Today we’d like to introduce you to Larry Rubin.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Larry. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I graduated Umass Amherst in 1996. My junior year an off-campus meal plan opened, basically a meal plan to be used at local restaurants opposed to the dining hall. The next year I graduated and after spending the summer working for the Olympic Committee in Atlanta for the Olympics I came back to zero job prospects. At this time a fraternity brother and I decided to start an off-campus meal plan in the Boston area. We were able to secure a $25,000 loan and started the process of starting the new business. It was called Swipe It Meal Plan and we catered to Boston College students. We then expanded out to BU, Northeastern and many of the smaller Fenway colleges and universities.
At this same time, we also did some consulting for another group of Umass graduates who were taking the same idea to College Park to market to the University of Maryland. After a year had gone by my original business partner was ready to move on, he didn’t quite grasp the fact that it takes time to build a business. I took over control of the company but found out very soon that it was too much work for one person. I reached out to the group I had done consulting for to see if they would like to merge companies.
We worked out the details and quickly expanded to Ithaca NY to service Cornell and Ithaca College and then to Greenville, NC to service East Carolina University. We may have expanded too fast because after another few years our debt had skyrocketed to about quarter of a million dollars. This was too much for the new partners and they wanted out. I still believed in the company and at this point, we had changed the name of the off-campus meal plan to University Meal Deal and started to transition the existing Swipe It Meal Card into a gift card company. We had University Meal Deal servicing college students and Swipe It Technology was being developed to cater to small businesses looking to have their own gift card program.
This was before gift cards were popular so our sales force had the challenge of first educating the consumer and then selling them on the concept. I assumed the total debt of the company and the 2 partners I merged with left the company. I however knew that I could not do this alone so I promoted our head salesman to co-owner/VP by offering salary and stock in the company. We were going ahead full throttle with both the off-campus meal plan and the gift card offerings. The best thing to happen for us was the marketing that the large stores and restaurants were doing with gift cards. Starbucks, Home Depot and even McDonald lead the way giving us the “proof of concept” that the small mom and pops needed.
A few years later we ended up closing down the college program and concentrating fully on building the Swipeit.com business. We started offering custom design for both the carriers and gift cards, started offering custom reward programs and recently became an online gift card fulfillment house. We are now in our 19th year in business and have over 5000 clients across the country. From the best fine dining in Boston to the #1 steakhouse in Atlanta to the most popular cupcake shop in Chicago, we work with all types of businesses. We are getting ready for the upcoming holiday season where we will activate millions of dollars on gift cards.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Yes and no. I have gone thru 3 business partners and at one time the company was in debt to the tunes of $250,000. We are a small company competing with much larger institutions. The struggles are real but we love what we do and we are good at it. We are now a debt-free company and enjoying some great partnerships to help us grow.
Please tell us about Swipeit.com.
We are the best gift card company because we love what we do and care about our merchant partners. Our pricing is great but our customer service is what makes us stand out. Because we chose the niche of dealing with mom and pop businesses we need to get more involved in the process because the clients we are dealing with need a little bit more help. The small business owner is running around with their head cut off, they are juggling multiple jobs so if we can take one task off their hands then they can concentrate on their core business and we can help get the gift card program set up and helping increase revenue.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Nothing. The things I did wrong were a learning experience. I didn’t have the luxury of time to get an MBA so for the past 19 years my classroom has been building this company. Every failure is teaching moment. Makes us work harder and be smarter. The only thing I would change would be putting more emphasis on organization.
Contact Info:
- Address: 4 Lawndale Rd., Mansfield MA 02048
- Website: www.swipeit.com
- Phone: 508-452-7600
- Email: larry@swipeit.com
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