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Entrepreneur: Apple Computer’s iPods are everywhere these days, and they’re hungry. Just ask Catherine Keane, 24, who started her business, HungryPod, shortly after an acquaintance offered her $500 to load his CD collection onto his iPod. Keane took the offer and determined that with two more customers paying similar prices, she could launch a business for $1,500–enough to buy a computer that could handle large volumes of data transfer.
Loosely based on what its first client paid, HungryPod charges $1.75 per CD for the first 50 CDs, and $1.50 for each additional CD. Keane will pick up both the CDs and iPods at her clients’ homes or offices in Manhattan for an extra $15–unless they have more than 100 discs, in which case pickup is free.
Keane, who interned at a top 40 radio station in Florida prior to starting HungryPod, also recommends music to clients based on their collections for a fee. According to Keane, 1 in 4 customers requests this service.
Thanks in part to a small story in The New York Times, Keane’s advertising efforts on Craigslist and word-of-mouth, HungryPod has expanded to three employees and four computers, and expects 2005 sales to reach $100,000. Now others want to get involved, so Keane has hired a marketing/sales employee and hopes to start HungryPod centers nationwide in the near future.
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