For many, a love of books – reading them and talking about them – seems incompatible with the digital world we live in today.
But that just sounded like a problem looking for a solution to three MBA students at Cal State Long Beach. Elias Babaalian-Morales, Jaelyn Gutierrez and Nathen Deo became friends talking about how they might be able to take book clubs online with an app of their own.
That was in 2021. The founders announced BookBase was available on Sept. 18, 2024, and the app is now on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
“We met at the MBA program at CSULB and started talking about creating content,” Elias said. “Reading books was a common denominator, but so much is digital these days.”
The discussion turned into a proposal to develop a smartphone application to promote reading and book discussions. The trio were aware of the Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, a university-wide program designed to promote and assist entrepreneurial endeavors.
“We were asked to participate in the Apostle Incubator and the Apostle (Business Ideation) Challenge (in 2022),” Elias, now the CEO of BookBase, said. “We ended up getting first place. We won $2,500.”
Nathen, the COO and content curator, said the BookBase app is designed to connect people interested in talking about books, guide those looking for book recommendations and help moderate specific book clubs.
“I came to reading pretty late,” Nathen said. “That might be why I’m passionate about it. I’m sort of looking for a job in the book industry, but I’m spending a lot of time on BookBase. I’m focusing on my passion; I’m kind of betting on it.”
All three co-founders say most of their time is dedicated to their company. Most of their resources are too – they do not have any outside investors.
“So far we are bootstrapping it,” Elias said. “The pitch competition winnings were a start.”
BookBase came in first in 2023 at the Sunstone Innovation Challenge at CSULB, winning $15,000 and a suite of in-kind services, including legal advice. Sunstone sponsors the challenge through its Sunstone Community Fund, a donor-advised fund.
This spring, BookBase competed in the Sunstone CSU Startup Launch Competition, which includes startup teams from all the campuses in the California State University system. BookBase was a finalist there, earning another $5,000.
“We spent a chunk of that money on the name registration,” Jaelyn said. “We originally were BookBound and, using the in-kind legal help (part of the prize for winning the pitch contest), thought we were close to registering (the name). Then we found out another BookBound had already registered. So we had to change the name. The in-kind helped a lot, but there were still a lot of fees and other expenses, just on the name.”
To reinforce the fact that starting a new business is anything but smooth, Elias said the first app developer they hired, a company working out of India, procrastinated, then came up with an underperforming product. The $6,000 paid to them was written off, and a single engineer working in Virginia has built the BookBase app.
“I don’t think we could have done this without winning the pitch contests and the prize money,” Elias said. “That gave us confidence in our idea as well as the money to get started.”
With the app only 45 days old, there is precious little revenue from subscriptions. But more than 100 users are already on the free version of the app. Jaelyn said that fleshing out the website and app with more offerings will help drive traffic, subscriptions and revenue.
“In the future we’d like to work more with influencers,” she said. “We’d really like to collaborate with authors. Wouldn’t it be great if we could host author-reader chats?”
“We want to promote reading in general,” Nathen added.
BookBase is online at bookbaseapp.com.
©Sunstone Management, 2024
Disclaimer: Neither Sunstone Management nor the funds represented by Sunstone Advisors, LLC has any financial stake in BookBase.
About Sunstone Community Fund
The Sunstone Community Fund is a key nonprofit component of the Sunstone Management vision to advance public benefit programs that support the development of inclusive and vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems. A Donor Advised Fund managed by the National Philanthropic Trust, the SCF supports a network of universities, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies that develop and implement entrepreneurship programs, early-stage tech accelerators, and advance local economic development.
About Sunstone Management
Sunstone Management is a diversified private capital management firm with headquarters in Southern California that provides a range of early-stage venture capital, real estate, and fixed income funds to qualified and accredited investors. The firm delivers new and exciting options for economic growth through innovative public-private partnerships, making use of its unique experience across government, education, and private sectors. Identified by Financial Times as one of America’s Fastest Growing Companies three years in a row. In the second quarter of 2023, PitchBook ranked Sunstone the seventh most active early-stage venture capital firm in the country, and 18th overall.
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