The idea for Howstheliving.com, a website that co-founder Kaliv Parker calls "like ratemyprofessor except for housing," began when co-founder Aeron Glover went to northern Spain on study abroad to take two Spanish courses.

Glover, now a rising senior in industrial engineering, was living with a host family in Spain in summer 2009, and he wanted to find out more about them.

"I didn't know much about them before I got there and really couldn't find out more about them, the people who lived with them previously," Glover said.

Parker, a rising senior in finance, said the two saw the need.

"There needed to be a platform for students to discuss their housing," Parker said.

Glover said he and Parker started work on the website in December 2009, and it has been a balancing act, being an undergraduate student and the co-founders of a business.

"I try to take care of classes first and get that out of the way," Glover said. "... Schedule classes early in the day, (and) rest of the day is brainstorming, meetings."

He said the two met in their office on campus every other day from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. in the Spring Semester, no less than 20 hours a week.

"It's definitely more frowns than smiles," he said. "But, in the end, it comes down to, if you're passionate about your company, no matter what else you're doing, you'll have a continued sense of optimism about it."

The two undergraduates are now looking to raise funds for the business through different business competitions, and they have been very successful with that so far.

The two have won three competitions in the last seven months. Tennessee Technology Development Corporation granted a $10,000 business development grant to How's the Living.

How's the Living won the fall Vol Court Competition, which gave How's the Living $1,000, with additional services valued at $22,000.

And How's the Living took home the $25,000 first prize at the Movers and Changers competition in December.

For the Movers and Changers competition, Glover said the two had seven practices before the competition, two in front of faculty, three in front of students and two in front of faculty and students.

"The practice is more important," he said.

As far as the actual presentation, Glover said it was hard to put into words how he prepared.

"You have to put yourself in the zone where you either get it, or you don't get it," Glover said. "You either win, or you lose. You either make it happen, or you don't make it happen. There's no in-between."

The website was originally going to be about host families for U.S. students studying in other countries, but it became about on-campus housing for U.S. students studying in the U.S.

This sort of shift in focus is nothing new for the business, Glover said.

"In fact, I wrote some things down yesterday, and they don't exist anymore," he said. "We changed it completely today. That's how it works."

So while the idea for the site came from Glover's study abroad experience, the site in its current form is helpful for upcoming UT freshmen wondering about how the Apartment Residence Hall is. It has a 2.6 rating out of five stars currently.

"You can't fall in love with an idea because your heart will be broken," he said. "You got to believe in it, but understand that odds are, it's going to change."

Glover, who is in San Francisco, Calif., meeting with potential investors, said he and Parker look for the site to have better interactivity, better search flow and a larger database in the future.

In addition, the site will widen the focus to include off-campus housing.

Glover lives by the quote, "Be comfortable with being uncomfortable." He thinks of it in his approaches to business, and it calls to mind that nervous feeling two undergraduate students could get when pitching a business they have worked hard on.

"You should be motivated by being uncomfortable," he said. "Use it as fuel."