On September 7th, 2011 The Columbus Dispatch ran an article about Frewg, an online website that allows college students to rent text books for up to 60 to 70% less than official college bookstores do. The man behind the idea has local roots – Frewg was created by David Comisford, an alumnus of Capi- tal University.
Comis- ford majored in Leadership and Management with a minor in Philosophy. He started a book-rental business from his dorm room and has eventually he turned it into a full-fledged business.
Comisford and Frewg now serve students across the nation with book rental opportunities and it serves students locally with its book buyback policy.
“The rental model ensures you don’t get stuck with a book you can’t sell back at the end of the semester and makes it easier for you to get textbooks – you know exactly how much you’re paying and it’s all up front,” Comisford said. With Frewg, unlike most bookstores, if a student ends up wanting to keep a textbook after renting it, they have the option to turn their rental into a purchase.
“If you decide you want to keep the book, you get credit for what you already paid for the rental and you just pay the difference,” Comisford said. Frewg offers two-day shipping on most orders and has more than one million titles to choose from.
A Capital Alumnus also started Drink Up Columbus, a magazine used to promote local bars, bartenders and drink-tasting events in and around Columbus. Cheryl Harrison, who edits the magazine, graduated in 2009. During her years at Capital, she majored in Public Relations and minors in Jour- nalism and Political Science.
“We saw that, though Columbus’s local media is rich with life- style publications, there was no single source to find out when the next beer festival was or what the best bars to find a certain special something were,” Harrison said. This provided the perfect niche for Drink Up Columbus.
Both Comisford and Harrison had advice to offer to current Capital students about how to succeed in the business world. Comisford said that good timing and willingness to live without a safety net are crucial factors. He also discussed the importance of being likable to other people.
“If people don’t like you they probably won’t invest in your company or make good employees at early stages of business development,” he said.
Harrison recommended that students begin to build their network while in college.
“Drink Up Columbus was able to get a lot of our startup costs for free by asking people I had built relationships with starting in college,” she said.
