LAUNCH PAD

book smart VITAL STATS Shamoon Siddiqui (1.).26. and George

Burk e. z6. of Book Swim.com COMPANY Online hard cover/paperback book

rental se rvice P80JECTED 2008 SALES sHoo.ooo

FREElOAD NO AlORE Co llege fr iends George Burke and Sharnoo n Siddiqui spent a lot

of time in bookstores rending boo ks but not buy ing them. The)' didn't have room to sto re nil the books and didn't nec-essa rily wan t to own eve ry book they read, Then they thought. why not rent books Nctfl ix-style?

In 2006. afte r Burke had so ld a web design company and Siddiqu i had com-pleted his master's degree in computer

enginee ring . they launched BookSwim using personal sav ings and book do nat io ns .

By April zooz, they had thei r first customer. BURDEN OF PROOF No t eve ryone was e nth us ias t ic. though . Blog gc rs said . "These guys a re trying to take over the library." Others described the idea as "ex tremely ambitious" and even "insane."

But "most libraries close at 6 p.m.... says Burke. "and not eve ryo ne lives near a librar y."

IT OUT To make su re th eir idea woul d work. Burke and Sid diqu i did so me grass-roo ts mark et research, "Anywhere we saw someone with a book . we whi pped out a que stionnaire." explains Siddiqui, who adds that they felt vindicated when "one of the firs t customers was a libr arian ." OFF THE For a fla t monthly fcc (sta rti ng at $14.99). su bsc ribe rs ca n pick fro m zc o.ooo titles on the webs ite. 111e zo-emp loycc company keeps abou t 15 percent of its inventory in a warehouse. which started out in Siddiq ui 's baseme nt. The rest of the books are ordered on demand. Most inventory comes from d is t r ibu to rs . but as vol ume increases. p ub-lish ers ar e sta rti ng to app roach the m directly. Since laun chin g BookSwim, the pair has grea tly increased

the number of books they purchase daily. and com-pany growth is more than tripling monthly.

lIZHAMBURG helpsentrepreneurslaunch new businessesas thefrur1def erd president of Upstart ventures, She can be heard on WOR radio(71OMA

in New York) olll.ollnchpnd, a v:eeklysegment focusingon entrepreneurs and small business.

72 SUlITUPS SUMMER 2008