On college campuses nationwide, three words echo off the walls of frat houses, neighboring dives and dimly-lit dorm rooms: "Sorry for Partying." The phrase succinctly summarizes the aftermath of a forgotten Friday or sloppy Sunday, and is being commercialized out of an East Cambridge bedroom.
After Andy Mitchelides graduated from Miami University in Ohio, he shipped up to Boston and was met by the brand Life is good. Although a promoter of good vibes, the brand didn't resonate with the newly-conferred grad.
"I was spending more time day drinking and playing beer pong than hiking and camping," Mitchelides said, blatantly unapologetic. So, he decided to design a T-shirt company that would better reflect his mentality, and smartly slapped six federally-registered trademarks on the saying, "Sorry for Partying."
Flash forward five years, and what started as a simple T-shirt company has evolved into a lifestyle brand boasting more than 43,000 Facebook fans and nearly 5,000 Twitter followers — all without any marketing dollars spent or outside funding contributed. The startup's top post, of a boozed-up, box-surfing partygoer, attracted over 75,000 Likes in less than 24 hours.
Mitchelides spends his nights and weekends building the Sorry for Partying brand alongside two others, reserving his days for electronic paper displays provider E Ink, where he serves as a business development and product manager.
"We've accomplished a lot with not really anything," Mitchelides explained. Over the years, the team has opted not to chase after capital, primarily so they could continue making the best choices for the brand, without needing to compromise when it comes to evaluating partnerships or marketing decisions. "When you have access to capital, you're in a different position financially to make decisions," Mitchelides added.
Imagine what an investor's response would be to hearing a portfolio company say, "Sorry for partying."
In an effort to build the brand's buzz, Mitchelides said they started hiring student writers to create BuzzFeed-like content for the company's website. Although the site saw "strong" analytics, there was one problem: "Our fans don't need to read about how to party," Mitchelides said. "They're reinventing what it means to party."
But, like any startup, every time the company has been successful, it's also failed nine times, according to Mitchelides. The team's new Sorry for Partying iPhone app, however, released publicly this week, he has a good feeling will be a viral hit. After all, how else can you explain something that's being described as, "Text From Last Night meets Instagram?"
With the app, college students can share their most ridiculous photos anonymously — no login required. They're also able to browse and view other posts by popularity or the most recent, vote for the best and then share images via Facebook, Twitter, email or text.
"There's a lot of content that exists on phones that doesn't exist on Facebook or Instagram," Mitchelides said. Pointing to the Tumblr Rich Kids of Instagram, he added, "There's definitely an opportunity to be focusing on this niche level of content."
Mitchelides acknowledged that even he doesn't know who's posting on the Sorry for Partying app. The team has, however, put a "pretty robust" report system in place, so that users are able to flag any content they deem inappropriate, whether because a photo was taken without permission, copyrighted or features an explicit act. One week in, though, and the app is being downloaded roughly 50 times a day — without a marketing budget.
The company does have plans to roll out an Android app, as well as introduce new features. Currently, all photos are geotagged, so Sorry for Partying knows where the content is coming from. Moving forward, however, the team plans on using those analytics to refine how other brands market to college students. As Mitchelides said, "We can tell what truly is the biggest party school in the U.S." based on where the photos are being taken, and how often those photos are viewed, shared and rated.
"Anonymous is big opportunity for us," Mitchelides admitted.
Just take a look at what's going on over at UMass. They likely wouldn't disagree.
