Jocelyn Gailliot, Madeline Moore, and September Rinnier, founders of Uscoop Inc., set out in January 2011 to track campus trends and offer deals that promote such styles to their college members. Madeline Moore tells Knot about the inspiration behind Uscoop.

How would you describe Uscoop?
 

Uscoop is a private college lifestyle and flash deal website for student-members to buy vouchers at a discount for select online brands. The deals are inspired by undergrad and grad dorm room and style photos featured in the core editorial sections of the website, Campus Cribs and Campus Style Watch.

What was the inspiration for founding the company?

After we graduated from UPenn in 2009, we recognized a void in the market for a website that targeted our age group, the 18-24 yr olds. We had different lifestyle needs than those in their late 20s and early 30s and were on tighter budgets, but still got creative with our small living spaces and dressed stylishly. We had always enjoyed looking at out friends’ pictures to see what life was like on other campuses. What were they wearing? What were their dorm rooms like? What went on during their Spring Weekends? These are all things that we look to highlight on Uscoop in addition to creating buying opportunities for students to get the looks they like.

What makes Uscoop unique?

As a deals site, it sticks out because our deals are not only relevant to the college lifestyle but are also inspired by the Campus Crib and Style Watch pictures that students love to spend time perusing. We’ve been able to feature exclusive deals with premium brands that rarely discount their product because they are excited to associate their brands with the design and creativity that goes into each of one of features, from the photographs and emails to the editorials. We’ve found that the students regularly visit the site because they’re excited when they recognize their friends, are listening to the playlist, and continue to discover new features like our blog, top five, and what’s hot lists.

Where do you see the company going?

We want to have campus reps on colleges all across the country, feeding photos and content to represent their campus style, dorm life, and traditions. Eventually we will roll out individual “What’s Up” pages for each University we have Uscoop interns on, feeding photos and articles for their unique “Campus Style Watch” and “Campus Cribs” as well as “Movers and Shakers” sections. But, we’ll always have a Uscoop Nation section to summarize what’s happening across campuses. With the photos and articles, we see Uscoop also becoming a place where students can buy entire looks on our site, the items for sale all dictated by what undergrads their own age wearing and filling their rooms with. Down the line, this “Get the Look” approach can be applied to all different age brackets, street style photos and home living profiles always covering real people and not celebrities. It’s a much more approachable form of marketing, taking advice from your peers (instead of stylists) who just have a good eye and know how to put things together.

To see what the team's been up to, sign up for Uscoop here!

Uscoop Sign-in Page

Sample Deal

Example of "Campus Cribs" at Dartmouth

Examples of "Style Watch" across the Nation

Founders Maddy, September, and Jocelyn