A t the end of the year with a frenzy of papers and finals, moving out and storing winter clothes, furniture and electronic equipment is often the last thing students want to think about. Pratt senior Arnaud Karsenti experienced this problem, and decided to turn a final class project into a solution: Dukeboxes.com.
Now in its second year, Dukeboxes.com is expanding, and Karsenti has spread his business to nine other college campuses around the country.
"I saw that during move-in and move-out there was a big problem, and I thought that a student run organization that actually knew the dorms, knew the students and knew the campus would be best fit [to solve this problem]."
With the help of former co-partner, Pratt senior Geoff Habicht, he launched Dukeboxes.com web site last year and began advertising on East Campus. While they initially hoped for 50 customers, they surprised themselves in serving 174 students-and turning others away. The business earned $35,000 in its first year.
Karsenti attributes this success to the fact that as a student, he could better serve other students.
"I don't see us a storage business, I see us as a service business," Karsenti said. "We try to make it as easy as possible."
Despite the initial success, Karsenti faced resistance in his endeavor. At that time, the main storage option for Duke students was Collegiate Student Storage, a national company. When Dukeboxes.com began advertising, Collegiate Student Storage put up fliers with slogans such as "Don't get fast talked by Dukeboxes."
"Our response was an ad that said, 'We charge $35 per box; they charge $63 per box,'" said Karsenti said, who believes their plan to undermine his business actually backfired. "They criticized the fact that we were students, but they forgot that their target market was students."
Collegiate Student Storage refused to comment on their advertising feud with Dukeboxes.com, and the company is not providing service to Duke this year.
Many of the students who used Dukeboxes.com last year agreed that the door-to-door service and lower prices attracted them to the company.
"I went abroad first semester, and they held my boxes while I was away, and then they delivered them to my new dorm room the day I got back and contacted them," said Trinity junior Rachel Chait. "I really liked that they picked up your boxes and dropped them off. That cut out the hassle of driving all my stuff to a storage place."
Many students echoed Chait's positive experience with Dukeboxes.com, although some students complained of late pick-up and delivery and were not confident about how their boxes were handled.
"They were consistently late with pick-up and return, and when returning my boxes, they forgot one of them and I had to wait again," said Trinity sophomore Natalie Kernisant.
Sophomore Aaron Martin, who worked for Dukeboxes.com last year and currently serves as campus manager, has worked with Karsenti during the past year to address those complaints.
"Last year was somewhat of a test run," Martin said. "For a first-year operation, it went surprisingly well."
With their new web site and improved insight into the business world, Dukeboxes.com has expanded to West Campus this year, and also provides students with a shipping service. And while Martin runs the business on campus, Karsenti has expanded the company into Collegeboxes.com, which has colonized nine campuses around the country.
This June, Collegeboxes.com will acquire a storage company at Northwestern University.
In the next two years, Karsenti hopes to bring Collegeboxes.com to 150 campuses, and he plans to broaden the company to include an online student auction, apartment finder and food delivery service. This summer, Karsenti is getting investors and has the goal of raising a million dollars to make this possible.
In the mean time, Karsenti and Martin are both putting in long hours to make sure their second year in business is a success.
"It's definitely tough to run a business and go to school at the same time, as well as trying to keep up with a long distance girlfriend," Martin said. "It's important to be meticulous with my organization and coordination of the business on all fronts, from organizing the people working for me to making sure I did my econ problem set."
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