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Maximilian Roos

How it started
It started primarily in the London School of Economics and St Andrews, but has since continuously expanded throughout the country to numerous universities including Bristol, Imperial College, Oxford and Royal Holloway. The aim of the website is to assist students in the UK in finding affordable university books and allowing them to generate income from their older books, all this from their own campus.

About Us
In March 2006, UniBooks.org was successful in winning the Next Generation Entrepreneurs Forum (NGEF) New Small Businesses competition in Monaco out of approximately sixty entrants. Shortly after this impressive achievement, the website also won a competition in St Andrews University for “Best Business”.

Its success stems from the fact that it provides an easy way for students to make or save money on their usually expensive university books. UniBooks.org also has partners in the listed universities which gives its service the locality it needs to access the universities’ directors, student unions, and of course the students themselves. This allows the website to adapt to the culture of each university and therefore attends to the university’s specific needs, such as reading lists for particular courses.

University Representatives:

Henry Richards, Jack Hardman Durham
Kourosh Kaghazian, Giacomo Rossi London School of Economics
Andrew Suenson-Taylor Kings College London
Sophie Bower, Selina Wickham Oxford

UniBooks in the Press

Aged only 21, Old Etonian Maximilian Roos, cousin of the Duke of Norfolk, has already created a buzz in international business circles with a website for students, Unibooks.org. "In my first year at the London School of Economics I noticed hundreds of notices posted by students wanting to trade their books, so I decided to create a website to help them,” he says. Maximilian has 17 teams of students at participating universities – which include Durham, Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge, among others – whoa re employed to promote the site and who share the revenue. Last year; Unibooks won the Next Generation Entrepreneur Forum New Small Businesses competition in Monaco, form a field of 60 entrants. What does the future hold? “I’m interested in doing something that creates value but I’m not interested in what it can buy,” he says.
"Last year UniBooks won the Next Generation Entrepreneur Forum New Small Business competition in Monaco, from a field of 60 entrants." Read More... (Evening Standard February 2007)

how it started Hangovers from hell, increasing debt, and a mountain of work are not the only tributions of student life. Maximilian Roos, consultanT/director of Unibooks. Picture courtesy of Helen Tate.Picture of Maximilian Roos reading the LCCnews magazine. Most students can relate to the feeling of pure frustration at having spent trying to find the right books for their course. Libraries, Amazon and Foyles are all good in theory but, in practice, what do you do if none of these outlets can help you in time. Sick and tired of seeing Post-it notes all over university advertising books for sale, three LSE Students - who are studying Management Sciences and Politics - Maximilian Roos, Kourosh Kaghazian and Giacomo Rossi, all 21, started up Unibooks in 2005. UniBooks is a website for the sale of new and second hand books all costing less than those in a bookshop. What is Unibooks? UniBooks' intention is students for students. Whether books are new or used, they only cost between one and two thirds of the books in a bookstore. 'Books are overpriced and finding used books is too much bother,' says Roos. 'Unibooks offers both new and used books at significantly reduced prices.' UniBooks differentiates from other websites such as EBay or Amazon in that they are university centric - they can trade with others are their own university and see all their reading lists online. This eliminates any postage and trust issues.The process is quite easy: you login with your name; course and, usually the books relevant to your course will appear automatically. Then you pay and meet up the person who sold you the book. As simple as that! Unibooks coming soon to LCC Looking for a specific book? why don't you log on to UniBooks website. Picture courtesy of Helen Tate.Picture of a library. The three students did not want to build up their business slowly and stay at LSE; their goal was to expand as quickly as possible. Keen to make Unibooks accessible to students everywhere, Roos and Co have set up the business at many other institutions. LSE, Kings College, Oxford, Cambridge, Durhan, Bristol, Royal Hollaway, Edinburgh, St.Andrews, and Kingston are just a few of the universities who have set up UniBooks at their campuses. And now LCC is set to be the next stop on the UniBooks map (in the next six months). Unibooks, accessible to students everywhere So far, Unibooks has proved to be a massive success. They are even expanding internationally now. Along with a venture in Switzerland, the company won the Next Generation Entrepreneurs Foum (NGEF) New Small Business Competition in Monaco in March this year, and are now looking to expand even more. When asked what the ultimate goal is for the company, the director Maximilian Roos simply replies: 'We want to have a successful business, we want to provide to students what they can't find anywhere else, and we want to provide it for less .'The three co-founder of Unibooks are still studying at LSE and Roos has just quit his job as a business consultant to concentrate more on UniBooks. While books are as much a necessity as watching the pennies is, we're sure that UniBooks is set to have a very successful future. The UniBooks service will be available at LCC soon. For any further information, or if you're interested with getting involved with UniBooks at LCC, please go to www.unibooks.org.
"UniBooks has proved to be a massive success...even expanding internationally now" Read More... (LCC News, 22nd November 2006)

Read More...
"leur business en ligne est déjà très juteux...Depuis l'été dernier, déjà 60,000 clics enregistrés" Read More... (Monaco & Nice Matin, March 2006)

 

 

 

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