Washington University kids cash in on moving students
Virginia Baldwin Gilbert
Issue date: 5/2/03 Section: News
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ST. LOUIS (KRT) — Every spring, 4,000-plus undergraduates at Washington University make an annual migration from their residence halls.
And every fall, an equal number moves back in.
A few undergrads there consider that a business opportunity. Next month, University Trucking and ResFridge LLC expects to ship or store stuff for about 1,000 students.
The product of a merger between two student-owned operations, the company was named a regional runner-up recently in the Global Collegiate Entrepreneur Awards.
“Moving refrigerators and boxes was not what I had in mind for my college career,” said Joshua Kowitt, a junior, the founder of ResFridge. He’s the chief executive of the combined company.
“I’ve learned that the idea is almost secondary to the means of how you go about making it into a business,” he said.
Kowitt got the idea for his company the second month of his freshman year.
“The university had been in that business in the past and hadn’t found it profitable,” said Karen Grimes, the university’s assistant to the director of operations. “It’s time-consuming to clean and store refrigerators. We didn’t recommend it” to budding student entrepreneurs.
Grimes runs a program to encourage students in the School of Arts and Sciences to operate businesses on campus. Seven storefronts on the ground floor of Gregg Hall were set aside for student businesses when the residence hall was completed in 1999.
Most of the stores remained empty in fall 2000, when Kowitt walked in and asked how he could open a business in one.
One business plan and several presentations later, Kowitt and three partners started buying used refrigerators from departing students and setting up a Web site to rent them to freshmen the next fall.
“We’re competing against big chains that can sell at competitive prices,” Kowitt said.
The key was to set the rental fairly high and sell the convenience.
“By delivering, servicing, picking up at the end of the year, we can deliver value,” Kowitt said. “We’re a service business.”
And every fall, an equal number moves back in.
A few undergrads there consider that a business opportunity. Next month, University Trucking and ResFridge LLC expects to ship or store stuff for about 1,000 students.
The product of a merger between two student-owned operations, the company was named a regional runner-up recently in the Global Collegiate Entrepreneur Awards.
“Moving refrigerators and boxes was not what I had in mind for my college career,” said Joshua Kowitt, a junior, the founder of ResFridge. He’s the chief executive of the combined company.
“I’ve learned that the idea is almost secondary to the means of how you go about making it into a business,” he said.
Kowitt got the idea for his company the second month of his freshman year.
“The university had been in that business in the past and hadn’t found it profitable,” said Karen Grimes, the university’s assistant to the director of operations. “It’s time-consuming to clean and store refrigerators. We didn’t recommend it” to budding student entrepreneurs.
Grimes runs a program to encourage students in the School of Arts and Sciences to operate businesses on campus. Seven storefronts on the ground floor of Gregg Hall were set aside for student businesses when the residence hall was completed in 1999.
Most of the stores remained empty in fall 2000, when Kowitt walked in and asked how he could open a business in one.
One business plan and several presentations later, Kowitt and three partners started buying used refrigerators from departing students and setting up a Web site to rent them to freshmen the next fall.
“We’re competing against big chains that can sell at competitive prices,” Kowitt said.
The key was to set the rental fairly high and sell the convenience.
“By delivering, servicing, picking up at the end of the year, we can deliver value,” Kowitt said. “We’re a service business.”