Hotpots, Posters and Lavalamps, Oh My!
Young Startup Targets Undergrads
by: Eyemine News Team
You've got to be crazy.
That's what Eric Wong's mother told him when he first mentioned that he and his friends were starting an e-commerce website aimed towards college students. We were all sitting around a coffee shop one evening when the idea for udorm came to us, explains Wong, Stanford sophomore and founder of San Francisco-based udorm.com. We were talking about the Internet boom and all of these fast talking MBA grads coming out to San Francisco with business plans and little else. We started talking about what was already out there and what wasn't, and then suddenly, we realized that there really wasn't a website geared specifically towards college students that has trendy and hip products - furniture, party items, etc. That was the birth of udorm.com.
Exciting, is how founder Holly Deng, also Stanford sophomore, describes that memorable evening. From the beginning, I really believed in udorm, and I knew that the long hours of research, the horrors of meeting at Melinda's house at 8 in the morning, not leaving until 9 the next day, and seeing Eric without gel in his hair would be worth it.
Instead of lavish conference rooms, the group took up residence at dim sum restaurants on Clement Street and coffee shops in North Beach. Nevertheless, it got expensive after awhile, says founder Rodney Shu, Cal student. Our company didn't have much of a budget, Rodney says with a grin, so we offered them equity.
Amidst all the dot-com buzz of stock options and IPOs, it's hard to tell which companies will succeed. What makes udorm.com stand out from the rest? Well, the age of the founders (they're all 19), and the amount of time it took them to launch (one month), are definitely impressive - even in the Valley. It was hard work, explains Wong. We practically lived together during the entire month of August while we were putting the company together. We all had full time internships in San Francisco, so after work, we'd get together at coffee shops or at someone's home to work on udorm. We drove our families mad.
Although udorm.com is still in its early stages of growth, the company is well on its way to becoming a major player in the college market. The website launched in September with an innovative and eclectic collection of mainstream and hard to find goods at extremely reasonable prices. Right now, the other college e-commerce websites don't have an image, a brand name. Plus they are really expensive, says Caron Proschan, co-founder and Wellesley sophomore. Because we are students, we know that students don't have money to waste. They are savvy shoppers and udorm seeks to bring them cool products at great prices.
Cool is definitely an accurate word to describe udorm.com's products. A quick glance at the website reveals a selection of items ranging from inflatable furniture to black lights to Asian lanterns. So, how does udorm.com know which products will sell? "We are our own market," says founder Melinda Chung, Pomona sophomore. We all live in dorms so we know what college students need in their rooms. Students selling to students- it's definitely a sexy concept. We are confident in udorm.com, in the concept, the image, everything, says Wong. And even my mom doesn't think I'm crazy anymore.
