Online Book Rental Company Continues its Growth as it Enters Acclaimed Business Incubator Program
NEWARK, NJ — BookSwim.com (http://www.bookswim.com/), America’s first and only online service that rents paperback and hardcover books (Netflix-style), has been accepted into the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s (NJIT) Enterprise Development Center (http://www.njit-edc.org). As part of this incubator program, BookSwim.com has moved their headquarters from Aberdeen, New Jersey, to NJIT’s Newark campus.
BookSwim’s acceptance into the NJIT incubator program is the result of the company’s continuing growth, as it is working to become the definitive Web service for renting books. Originally started as an idea between two book lovers, George Burke and his business partner Shamoon Siddiqui, BookSwim was founded after they realized that most people at the local bookstore wanted to stay and read books, but not necessarily purchase them. Since mailing out their first book in March of 2007, BookSwim has sent over 100,000 books.
“We are thrilled to have been accepted to this program which is completely dedicated to the growth and success of New Jersey technology start-ups like BookSwim,” said George Burke, founder and chairman of BookSwim.com. “With our new home at NJIT’s incubator, we will grow our business to reach our goals to put more books in people’s hands and to have 1,000,000 books rented through BookSwim by 2010.”
“The NJIT Enterprise Development Center gives new technology companies the opportunity to develop resources and expand their vision in an environment that aides them every step of the way,” said Jerry Creighton, Sr., executive director, NJIT Enterprise Development Center. “We are happy to have BookSwim join the program as a means to assist this growing company.”
About BookSwim.com
BookSwim (www.bookswim.com), launched in May 2007, is the first and only online paperback and hardcover book rental library club, allowing subscribers to rent books with free shipping both ways, and no due dates or late fees. The site provides book rental service nationwide, offering hardcover new releases to paperback classics, and bestsellers to children’s books. BookSwim subscription plans start at $9.95 per month and allow as many as 11 books borrowed at a time, with an option for members to purchase the books they love.
About NJIT Enterprise Development Center
Since 1988, NJIT’s Enterprise Development Center has enabled inventors to move innovative products out of the laboratory and into the marketplace. A high-tech business incubator housed in two of Newark buildings, the Center provides office and lab space, financial help, business and technical services, and the shared expertise of the center’s managers. The Center is open to for-profit enterprises, operating fewer than four years and that offer new technologies. The companies must have a business plan, and show evidence that they will be likely to benefit from the three-year tenancies available. The Center has graduated more than 75 companies.
NJIT, New Jersey’s science and technology university, at the edge in knowledge, enrolls more than 8,000 students in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in 92 degree programs offered by six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College and College of Computing Sciences. NJIT is renowned for expertise in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. In 2006, Princeton Review named NJIT among the nation’s top 25 campuses for technology and top 150 for best value. U.S. News & World Report’s 2007 Annual Guide to America’s Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities.
