Sean McCloskey, '03
Social media has been rapidly growing in popularity over the past few years. Sean McCloskey, ’03 has capitalized on this trend by creating a smartphone app, Lavahound. McCloskey cherishes his Richmond education and says that his experiences at University of Richmond shaped him to be the entrepreneur he is today.
McCloskey graduated from UR with a Political Science degree but decided to pursue his passion for entrepreneurship by co-founding Lavahound, a mobile application that creates scavenger hunts on smartphones.
The app has been personalized for companies all over the nation like Adidas, Sea World Entertainment, and Accenture. Lavahound has been used for corporate team building as well as making college tours more engaging.
“I sought out to create an experiential learning tool that would provide people with contextual content and do so in a fun and memorable way,” says McCloskey.
University of Richmond provided a valuable foundation for McCloskey. Of the many relationships he built at the University, McCloskey says that his political science professor, Dr. Mayes has impacted him the most.
“Dr. Mayes genuinely loves what he does and he shows tremendous compassion towards others.” Said McCloskey. “I would like to hope that I have exhibited such values in my personal and professional life. He was also a very big proponent of experiential learning which factors into my current job.”
McCloskey remains closely connected to the University through his involvement with the University of Richmond Alumni Association (URAA) Board of Directors. He looks forward to helping build a National Day of Service program with our regional alumni groups, as well as contributing to other URAA initiatives. His connections with many UR alumni and his passion for social media also prompted McCloskey to create and manage a LinkedIn Group for UR alumni. The group now has over 6,000 members and continues to grow.
“I'm really excited about it. Richmond will forever be a part of my life and I look forward to doing what I can to make the community the best it can be” McCloskey says in closing.