Article By: Alex Pearlman
Jared Orkin loves what he does. In a time when college graduates have trouble getting jobs as waiters, Orkin has slipped through the cracks and has done the impossible: created a lucrative website in a down economy.
The 21-year-old Newton native started Coupme.com in July and has seen it only grow ever since.
“This came about because I’m always looking for fun things to do… at a really inexpensive price where people can actually go and enjoy them,” said Orkin. “That’s awesome to me – enjoying something really fun at a price everyone can afford. And that’s the whole goal of the website. A new deal every day, something exciting to do in the city.”
Coupme.com lists a new coupon every 24 hours for every kind of business from restaurants to hotels to indoor skydiving centers. The site and the business the coupon is for share in the profits of the sale.
For example, as this issue is going to print, Coupme.com has a coupon for a 60 percent discount on $25 worth of dry cleaning at Sarni Dry Cleaners, which has a number of locations around downtown Boston.
“It makes your life more fun, for less,” said Orkin. “We get businesses known through our website. And it attracts thousands and thousands of consumers through that.”
The idea for the site came to Orkin last summer as he was working as a construction recruiter. He realized that he was bored, but that he was good at talking on the phone, negotiating, and finding good deals. So Coupme.com was born and currently has between 5,000 and 6,000 visitors a day searching for the hottest deals on both fun activities and life necessities in the downtown vicinity. (Coupme.com currently only applies to businesses within five miles of downtown Boston.)
From day one, Coupme.com has virtually been a one-man operation, with Orkin at the helm. While the website has had designers and developers , the business itself has been totally managed by Orkin. “I’ve been getting all the deals myself, all the accounts are mine, and I recently took on a major investment deal, which will help me gain more employees, but we’re doing very well and we can only go up from here,” he said.
But the site doesn’t stop at making money for its founder. Every month, Coupme.com picks a different charity to share 5 percent of its profits with. November’s profits are going to the Asperger’s Association of New England (AANE)
“They have a certain vision like other charities do, but their’s just hit us harder because of the kids dealing with disabilities there,” said Orkin, explaining why he chose that charity in particular. As a big brother in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program with a disabled little brother, Orkin felt particularly moved by the children at the AANE. “It brings you home. What hits you in the heart is what you see there, what you want to contribute to.”
The site itself mostly caters to college students, the majority of customers being Suffolk students, which Orkin attributes to the fact that he attends Suffolk. However, his analysis of the demographics of his customers show that most are women and that Coupme.com isn’t strictly for the under-30 crowd: he cites Harvard professors and lawyers from big firms among people who have memberships with his site.
A senior management major and past MVP of the Suffolk men’s tennis team, Orkin can now add CEO to his list of accomplishments. Upcoming plans include a deal with the Boston Metro which includes a new Coupme.com deal for every day in December, a big-scale advertizing push on taxis, in addition to Facebook ads, and expansion to Los Angeles, New York, and Florida with “many more to come.”
So how does a student who commutes an hour to the city every day, plays a Division III sport, runs a business and is set to graduate in four years stay afloat of it all?
“I always say, ‘love what you do.’ Because if you’re not loving what you’re doing, you’re wasting your time.”
