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Like Kobold, College Prowler CEO Skurman launched his idea into a mature and crowded market. The guides cut a swath in the market by featuring brutally frank reviews that carry a ring of truth.

Skurman, who doubled his business in three years, caught the eye of fellow entrepreneur Glen Meakem, co-founder of FreeMarkets, the nation’s leading business supply management firm. Meakem, a Carnegie Mellon trustee, invested $500,000 in CollegeProwler and became chairman of its board of directors.

Joining Skurman in founding College Prowler were fellow Carnegie Mellon graduates Christina Koshzow (HS’02, HNZ’03), Joey Rahimi (TPR’01) and Christopher Mason (TPR’01).

Skurman has returned to Carnegie Mellon as a volunteer teacher’s assistant for the Tepper School’s undergraduate entrepreneurship course.

“It was the class that helped me get my business off the ground and I wanted to give back as much as I can,” he said.

Some times the best way to sell a new concept or product is by demonstration. That’s why a quartet of Carnegie Mellon grads, two designers and two architects, went into the restaurant business in New York in November 2003, with the opening of PUBLIC. They developed the restaurant's architecture, furniture, interiors, menu design and brand identity. They hired the chefs, waiters, waitresses, then schmoozed with customers. They did it all.

PUBLIC's design is based on making exotic foods more accessible. Elements like old-fashioned card catalogs, office doors and mailboxes reinforce the notion that PUBLIC is just that—meant for the people. The restaurant's design earned the team the 2004 James Beard Foundation awards for Outstanding Restaurant Design and Outstanding Restaurant Graphics. And it put them on the map.

Now AvroKO is the go-to firm for all things design in Manhattan: restaurants, bars, homes—even art shows for companies like Banana Republic. They just completed work on a 7,000-square-foot house in Brazil and design of The Stanton Social, a new restaurant on New York City's lower east side, is well under way.

AvroKO's latest self-propelled project is "smart.space," a space-efficient urban living concept now on display in two showroom apartments (that will be for sale next month).

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