Every girl (and guy) loves receiving presents during the semester, whether it is before midterms or finals, a birthday, anniversary, Thanksgiving, Homecoming or just because! Boy, do I have great news for UNH Her Campus readers. A brand new gift giving service located right in downtown Portsmouth has opened up for UNH students by UNH students. The company name is Regaalo and get used to hearing it because this company is going to be HUGE! Boyfriends, parents, and friends no longer have to fret about presents it is as easy as a click of the mouse.
I had a chance to sit down and chat with Gretchen Eastman (a former UNH alum!), an employee at Regaalo, who has been there since the start of the company. Here is the story of REGAALO!
How did Regaalo get started? Who started it?
Regaalo started as a project for the annual Holloway Prize competition held at UNH’s Whittemore School of Business and Economics. Our team came in second out of 45 entries. Prior to the competition, the idea attracted the attention of Mark Galvin, managing director of the N.H. Innovation Commercialization Center, who invited the group to become a resident startup company at the center’s Pease Tradeport location and hired additional interns to assist in the competition.
How did you become involved with Regaalo?
I was brought on through the NH-ICC as a Marketing Communications intern in February 2011 to help with developing the brand, website and the business plan as a whole. Five other interns were brought in as well. Nick Blanchette Sales Intern, Christine Dinisi Marketing Analyst Intern, Megan Callaghan Marketing Communications Intern, Matthew Robinson Web Developer Intern and Jessica Streitmater Product Manager.
What services does Regaalo provide?
Regaalo is designed to make gift-giving simple for families and their far-away students. We connect merchants, parents and students in a shopping-giving-receiving triangle that supports the local economy, eliminates shipping costs and provides targeted, useful gifts.
Currently, we only provide this gift giving service to the families who have students away at UNH. On our site, these family members can browse gifts from local Durham, Dover, Newmarket and Portsmouth merchants. These gifts include actual items such as a large pizza, flower arrangement, or birthday cake as well as gift cards available in several values. The family member then selects a gift to send to their student and can include a personalized message. The actual gift notification is sent to the student’s cell phone via text message and to their email. All the student needs to do to pick up their gift is go to the designated merchant and present the email or text message with the voucher code.
How did you select the companies to work with?
We try to focus on merchants in the immediate area surrounding UNH that are popular among the students. Durham was our first area of focus followed by Newmarket and Dover. We also wanted to make sure we were getting involved with merchants that would appeal to family members looking to buy gifts for their student(s).
Are you adding more?
Initially, merchant recruitment was a big focus so that we were able launched with an appealing shopping page. We now have about 21 merchants and have cut back slightly on recruitment. We have a lot of food items in the shopping section and are currently looking to expand into activities that parents would be looking to purchase for their students. Our newest merchant is the Coppal House Farm with their 6.5-acre Corn Maze. We are also looking to expand into Portsmouth. Dos Amigos and Jumpin’ Jay’s Fish Café are two of our first Portsmouth merchants!
What was it like going from an internship at the company to a job?
There are definitely more responsibilities. As an intern, you are being tested in a way. I guess you could say that we passed by being hired on full time. In the beginning of my employment we continued a lot of the work that we did as interns but with more additional areas of responsibility.
How does it feel to still be involved with the UNH community post graduation?
I have to say that prior to getting involved with Regaalo full-time, I did not think that I would be back on campus much after graduation. Over the summer we worked very closely with Durham merchants and found it enjoyable because I got to meet the owners and managers of places in Durham that I’ve grown to love over the past 4 years. My “inside” knowledge of these merchants and their product/service offerings allowed me to successfully create offers for regaalo.com.
This sounds like an amazing opportunity to me! Be sure to sign up for your own account so you can start receiving gifts today! It is a simple process that takes only a couple of minutes. And if you don’t sign up, you’re seriously missing out! www.regaalo.com
Photos: www.regaalo.com