Interested in saving money on textbooks? Four undergraduates hope so - and they're counting on it for the success of their new online business, BrunoBooks.com.
The Web site, which allows students from all over the country to compare Amazon.com's best prices with those of their school bookstores, was created by four Brown undergraduates and begun as a class project for an entrepreneurship class last semester.
Despite a modest launch on Jan. 11, BrunoBooks creators Jesse Maddox '08, Herald Opinions Columnist Matt Prewitt '08, Jonathan Rhone '08 and Erik Resly '08 have ambitious goals.
The Web site is already active at Brown, Boston University, the University of Illinois, the University of Texas at Austin, San Jose State University and the University of South Carolina.
The group of undergrads formed a financial relationship with Amazon, which pays the creators of BrunoBooks for every order filled through their site, allowing them to provide their price-comparison service free of charge.
"I wouldn't work on it if we were charging you more," said Resly, who helped design the Web site. He said that would be contrary to the purpose of BrunoBooks - to make textbooks as cheap as possible for students.
Resly emphasized that BrunoBooks.com is "for students, by students" and user-friendly.
"It's easy. It's simple," Resly said. "You see what you get, and you get what you see."
Rhone agreed, saying they aimed to make the service "as transparent as possible" and give students all of the information they need to decide where to buy their books.
The group said their own experiences with the Brown Bookstore inspired the idea for the Web site.
"I have spent a lot more money in my time at Brown than I could have if I had shopped around," Prewitt said. "There'll always be a need for a bookstore, but that doesn't give them a right to have a monopoly on students' purchasing decisions."
Prewitt added that they want BrunoBooks to become "serious competition for the bookstores."
Maddox and Prewitt developed their idea and business plan further in ENGN 1010: "The Entrepreneurial Process: Innovation in Practice," an entrepreneurship class taught by Danny Warshay, adjunct lecturer in engineering.
Warshay described Maddox and Prewitt's plan as "different from the norm" for his class, which usually asks students to submit budget proposals of at least $3 million.
"I constantly push my students to think big," Warshay said. He said his feedback may have encouraged Maddox and Prewitt to include additional campuses in their vision for BrunoBooks.
"The class teaches you how to analyze a business opportunity and figure out whether or not it's a real opportunity," Prewitt said.
Maddox agreed that the class was helpful because it forced them to "rigorously think through every aspect of the service."
After further developing their business plan and placing fourth in two "elevator pitch" competitions in November, Maddox and Prewitt secured the financial backing of alum Ari Goodstein '07 and worked hard over the winter break to put their plan into action.. Rhone and Resly created the Web site while Maddox and Prewitt advertised the service to students in Texas and Illinois.
"It's hard to get the word out because we're competing with so many other things for people's attention," Maddox said.
In addition to posters and flyers, the team has created Facebook groups to spread the word - and the budding entrepreneurs are adding a special incentive for students to join the group and invite their friends.
The group plans to select two students from the "BrunoBooks.com at Brown" Facebook group on Feb. 10. One will pick a charity to which BrunoBooks will donate 10 percent of the profit made from Brown students' orders. The other will receive $50 in cash, and whoever invited him or her to the group will receive $150.
"Nobody's going to join a Facebook group for a business," Maddox said. "You've got to make it exciting if you want to spread the word that way," Prewitt added.
As of Sunday night, the Facebook group at Brown had 667 members - the BU group is a distant second with 116 - and Maddox estimated that there have been 1,000 visitors to the Web site from Brown students alone.
"Per capita we're doing much better at Brown than at these other schools, partly because these other schools are enormous," Prewitt said.
So far, reviews of the service have been mixed.
Jamila Woods '11 liked the service so much that she recommended to her friend, Sonika Hegde '11.
"Use BrunoBooks.com," Woods said. "I saved forty dollars."
Cecilia Pineda '11 wasn't as impressed.
"They didn't have all the books you needed," she said. Pineda tried to find her books for BIOL 0500: "Cell and Molecular Biology" on BrunoBooks. It listed one of the books she needed, but not "Essential Cell Biology," the class's primary textbook.
"They had the majority of the books I was looking for, but not everything," Pineda said.
The "four enterprising young lads," as they describe themselves on the Web site, are by no means done with BrunoBooks. They said their plans for the future include widening the selection of booksellers and incorporating a textbook exchange.
Eventually, they want BrunoBooks.com to become a "one-stop shop, the place to go for all your textbook needs," Prewitt said.
But Maddox said the quartet tries not to take themselves too seriously. As of press time, the bottom of the site's course selection menu featured a class in Brown's lesser-known "Pimpin" department - PIMP 101: "How to Be a Playa" with Dr. Jesse Maddox. "It's only a class for one student."
