1. Name: Tom Jaklitsch
2. Major, Year: computer engineering and computer science, sophomore
3. Hometown: Douglaston, NY
4. Affiliated with: negotiatus.com – I’m a founder of the company and the CTO.
5. Negotiatus is…an ecommerce website that negotiates on your behalf to get you the price you want for literally any item on the web.
6. I started working with Negotiatus….this past summer (about 10 months ago). Since then, we’ve blown past $50 thousand in revenue and have saved our users thousands of dollars.
7. Why we think it will benefit the Hopkins community…Two reasons. First, Negotiatus saves you a ton of money off any transaction you make online – we average almost 20% savings! It’s a really easy way to save a ton of cash. Second, we are looking to hire Hopkins students as interns, so if you want a job shoot an email over to hello@negotiatus.com.
8. You can probably find me…Walking around campus on my phone unsuccessfully trying to keep up with emails.
9. The best thing about Hopkins is…definitely the student body. It’s crazy how helpful some students have been in getting my company off the ground.
10. Something I’m especially proud of is…How far Negotiatus has come in the past 10 months. We progressed from a very basic website and essentially a concept into a working startup.
11. Something most people don’t know about me is…I love playing guitar- it really helps me unwind and focus.
12. This year, I hope to…Pass half a million in revenue, and hopefully secure venture funding.
13. In five years, I will be…Running my company full-time!
14. Next up for me is…A lot of exciting stuff! We are soon opening up a lifestyle blog and a marketplace, and will be making big pushes with marketing. Basically we are going to be working on a lot of different avenues to get the word out there.
15. What everyone should know about Negotiatus is…Negotiatus makes money by charging only 15% of what we save our users, so it is completely risk free to use since we don’t make money unless we save you money! We’re looking to change the industry by putting the buying power back in the hands of the consumer. Remember, EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE.