Book buy-back process inspires alumni's business
By Sol Tran
Paying outrageous prices for school textbooks can be frustrating and financially draining. Colin Barceloux, who graduated in 2003, knows that feeling too well.
Barceloux, who experienced this frustration during his time at Santa Clara while studying business, capitalized on the problem by creating an online book rental service that frequently saves students money over the typical buy-and-sell method.
BookRenter.com has over 15,000 registered users and supplies textbooks to students at more than 2,000 campuses nationwide.
The Web site, BookRenter.com, emerged from Barceloux's personal experiences.
"To me, being an inquisitive person, it seemed crazy how you could buy those books at the beginning of the quarter for $100 or even more, and then three months later or maybe less, it was worth nothing," said Barceloux, who is now working as the full-time CEO of BookRenter.com.
Recalling the days when he saw his fellow Santa Clara students chuck their books with no buy-back value onto the tables at the bookstore office, Barceloux, along with two Santa Clara engineering graduates, Chris Williams and Philippe Huibonhoa -- who are now senior engineers in the company -- created a Web site to save students from paying these unnecessary costs.
"One of the book problems is everything is based on the local demand," said Barceloux.
"When you sell it back, it is based on the course need for the next quarter. But that is not a good way to look at it. How we look at it for BookRenter is that an Economics 101 book that is not needed for the quarter, it can be rerouted to another student at Ohio who might need that same book," Barceloux said.
To provide the materials for students to rent, Barceloux partnered with Amazon.com.
The Web site opened in 2006 as the first online book renting service. Now it has 1.25 million titles that students may choose from and order, all supplied by Amazon.com. The Web site has been featured on CNBC's "One Bright Idea" segment.
To rent materials, students go online, pay the shipping and rental costs and receive the book by mail. Books can be rented for 30, 45, 60, 90 or 125 days.
Barceloux attributes a lot of his success to his time at Santa Clara.
"One of the great things about Santa Clara is its location. It really is in the heart of Silicon Valley," said Barceloux.
"If you want to start a company, you come to Silicon Valley. Like if you want to start a movie, you go to Hollywood. Santa Clara is a great place to go if you want to be an entrepreneur," he said.
Barceloux was not involved in entrepreneurship until nearly three years after he graduated from Santa Clara.
While at Santa Clara, Barceloux was instead active in the Operations and Management Information Systems club, which no longer exists.
To earn money, he took up several on-campus jobs and sold back used books that students, friends and professors discarded.
After graduation, Barceloux began working for the AdWords department at Google before moving on to a startup company that was later acquired by 24/7 Real Media, an advertising firm based in New York.
In 2006, he maxed out his credit card in order to start BookRenter.com.
Entrepreneurship comes with a great deal of risk, and Barceloux warns that it is not the ideal career choice for everyone.
However, if a student is willing to take the risk of creating their own business, whether that be opening a restaurant or building a Web site, Barceloux recommends taking action rather than just talking about it.
"Just start. Get involved," said Barceloux. "So many times people get stuck talking and thinking and planning. Just start doing it. Just start working on it. Think about problems in everyday life and figure out solutions. The greatest entrepreneurs can turn ideas into reality."
Students who are interested in learning more about starting their own business can contact Kevin Holmes, the director of Santa Clara's Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, at kholmes@scu.edu.
Contact Sol Tran at vtrankiem@scu.edu.