During his freshman year, Sampat’s car became the unofficial ride service for his dorm floor. Someone needed a lift or asked to borrow his keys so frequently that it made him realize how few options students had when they wanted to get off campus.

"Either you take the bus, you walk, which is really inconvenient, or you can do a Zipcar, which is like 28 bucks an hour, plus a young driver fee, which is ridiculous for someone our age," Sampat said.

That’s when he saw an opportunity. He started small, renting out his own car for $50 to $60 a day, but the demand rapidly grew to the point where he could hardly use his own vehicle anymore. The side hustle to help friends became a business worth building.

As the requests kept coming, Sampat reinvested what he earned. He used the profits from those first rentals to buy another car, then applied for a low-interest loan through MSU Federal Credit Union.

"From there, I was able to buy three more cars," Sampat said. "And with that money, it eventually flipped into a total of 10 and that's where we're at right now."

With the growth of RentEL came some challenges. Sampat said the hardest part wasn’t managing the cars, it was earning people’s trust.

"Nobody knew me here, and I didn’t know anyone either," Sampat said. "So I had to be reliable. I had to take care of the maintenance and learn how to fix all these cars myself because if you go out in Lansing and pay a repair shop, you’re not going to make any money at all."

He taught himself how to replace brakes, rotors and motors, often working late in parking lots under the hood. Sometimes, he’d even get a call in the middle of the night from a stranded renter and rush to help.

"I’ve had to leave my house at three in the morning to fix a flat tire because it burst on the highway," he said. "I just wanted to make sure my customers had a good experience."

That hands-on experience taught him more than any textbook could. Still, Sampat credits his early business classes in high school and at MSU for giving him the foundation to manage RentEL’s growth.

"I’ve learned a lot from every sector," he said. "It’s helped me put everything together."

As the business gained traction, Sampat began thinking about how to reach students beyond his dorm. That’s when he turned to social media.

"When I got here, I found out about the MSU '28 and MSU '29 stories on Snapchat," he said. "I posted on there and started getting DMs from people saying I should go advertise on campus. People were actually trying to help me out."

Taking their advice, Sampat printed QR codes that linked directly to his website and hung them anywhere students might notice. He placed them at bus stops, near CATA stations and on light poles across campus.

"People would walk by in the mornings and scan them on their way to class," he said. "I would get thousands of views every single day."

For Sampat, the experience showed how much support student entrepreneurs can find within the MSU community. "People here really helped me come up with that idea," he said.

Looking ahead, Sampat plans to expand his business to other areas and universities, including Ann Arbor and his hometown, Chicago.