Here we have an interview with Boris Blinderman the founder of TextBreak.com, a new textbook service for students. Be sure to head over to their site and see what they’re all about.

Hey Boris, can you tell us a little about yourself?

I am a 22 year old senior at DePaul University student majoring in Management with concentration in Entrepreneurship.

My experience is based on my observations and real-life experiences throughout my life.  I have worked at jobs like Starbucks, Hollister, and call centers, but none of the jobs gave me truly valuable experience.  My most valuable experience has been from the working on Textbreak for the last year and five months.  I am the CEO/Founder of Textbreak.com a social networking site for college students to locally exchange their textbooks with each other.  I have learned how to bootstrap my way from idea to having a site with 250+ users and 1200+ fans on Facebook.  I also have managed 5 different developers through emails, phone conversations, skype, etc, working through Elance.com and PayPal.  I have found a qualified team consisting of a developer, a paralegal, and a project manager.  I have managed to create a potentially successful business at the age of 22.

Besides Textbreak my true experiences lies in understanding people.  This valuable asset allows my creative vision to take great ideas and join my understanding/experience of/with people, splice them together, and create new valuable innovative ideas; potentially successful businesses.  I am personable and capable of speaking in front of, or with, any audience.  I have endless ambition and excellent concentration with a creative touch, working solely towards success.

Can you describe this new service for students?

Textbreak is a free social networking site for college students to locally buy, sell, and trade their books with each other.  Right now users are able to sign up via Facebook Connect, post books, search for books, send messages, and meet up locally.  When the seller enters in the ISBN-10, Textbreak auto-fills the title, author, edition, and displays the picture of the book. The search displays the cheapest price books, most relevant, which specific college, and by most recent posting date.  Students can contact the seller directly by clicking “Contact Seller”.  The students can execute the exchange locally, saving time and most likely a significant amount of money.

What prompted you to start TextBreak?

Students would post their books on school bulletin boards and I was extremely confused why there wasn’t a prominent website for students to list and resell books locally, rather than printing out a list of books, getting it approved by your school, and listing them.

Textbooks are just too expensive, waiting for books to ship is overrated, and textbooks don’t retain their value at local bookstores.

I found that there wasn’t a lot of direct competition, listing books online and connecting with peers to exchange locally, so I started coming up with a series of valuable ideas that kept building off of each other.  I felt there was a huge opportunity and I felt compelled to go for it.

About half a year ago I joined the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center @ DePaul University where I have been working directly with the Associate Director April Lane.  She has helped me help myself, guiding me in the right direction and connecting me with the rightpeople.

What makes TextBreak different from other websites that allow students to sell their textbooks?

Facebook Connect: Textbreak offers Facebook Connect, allowing students to sign up and login with their Facebook credentials.  After they have signed up, every time they go to Textbreak and they are signed into Facebook, Textbreak will recognize this and automatically login the user to their account.

Auto-fill in feature: When a student is selling their book and enters in the book’s ISBN-10, Textbreak will automatically fill in the title, author, edition, and the display the picture of the book for the student’s convenience. Students set their own prices.  So, rather than bookstores setting the buy-back prices at most 10% of the listing price and sometimes they don’t even take the book back.  Other websites allow you to sell your books, but they require you to go to a post office and ship them.  Since students price their own books they are much more affordable.

Local: Students can browse through books sorted by the university, posting date, and most importantly by price.  Simply by clicking “Contact Seller” students can connect with each other, meet up locally to receive their book immediately and avoid waiting on shipping.  There isn’t a reason to wait for books while students need them now.  There isn’t a reason to go to the bookstore.  Simply contact a user and meet up, maybe even get to know somebody.

As TextBreak continues to grow, what are your plans for the future?

The current Alpha version of Textbreak is just the beginning.  We plan on deploying the Beta version which will include Facebook connect (one-click sign up), a suggestive price point (while selling), the cheapest prices from all online bookstores (while buying), automatically connecting students with each other with the best transaction from the used and needed books they list, and students will also be able to sell their textbooks in combination with their class notes.

We also plan on deploying an iPhone application where you can simply take the picture of the cover of your textbook and Textbreak will auto-fill in the book’s information and posts it after the student sets the price and condition.

We also are planning on launching our Affiliate Partner Program.  Individuals will be provided a link when they sign up for Textbreak.  If they share the link with their friends and they get a person to sign up and post-trial period to transact once we, will give them $1 per person, in hopes to incentivize students to pass along the message of Textbreak.

We want to be recognized as the future of textbook exchange.  The 2.0 of exchanging textbooks.  “This is the way it should have been all along.”  I want people to think about how much money and time they can save and make with Textbreak.

Our marketing efforts are focused mainly on Chicago-land based colleges.  We plan on expanding nation-wide as soon as possible.

Anything else you would like to add?

Textbreak is recruiting interns: Marketing, PR, and General Operations from all schools to spread the word and build the brand. If you are interested please email Info @ Textbreak.com with your resume and include your reason of interest in Textbreak.