Go to: ScholarBuys in the News
Our Mission Statement
To be the most innovative marketer of discounts made available to the academic community by technology publishers and solution providers.
Our Story
- Founded in fall 2007 by Matt Ryan and Bob Smith in Matt’s basement
- Both were experienced executives within the industry
- Initial investment recouped within 6 weeks of operation
- We have taken advantage of the opportunity the great recession presented us with. (Inexpensive Office Space, Inexpensive Office Furniture and the availability of talented coworkers)
Our Founders
Our Strategy
- Run a very lean operation, incorporate innovative strategies, and focus on building long term relationships.
Our Market
- K12 & Higher Education Institutions
- K12 & Higher Education Student/Educators
What we sell
- Software Licensing (Microsoft, Adobe, Security Software + More)
- Software Boxed Products (Student and Educator Software for personal use)
- Small Hardware Items (Printers, Projectors, Calculators)
- Peripherals (Keyboards, Mice, Graphic Tablets)
What makes us different?
Our focus on group and aggregate purchasing programs
- Consortia agreements create economies of scale
- Partnering with a consortium allows us to market into multiple schools at one time
- Publishers are interested in working with us because of our consortia expertise
Our focus on social media
- Twitter: Every coworker manages their own Twitter account to communicate with our customer base
- LinkedIn: Every coworker has a LinkedIn profile, it provides their skillset to customers, vendors and partners
- Facebook: We encourage the use of Facebook at work. We communicate through Facebook groups. We also monitor the Facebook fan pages for all our brands and communicate with our customer base that way.
Multi-branded
- ScholarBuys – Our flagship brand that targets academic institutions
- VarsityBuys.com – Targets students and educator personal purchases via eCommerce
- Softsquatch.com – Our blog that focuses on product reviews, tips and fun
Company Culture
- We encourage a fun and competitive environment
- Casual dress
- Coworkers are encouraged to add personality to their work area. Who wants to stare at blank cubicle walls all day?
- A Sales Championship belt is given to the top sales rep for the month
- We have a “Hit List” displayed in our office listing our competitor’s top customers.
- We have large bell we ring for the whole office to hear when a big sale is made
- Oh…and how could we forget!? We have a Sasquatch suit