Stories

Even though they were chatting on a Microsoft Teams call with an ocean between them, you would think that Adam Fry, a College of Engineering graduate in 2015 and MBA recipient in 2016, and his business partner Nico Munoz, a 2014 Khoury College graduate, were in the room together. “During my time at Northeastern, [my co-ops] did a lot of projects centered around reducing waste,” says Fry with a smile as he recalls his early university experiences. “[It] was a mechanism at Northeastern through which I practiced my environmental inclinations.”

Fry and Munoz are no strangers to each other—they became friends during their first week at Northeastern. A few years after entering the professional world, they learned that they were both in a phase of their lives where “we wanted to do something different [and] do something on our own.” With that in mind, they helped launch Budgeat, a sustainability-focused meal planning app that caters to users’ dietary needs, budget, and schedule by personalizing healthy recipes.

Both Fry and Munoz credit their immersive Northeastern experience for helping them gather the tools that would push them to succeed in the notoriously volatile startup environment. “Fundamentally, the Northeastern experience gave me the skills and confidence to become an effective problem-solver. What Northeastern did a great job at doing was teaching me how to learn and how to quickly apply that knowledge,” says Fry.

Fry expresses his gratitude for the co-op program for teaching him what he wanted in a career and what didn’t fit his professional goals. This was demonstrated through an oil and gas engineering position in Malaysia that would fuel his passion for sustainability. Munoz, on the other hand, began his co-op at the Boston-based asset management firm GMO and was offered a full-time position upon graduation, putting him “years ahead in experience” compared to his peers.

By combining their unique co-op experiences, Fry and Munoz have ascended to become both the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Budgeat, respectively. Since the company’s launch, Budgeat has grown organically and exponentially—obtaining hundreds of new followers on their social platforms and increasing their site visits by 35% on a monthly basis.

Facing the exciting prospect of development and expansion in an evergrowing market, Fry and Munoz would like to give back to the Northeastern community by starting a co-op position at Budgeat in the near future. Speaking for both himself and Fry, Munoz says, “For us, our co-op experience was incredible…[co-op candidates] are driven, hardworking, and knowledgable. The quality coming out of Northeastern is really high and it’s definitely in our plans at some point [to offer a position].”

You can learn more about Fry, Munoz, and Budgeat by following Budgeat on LinkedIn and Instagram @budgeatapp.

If you or someone you know are interested in starting a co-op position at your place of employment, please contact Jim Boyle, Director of Strategic Industry Relations at [email protected].

Don’t be afraid to lean into the co-op program and explore your interests…Northeastern gives you an opportunity to do that across dialogues, programs, and the co-op.”

Nico Munoz Khoury ’14