http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dRzvju3wEE
Fresh off a moneymaking appearance on ABC’s Shark Tank, Illinois State University graduate and Packback Books co-founder Kasey Gandham ’13 spoke to students and answered alumni questions via Twitter during a campus visit April 15.
Gandham spoke and took questions (submitted using the hashtag #ISUPackback) in the State Farm Hall of Business Caterpillar Auditorium. The event was free, and alumni were encouraged to participate by watching live video streaming on STATEside.
“Through this type of event, students can see the simultaneously glorious and painful results of putting learning into action, and alumni can stay engaged and support the next generation of Redbirds who are creating an impact,” said Doan Winkel, associate director of programs at the George R. and Martha Means Center for Entrepreneurial Studies in the College of Business.
Gandham is one of the co-founders of Packback Books, a digital textbook rental company he started with then-College of Business students Mike Shannon and Nick Currier. Frustrated by the high price of college textbooks that only saw limited use, they created Packback as a new method of renting textbooks by the day, instead of by the semester, for $5 or less. Packback is now based in Chicago.
The Packback team, which now includes fellow Redbirds Jessica Tenuta and Kim Boehm, won an Illinois State entrepreneurship contest in 2011 before attracting the attention of big-time investors and publishers. Gandham and Shannon appeared on the March 21 episode of ABC’s Shark Tank, where they secured a $250,000 investment from billionaire Mark Cuban in exchange for a 20 percent stake in the company.
During his April 15 visit, Gandham talked about his journey from Illinois State student to founder of his own company, his Shark Tank experience, and Cuban.
