It's a Jungle Out There
Web-savvy shoppers are always on the hunt for a great deal. Thanks to two Carnegie Mellon alums and their new site, JungleCents.com, consumers can score a bargain every week.
'Social-buying' websites have been exploding in popularity in recent months. Most, like Groupon and LivingSocial, focus on local, niche markets and provide price reductions on specific products and services.
In launching JungleCents, Sameer Mehta (HS'09) and Nadir Hyder (E'09) are offering customers something special — deeply discounted gift cards to use any way they please at a variety of national merchants.
They've already caught the eye of billionaire investor Mark Cuban, who recently contributed seed financing to the fledgling business.
"Mark Cuban is a great value-added investor who has opened many doors for us in terms of reach and the type of deals we have," Mehta noted.
Mehta and Hyder, Phi Kappa Theta frat brothers, began honing their entrepreneurial skills while still in school. As juniors, they created Lush Entertainment, an event-planning startup, and began developing JungleCents during their senior year.
"I think our first company helped us increase our entrepreneurial knack, which led us to JungleCents in our senior year," said Mehta. "I am grateful that CMU encouraged our work on Lush Entertainment. It really helped us grow as entrepreneurs while we were still at school."
The combination of Mehta's business development skill and Hyder's web design and technical talent was apparently tailor-made for a business partnership.
Mehta's time in an entrepreneurship class taught by CMU's Robert Culbertson also led to a valued relationship.
"Professor Culbertson mentored us in starting this company," he explained. "He even took us to an investor meeting where we had our first opportunity to pitch to important people. We were just inspired."
JungleCents has already sold out many big-brand deals and boasts a potential customer list of more than 100,000.
With Cuban's investment, they're looking to expand their marketing efforts and bring on four more employees. They've already got one CMU grad, Haider Mirza (HS'10), on the roster of four and would be thrilled to add more.
"We are looking for programmers and business development/sales folks, so any interested CMU students should reach out to us through our site," said Mehta.
Related Links: JungleCents.com | College of Humanities & Social Sciences | College of Engineering