The Daily OrangeNew Startup business allows students to drink up on-line
By Samantha Salsbury
Posted: 9/9/09, 1:26 AM EST Section: Feature
Maintaining a supply of beverages in a dorm room can be a harder task than it seems.
Lugging trays of water bottles and large boxes of soda cans back to the room can leave students hot, tired and out of breath. Constantly buying drinks from dorm vending machines can get expensive.
"When I was a freshman in the dorms, I had to go to the vending machine to pay $2 for a bottle of water; it was ridiculous," said Matt Finkel, a junior in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.
So last spring, Finkel, along with friends Dan Sander and Jonny Sonkon, both juniors in Whitman, decided there was a need for a drink delivery service on campus. They then licensed software from a former student at the University of Pennsylvania who started a business similar to the one they wished to begin at SU.
The resulting business, named cusedrinks.com, has a Web site that allows SU students to order a minimum of 20 drinks to be delivered straight to their door.
The service gives students the option to mix-and-match drink preferences, virtually placing them in a box to be delivered. The options include any assortment of their favorite beverages, including Coke, Pepsi, Starbucks frappuccinos, Monster Energy drinks, among many others. The drinks are ordered through BJ's Wholesale Club and Sam's Club, and offered through the site. The price for the drinks ranges from 70 cents to $1.90, depending on whether it's a soda, energy drink or water.
Finkel, Sander and Sonkon are solely responsible for cusedrinks.com, meaning that they are managers of the site (run out of their apartment) and they make deliveries themselves.
The first delivery was made on August 31, and cusedrinks.com has already filled ten drink orders within the first week of business. The trio is already planning new amenities to the Web site.
"We don't have a subscription service yet," Sander said. "But we have a feature on our site that let's you save your favorite order. The subscription service is a 'coming soon feature.' We need to see what happens first."
Lugging trays of water bottles and large boxes of soda cans back to the room can leave students hot, tired and out of breath. Constantly buying drinks from dorm vending machines can get expensive.
"When I was a freshman in the dorms, I had to go to the vending machine to pay $2 for a bottle of water; it was ridiculous," said Matt Finkel, a junior in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.
So last spring, Finkel, along with friends Dan Sander and Jonny Sonkon, both juniors in Whitman, decided there was a need for a drink delivery service on campus. They then licensed software from a former student at the University of Pennsylvania who started a business similar to the one they wished to begin at SU.
The resulting business, named cusedrinks.com, has a Web site that allows SU students to order a minimum of 20 drinks to be delivered straight to their door.
The service gives students the option to mix-and-match drink preferences, virtually placing them in a box to be delivered. The options include any assortment of their favorite beverages, including Coke, Pepsi, Starbucks frappuccinos, Monster Energy drinks, among many others. The drinks are ordered through BJ's Wholesale Club and Sam's Club, and offered through the site. The price for the drinks ranges from 70 cents to $1.90, depending on whether it's a soda, energy drink or water.
Finkel, Sander and Sonkon are solely responsible for cusedrinks.com, meaning that they are managers of the site (run out of their apartment) and they make deliveries themselves.
The first delivery was made on August 31, and cusedrinks.com has already filled ten drink orders within the first week of business. The trio is already planning new amenities to the Web site.
"We don't have a subscription service yet," Sander said. "But we have a feature on our site that let's you save your favorite order. The subscription service is a 'coming soon feature.' We need to see what happens first."
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