Yalies' new business brings New Haven online

Want to order Chinese food, but your Main Garden menu is stained with soy sauce? Wish you knew which bands were coming to New Haven? Looking for a good bargain on quality beer? Three Silliman sophomores are combatting such dilemmas with their new online guide to shopping, dining, and living in New Haven, the-ecity.

Andy Fisher, SM '00, Tom Martinez, SM '00, and Guy Penini, SM '00, devised the idea of the-ecity guide last February as freshmen. "We saw a potential business opportunity, but we also saw the chance to provide a valuable resource for the Yale community," Martinez explained. By May, the young entrepreneurs had registered their business with the State of Connecticut and had purchased an online domain name.

The site came to life over the summer. Penini constructed the skeleton for the website while working in Boston for a Japanese information publisher. Meanwhile, Fisher, who was home in Storrs, Conn., and Martinez, working in Kenosha, Wis., monitored Penini's progress over the Internet, and provided him with daily feedback.

"The advantage of a web-based business is that we were able to work on it from three different locations over the summer," Fisher said.

When the trio reunited in late August, they were equipped with new skills from their summer jobs that they could apply to their growing business. While Penini learned more about the technical aspects of web page design, Fisher and Martinez each gained practical marketing experience from managing student-run paint companies.

Since coming back to Yale, the-ecity partners have been absorbed by the enormous tasks of continuously updating the site and soliciting New Haven businesses to post advertisements, price-lists, or coupons. Fisher says that businesses have been very receptive. "People seem very excited to put an ad in something that's not going to disappear in a day," he said.

In fact, Naples Pizzeria, Oddbins, Quizno's, and Humphrey's East have all signed on with the-ecity, offering printable coupons refundable at their respective stores.

Fisher, Martinez, and Penini believe that students will also be enthusiastic about the new site. The sophomores claim that their service is more comprehensive than the University's current hard- copy guide to Yale and New Haven, The Yale. Unlike The Yale, they say, the-ecity will provide an "ever-expanding coupon library," restaurant critiques and menus, weather forecasts, and up-to-date concert and movie listings for the New Haven region.

The group also expects students to benefit from a free classifieds section and an online textbook exchange. "We're here to offer the best deals for college students who don't have a lot of money," Penini explained.

With all of these services online, the three believe that their business will boom once students eventually become familiar with it. "We know what we have and how good it is going to be," Martinez said. "We're just trying to convey that to the public."

Maintaining such an ambitious enterprise occupies all of the partners' spare time. The three continue to improve the site's content and expand its services daily . "Right now we can conceivably do everything," Fisher said.

But as the workload increases, the three know that other Yalies may eventually be needed to keep the project up-to-date with the ever-changing Elm City. Yet they are more than willing to welcome other students to participate. "It's a growing business and a growing business needs helping hands," Penini said.

To check out the-ecity, go to http://www.the-ecity.com.

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