College students are indeed the entrepreneurial type, but some are realizing that you don't need capital to make others feel good -- and get yourself noticed.
The "Compliment Guys" first made a splash at Purdue University last year by spurting niceties at passersby (watch below). Their altruistic extracurricular activity took them on a multi-state tour, to the op-ed page of the New York Times and the stage of the Today Show.
And now the kind trend is spreading to other campuses. According to the Daily Bruin, a group of freshmen have started a compliment-guy franchise on the UCLA campus:
Armed with socks, scrubs, shirts and capes, whose hues were inspired by a cap [UCLA first-year Michael] Starr discovered at Westwood's Thank You Mart, the squad doles out compliments and high fives to hundreds of Bruins without discrimination during their weekly shift.
"The biggest question we get is, 'Why are you doing this?'" said [Aza] Steel, an undeclared student who is considering a career involving technology and entrepreneurship. "People just assume we're from some organization, usually frats."
But no, they're just guys who give compliments, and UCLA students are amused. "Those guys are hilarious," fourth-year business economics student Molly McGlone told the Bruin. "I don't think I would've been so willing to put myself out there as a first-year at this big school."