Class Note 1988
Well, the frenzy of the holiday season is nearing its peak as I write, but I wanted to take some time out to update you all on some interesting businesses founded by some of our classmates. First, Chris Armacost’s new venture in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, called Waku Waku Photostickers, was inspired by his time in Japan as a marketing executive for General Mills. The shop, which opened in September, features Japanese photosticker machines, and allows users to take photos and customize them with stamps, patterns, doodles, frames, messages and colorful stickers. The photo booths are spacious enough for parties, and are often equipped with moveable seats and monkey bars.
Next, is Dave Girouard’s startup, Upstart, a crowd-funding platform that enables soon-to-be and recent college graduates to raise capital in exchange for a small share of their future income. Before founding Upstart Dave spent eight years as president of Google Enterprise, building Google’s billion-dollar cloud apps business worldwide. Dave and Upstart were profiled in U.S. News & World Report’s Economic Intelligence blog on November 13, 2013.
Julie Pelkan Glusker and her husband, D.J., started Aptitude Academics in Park City, Utah, six years ago. Since then, they have been growing rapidly and are opening another office in Salt Lake City in 2014. They offer a wide array of academic services targeted to individuals from sixth grade through post-college. They employ 16 instructors and service several hundred students annually, with many elite winter sports athletes among their clients. According to Julie, she and D.J. “have fun working together as a couple! He is the math-science mind and I the English-writing mind—and this translates into how we operate the business as well.”
Next, we have ReserveBar.com, a business founded by Lindsay Held and Jeff Carton. The two had encountered difficulties sending premium vodka to a college friend across the country, and decided to start their company to fill this unmet need. ReserveBar.com facilitates the sending of spirits, wine and champagne via an easy-to-use ordering system and offers upscale packaging and fast and reliable delivery. Lindsay and ReserveBar.com teamed up to put on a scotch tasting for N.Y.C. area Dartmouth alums in November. There are some great photos in the class of ’88 Facebook group.
Sarah Hoit’s experience with the challenges of caring for an aging grandparent and her desire to make a social impact motivated her to launch Connected Living in 2007. More than 20,000 seniors, with the number growing monthly, use Connected Living to remain in touch with their loved ones via the Internet. Taylor Thomas recently caught up with Sarah over breakfast and reports that, despite the business’s rapid growth and the demands of motherhood, Sarah seems to have it all under control. Check out the website at www.connectedliving.com.
Now, this does not exactly fit the column’s theme, unless we change it to meals with Taylor, but Taylor also recently caught up with Rob Hess for a meal via Skype, Saturday dinner for Taylor and Sunday breakfast in Bangalore for Rob. Rob relocated to Bangalore this summer as CFO of Fidelity India. He and his family are adjusting to a very different way of life, and Rob has many stories to tell. Leaving aside some of the more profound cultural and economic differences, Taylor was amused to hear that most of the trucks and buses on the crowded streets have signs on the back that say “please honk,” making for a cacophonous daily commute to the office. Rob maintains a blog about his experience, namastemeanshello.tumblr.com.
We’d love to hear from other entrepreneurs out there, so please get in touch to tell us about your business too!
—Jere Mancini, 34 Wearimus Road, HoHoKus, NJ 07423; d88correspondent@gmail.com
