Campusfood.com’s recipe for success was a simple one: Provide interactive menus to college students, using the power of the Internet to enhance traditional telephone ordering of meals. Launched at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), the company took thousands of orders for local restaurants, bringing pizzas, hoagies, and wings to the Penn community.
Founders Michael Saunders began developing the site in 1997 while he was a junior at Penn. With the help of some classmates, the site was launched in 1998. After graduation, Saunders began building the company’s customer base. This involved registering other universities, attracting students, and generating a list of restaurants from which students could order food for delivery. Currently, some of these activities are outsourced to a marketing firm, enabling the addition of dozens of schools nationwide.<
Financed through private investors, friends, and family members, the site was built on an investment of less than $1 million. (For comparison, another company with services also reaching the college-student market invested $100 million.) Campusfood.com’s revenue is generated through transaction fees; the site takes a 5 percent commission on each order.
When you visit campusfood.com, you can :
- Navigate through a list of local restaurants, their hours of operation, addresses, phone numbers, and other information.
- Browse an interactive menu. The company takes a restaurant’s standard print menu and researches each one in order to convert it to an electronic menu that lists every topping, every special, and every drink offered, along with the latest prices.
- Bypass “busy” telephone signals to place an order online, and in doing so, avoid miscommunications.
- Get access to special foods, promotions, and restaurant giveaways. The company is working to set up meal deals that are available exclusively online for Campusfood.com customers.
- Arrange electronic payment for your order.
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