The first week on campus can be a dizzying experience for incoming students, from the relentless sign-up sheets for various clubs to the frenetic pace of welcome events.
Three SFU students have engineered an innovative business that aims to make for an easier transition to university life, and for many students, life away from home for the first time.
Started by SFU students Erik Sagmoen, Cyrus Wong, and Jeffrey Wu, CampusPack aims to provide a low-cost alternative to students for basic housewares by offering packages with a predetermined set of items.
Wong explained the logic behind this business model: “By simplifying it down to the necessities, we can avoid charging a higher cost to the students while conveniently providing them this service.
Currently on offer are a 32-piece KitchenPack that includes items such as cutlery, plates, and cookware, and a five-piece BedPack that includes bedding essentials. Said Wong, “Our sets are built primarily on the thinking of, ‘what exactly will students need once they arrive on campus?’”
The inspiration behind CampusPack came from a desire to help out students. “All of us are involved at SFU through student organizations, and we wanted to go one step further to help students save money and time while getting value for the products they buy,” Wong said. “We decided to do this together because we have similar interests in entrepreneurship and to help improve student life.”
The business launched last July, and this will be its first year welcoming incoming students on SFU and UBC campuses. Currently, products are offered through an e-commerce store and through pop-up stores on university campuses.
Wong described some of the challenges of “bootstrapping” a business — that is, funding it by oneself with the profits. “The hardest thing was starting our company with our minuscule amounts of capital, which was used to order our products from manufacturers,” he said.
“Every step we took was restricted by how much we could spend, so it really taught us how to properly budget while strategically planning for the future.”
In Wong’s opinion another major problem is competition from “big-box retailers” such as Bed Bath and Beyond and Home Hardware. He explained that because universities receive profit sharing from these retailers, “they are more inclined to work with [them] despite their prices being overly expensive.”
CampusPack has been developed by utilizing input from students. Wong elaborated, “To determine the items in the kitchen set, we conducted a survey asking students what they considered to be most important. We took this information and directly shaped our kitchen set around it.”
Sagmoen, Wong, and Wu hope to use data from a survey from current users to determine what items will be included in the next set. Wong remarked that, so far, the feedback has been positive. He noted, “Many people like our BedPacks because of its high quality build and its simple designs.”
The entrepreneurs behind CampusPack hope to expand and upgrade their product line for next year, in addition to creating a system whereby products can be easily moved from the storage space where they assemble the packs to universities.
The three students want to maintain a simplicity-centered approach to Campus Pack. Said Wong, “We would like to maintain the CampusPack model because, essentially, helping students is our priority.”
