From Michael Rihani, Chief Strategy Officer at Koofers, a VT KnowledgeWorks alumni member company:
Koofers just launched "Weekly Campus Deals" in Blacksburg, Virginia. In short, we work with local vendors and create 50-90% off deals for everyone in town!
Every week the deal is live and available for purchase for 7 days (Monday to Monday).
After you buy the deal, Koofers will email you your deal voucher that you can either print or use your smartphone to redeem with the vendor. Most vouchers expire ~6 months after buying. That's it!
Our first deal was $20 worth of food/drinks at 622 North for only $10 (so, 50% off).
Our deal this week is with Crab Creek, $30 worth of food and non-alcoholic drinks for only $15.
We'll have a new deal up every Monday morning.
Koofers.com started out as a simple "level the playing field" idea out of my Virginia Tech dorm room just a few years ago while I was a student at Tech. Koofers (a Blacksburg created term and tradition) has branched out to by the one-stop shop for everything in college: Planning (Professor Ratings, Grade Histories, Schedule Maker), Studying (Past Exams, Study Guides, Flashcards), and now our Live section (50-90% off weekly Blacksburg deals).
Excerpts from the press release:
LivingSocial and Koofers Team Up to Introduce “Campus Deals” - From Bars to Bookstores, College Students Across Ten Campuses Will Receive Up to 90% off on Local Attractions and Hotspots
Washington D.C., October 26, 2010 – Leading social shopping site LivingSocial, and Koofers, the social learning company that helps college students study smarter, unveiled the first milestone of their partnership to bring Campus Deals to ten universities across the nation.
The new program gives participating college students deeply discounted offers on area restaurants, shops, activities andservices. Students at Virginia Tech, University of Maryland, Cal Berkeley, Penn State, Ohio State, University of Nebraska, University of Washington, Ball State University, University of Central Florida andTexas A&M will be the first adopters.
“Koofers is focused on making college life easier for students in all aspects of their college lives,” said Gio Hunt, CEO, Koofers. ”Since LivingSocial is the premiere social shopping site, partnering seemed natural. Our campus reps will be able to help spread the word about our Campus Deals program bytelling their peers about the great merchants in their community and the benefits we have to offer.”
“College was really fun, but I remember always being broke and never having the money to reallyexplore my neighborhood and try new things,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO of LivingSocial. “By teaming up with Koofers, we’re now able to bring Deals to college campuses in some really great towns, sostudents can explore their city, meet new people and save money on doing the things that they love to do.”
College students get access to Campus Deals by signing up online. Each week, Campus Deal users receive one deeply discounted deal to use at local businesses. The Campus Deal can be purchased online in exchange for a voucher and a unique link to share on email, Facebook or Twitter. If three friends buy the deal using that link, the deal is free. Koofers’ campus reps will help facilitate the roll out across the ten college campuses.With Koofers’ broad reach across universities and LivingSocial’s ability to deliver valuable offers on alarge scale, college students can now find the best deals on local merchants by using Campus Deals.
Now serving more than 10 million subscribers across the US, Canada, UK, and Dublin Ireland in more than 100 markets, this is the second time LivingSocial is branching out to a vertical market, having launched its LivingSocial Family Edition in select locations in September. With dedicated area experts on the ground in every market, constantly researching the best in local attractions, LivingSocial is able to provide discounts of up to 50-70% off the best each city has to offer.
About LivingSocial
LivingSocial is the commerce leader behind LivingSocial Deals, a social buying program that invites people and their friends to save up to 50% to 70% percent each day at their favorite restaurants, spas, sporting events, hotels and other local attractions in major markets. LivingSocial has an extensive subscriber base of 10 million, and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. To sign up for Deals in your market, or to find out more information about LivingSocial, visit www.livingsocial.com.
About Koofers, Inc.
Koofers, Inc. is a social learning company transforming higher education through student-driven, intercollegiate collaboration. Founded in 2008, Koofers empowers students to help each other learn byproviding open and free access to: course materials, class and professor ratings, Q&A, study aids andmore. For additional information visit www.koofers.com.
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