Bizulu Opens Doors in Beverly

Bizulu, [http://www.bizulu.com] the online business-to-consumer auction platform that transforms social media into a new sales channel for merchants and brings great deals to consumers, officially opened its doors for business today at the Cummings Center in Beverly, MA. Beverly Mayor Bill Scanlon helped two Beverly natives, Patrick Gillis, founder, and Bizulu CEO Brendan Smith, officially cut the ribbon at Bizulu’s headquarters. 

“We’re excited that Bizulu.com is up and running and in its go live period,” said Smith. “We’re getting traction from local retailers interested in selling their products and services to an already loyal and captive audience – their Facebook friends and Twitter and YouTube followers. More importantly,” he added, “Bizulu is using this period to demonstrate the power of its fundraising capability by holding an auction for a good friend, Peter Frates.”  

Frates, a Beverly native, who was a three-sport athlete at St. John’s Prep in Danvers and played baseball at Boston College from 2004 to 2007, was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in March 2012. Bizulu will hold an online auction at www.bizulu.com/PeteFrates at 8:00 PM on September 30 that will feature over 30 items to benefit the Pete Frates #3 Fund, which helps subsidize Frates’s medical care and expenses not covered by health insurance.

“I’m thrilled that Brendan and his Bizulu partners decided to make Beverly their home. The energy that these young entrepreneurs bring to the City and their enthusiasm for success helps lift the economic atmosphere for everyone in the community,” said Mayor Scanlon. “And not only are they smart, they are also caring contributors who are helping to make a difference for Pete Frates, his family and all of the people who are affected by ALS. Bizulu’s efforts in this area are admirable,” Scanlon added.

Bizulu was founded in January 2011 by Smith, his brother Zach who is the user experience designer, and Gillis. For ten months they worked on a prototype of the auction website and launched Bizulu 1.0 – a beta site in October 2011. They then spent the next several months shopping the idea around to local and national tech entrepreneurs, industry leaders and venture capital funders. 

“Basically, we’d talk to anyone who’d listen to our pitch,” said Smith. “We knocked on a lot of doors, sat in a lot of lobbies and stalked every networking event we could in order to get feedback on the site and what would make it successful.” As a result of their efforts, Bizulu was named one of Boston Globe’s 10 startups worth watching, was invited to present at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s premier annual inNOWvation event and also was a Boston Biz Lab exhibitor.

Smith and company took the feedback they received and spent the majority of 2012 developing and building the site that launched in mid-September. According to Smith, the biggest changes from the beta site to the present format include direct sales from retailers to consumers and turning a business’s social media presence into an active and engaged audience that is alerted to, then shares and participates in live auctions via the Bizulu website.

For the retailer, the Bizulu site is totally customizable – including individual branding. Smith notes that operators have complete control of all sales, inventory, and minimum allowable sales price. “Basically the retailer gets to decide what to sell, when to sell it, as well as the reserve price – so they never have to take a loss,” said Smith. “Bizulu offers retailers a fun way to engage with their already loyal consumers who might not necessarily be ‘shopping’ at the moment, but will  react immediately to the chance to participate and compete in a sort of flash sale of items from one of their favorite retailers or brands.” 

Bizulu also gives charitable, nonprofit organizations (those with 501c3 status) and fundraisers for those organizations the opportunity to use its site free of charge to raise donations. The auction for Pete Frates is the first non-profit auction for the site. Some of the items to be auctioned include an autographed puck from Boston Bruins legend Bobby Orr and several signed bats from Major League Baseball stars such as Atlanta Braves future Hall of Famer, Chipper Jones and St. Louis Cardinal Matt Holiday. Other items range from rounds of golf at New England area courses to gift cards from local and national brands.

“We’re hoping Beverly and the whole North Shore community comes to Bizulu.com on Sunday, September 30^th at 8:00 PM to get some great deals while at the same time are helping Pete and his family,” said Smith. “We have the opportunity to make a real difference here – we’re confident that all of us together can make it happen."