Austin Langlinais, supply chain management senior
Austin Langlinais, a supply chain management senior from Kalamazoo, wanted to combine his passions and talents and create a news service for busy people who may not have time to turn on CNN, and thus 90 Second News was born.
“90 Second News is all of the world’s news, delivered to your email inbox or phone messages in a way that’s designed to be read in 90 seconds or less,” Langlinais said.
After securing multiple internships with major companies over his time at MSU, Langlinais used his experience to gain insights about the industry that he was about to enter.
“By talking with so many of my great co-workers at Stryker, SC Johnson and Nike, I’ve found that there really is a niche for this kind of news, and many of my previous co-workers have spread the newsletter across their companies,” he said.
For students especially, staying up to date on news from around the world is crucial. Part of the reason that Langlinais created the speedy online news service was because he didn’t see this happening.
“I was motivated to start this business because I noticed that my classmates around me typically weren’t informed about current events, and as business students, that’s troubling.
“Before 90 Second News, there was no true way to get all of the necessary information about the world while making your coffee, or while you’re waiting for someone to hop on a Zoom call,” Langlinais continued. “Most other ‘bite’ newsletters take the average person around four to seven minutes to read, and while that’s short, it’s still far longer than most people who aren’t interested in the news are willing to read.”
90 Second News premiered at the end of October, so the current focus is to produce quality content that will reel in subscribers.
90 Second News promises to deliver online news in quick bites.
“My focus is on educating the world in a fun and engaging way every morning,” he said. “My target audience is anyone who isn’t already a consumer of traditional news, but who wants to learn more about the world around them. We don’t specifically have a theme for the news, but we typically include stories about the markets, earnings or interesting strategic decisions made by businesses.”
As a senior in the Broad College, Langlinais has learned a lot about what it takes to operate a successful business, and he shared how his time as a Spartan helped him launch this endeavor.
“My Broad education has played a massive role in the start and success of 90 Second News,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot about how to build and scale a business, and skills such as cold emailing, knowing how to write a mission statement and formulating a business plan have all come in very handy.”
Langlinais also noted that 90 Second News wasn’t created without help from his friends and now co-founders.
“The most important thing when working with someone is passion, and they both have a tremendous amount of it,” he said. “They’re able to provide some incredible diversity of thought that’s helped us to engage our audiences in ways that I would have never thought of.”
Starting your own company takes motivation and perseverance, which is what the Spartan spirit is all about. Now, 90 Second News joins many other unique Spartan-created endeavors and is sure to leave its mark on the news industry.
