When Andrew and I (Patrick) founded Upcrated, we were focused on solving a simple problem. As college students, how do we increase the buying power of our dollars? Both of us were strapped for cash, but there were there things that we wanted to buy. We started Upcrated to help college students pool their money together to buy things that we, as students, all want.
After doing an extensive search online, (1) we realized that there weren’t any solutions the solved our problem and (2) many retailers were charging significantly more than what items actually cost. We decided to embark on creating a solution to not only meet our needs, but also students across the country.
The Solution
So what is Upcrated? It’s a platform that allows students to:
- Submit links of products that they want.
- Vote as a school community on products they would collectively want to buy as a group.
From there, we contact the manufacturer and organize a wholesale discount and pass off the savings to the students who want to buy-in at discounted prices.
Why “Upcrated?”
In an effort to save students even more money, we decided to switch-up traditional distribution models. Rather than charging students more for shipping or having the item priced higher to include the cost of shipping, we decided to have products ordered through our site ship directly to our facility, be placed in a lobster-colored crate, and then distributed from a central location on campus (e.g. student union building, Allen St. Gates, etc.). When an order comes in, we’ll notify everyone who purchased the item in the crate to come and pick it up at a specific time and day.
The Game Plan
Both Andrew and I are working feverishly to get the site up and running. The backend is almost done, but there are still several key parts that need to be completed. Our goal is to launch Upcrated in February, 2016 at Penn State University, but we can’t achieve this goal without one vital piece — YOU!
First, follow us across our social media channels! All of our launch and product announcements will be released through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Email, so if you could throw us a like and a follow, it would be greatly appreciated!
WE NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU. Before we launch, we would like to know what you’re interested in. So, if there’s something that you’ve been eyeing like a new backpack, t-shirt, some type of accessory, or even a hoverboard, LET US KNOW! You can submit all of your ideas through this link or tweet at @Upcrated on twitter with #GetUpcrated.
Lastly, Upcrated at its core is a community driven by college students. We rely on YOU. So as a last request, share this with your friends! The more people we have following us at launch day, the more you save money on the things that you want.
See you in February!
Andrew and I are absolutely stoked to launch Upcrated and start saving students money. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we’re confident we can make it happen.
If you have any questions at any time or would like to drop me a line, I can easily be reached at hello@upcrated.com or by my personal Twitter or Facebook.
