When Dane Christensen first came to KU, he started out studying pre-health and wanted to go into physical therapy. Seeing that a business degree would better suit his business aspirations, he switched his major to business administration with an entrepreneurship minor.

In the spring of 2023, he joined The Catalyst, a KU School of Business program that encourages entrepreneurship and professional development through mentoring, to learn skills that would help support what he learned while exploring his business idea.

As a student from Omaha, Nebraska, Christensen wanted to improve the ability for KU students to connect with each other and with campus groups. From there, he created FreshLink, a social networking platform that connects KU students and organizations. Christensen soft-launched the site for research, design and testing in fall 2021, providing a resource students found valuable to their campus experience.

Christensen was awarded a $25,000 grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce to help fund his company’s efforts. He plans to use this grant to streamline his website to improve the platform, to develop promotional efforts and to relaunch FreshLink at KU. In the future, he also hopes to fundraise for a mobile platform and eventually partner with other universities.

In April of 2023, Christensen competed on Wheel of Fortune as part of the game show’s College Week.