, J.D. and MBA ’02, and Michael Weisman, MBA ’01, turned UB’s $25,000 Henry A. Panasci Jr. entrepreneurship award into a $40 million company.

Their idea: to build a data-centric company that helps colleges and universities decide how to best allocate resources, recruit and retain students and improve student success.

Their company, Campus Labs, has more than $10 million in annual sales and more than 650 higher education clients. Years of hard work were realized when Connecticut-based Higher One Holdings acquired Campus Labs for more than $40 million in August.

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