Rip Van Wafels: Brown Grad Makes Entrepreneurship Sweet
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
It all began with Abhishek Pruisken missing home. In Amsterdam.
The Brown student in applied mathematics and economics was yearning for the tastes of his native Netherlands, and when his family began shipping stroopwafels to him, the young Dutchman found himself a popular kid in the dorm.
"People would fight over getting one," Pruisken said, remembering battles over the sweet, crispy waffle-cookies that are as common in his homeland as chocolate chip cookies in the USA.
Thinking out of the (cookie) box
And that's when he got the idea. "Junior year I started thinking out of the box," Pruisken says. "I'd done an internship at a consulting firm, and I was questioning what I wanted to do in life. Entrepreneurship was very appealing, and I
thought, 'why not try this out?'"
The college junior began with what he know labels "a shitty recipe," and worked his way to a sweet, crispy treat that he test-marketed at a sales table on the Brown Green. "I was selling them," he said, "and Brown students kept asking me, 'Is this a non-profit? Are you raising awareness? Or funds to benefit society?' And I said, 'No, it's just a business!"
Rip Van Wafels is born
By his graduation in the spring of 2010, Pruisken had raised enough funds via Kickstarter, the novel Web-based funding mechanism to roll out production and distribute the cleverly named Rip Van Wafels cookies to a variety of local coffeehouses. Now, he's planning the move his operation into a bigger production facility and expand.
He's looking at more retail venues, creating an online store, and starting up a truck - likely named "The Rip Van Van."
And the former economics wonk couldn't be happier. "I gave up finance for cookies," he said. "This is my 100% occupation."
Rip Van Wafels are available at Providence locations including Blue State Coffee, Coffee Exchange, White Electric, The Edge, Coffee King, Cafe Zog, and Geoff's Sandwich Store.GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
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