After sprouting in their residence hall rooms, two students’ startup has gained momentum, moving into a Foggy Bottom office and sweeping an international business competition.

Senior Dylan Fox and sophomore Zach Herman’s company Crowdvance, an online fundraising tool designed to help small organizations reach independent donors, picked up $15,000 last week at the Texas Christian University Values and Ventures Business Plan Competition.

Crowdvance works with various GW subscribers, including the club field hockey team and improv comedy troupe receSs, which each raised more than $1,000 in funding through the website.

“It’s a way for small organizations to solicit direct donations so they don’t have to go to their roommates and say, ‘Hey, do you want to buy a box of Krispy Kreme donuts?’ That might work once, but it’s not sustainable,” Fox, an economics major, said.

The company has caught on in part because it forged ties with big names, such as online video streamer Hulu and Time magazine. These companies offer donors discounted items and exclusive promotions per donation, like savings on textbooks and concert tickets or free Hulu trials.

Since Crowdvance’s inception in 2012, when it secured third place at the GW Business Plan Competition, Herman and Fox said more than 100 university organizations nationwide have requested to sign up, including clubs from the University of Michigan.

Crowdvance earns revenue by taking in 6.5 percent of the funds organizations raise on its site.

Now expanding off college campuses, and based in a L Street office, Crowdvance recently partnered with MetroBall, a D.C. organization which aims to deter youth violence through participation in basketball.

Herman said the group, which has been centered in D.C. for more than a decade, raised upwards of $1,000 in one week through their partnership.

“Even though they’re living in that poorer area, they still have the leverage now to reach out to people and fundraise better on a much wider scale,” Herman, an international business major, said.

The duo said they remain in frequent contact with GW’s Office of Entrepreneurship, a connection that assisted their national success as well as their first-place win at the competition.

Fox said he was grateful for the mentorship of the entrepreneurship office, but wished more courses on the topic were accessible to non-business students. Herman said GW School of Business students should be required to take an entrepreneurship class to acquire those skills.

The University has built up its entrepreneurship offerings in recent years, creating affinity housing options and drawing record numbers to its business plan competition.

“I know for a fact I wouldn’t be where I am right now without GW. We’re entrepreneurs, we’re always going to seek out opportunities,” Fox said. “But I’d like it to not be that only if you’re a hardcore entrepreneur and you find out early what you want that you get access to these opportunities.”

On the precipice of graduation, Fox said he did not apply to any jobs because he plans to continue expanding Crowdvance, for which he and Herman already work full-time.

“It’s doable. There’s no secret formula to it, you just have to not stop. If undergraduates are interested in starting something, and they think there’s going to be these huge hurdles, you have to apply energy and passion to it and walls will break down,” Fox said.