Three Answers: Luke Skurman

by Dick Donahue, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 1/30/2006

Three Answers today are from Luke Skurman, president and CEO of College Prowler, the Pittsburgh-based college guide publisher.

PW: You were recently selected by Business Week as one of the country's top 20 entrepreneurs under 25. How did that happen?

LS: Business Week had an online calling for entries and one of my former professors at Carnegie Mellon saw the posting and told me about it. That professor e-mailed another professor of mine—the director of Carnegie Mellon's entrepreneurship program—who asked me if I'd mind if he nominated me. A month later I had a phone interview with Business Week and two weeks after that I made the list. It all happened pretty quickly. I was ecstatic. I certainly didn't think of myself in that light, and to be recognized by a major media outlet like Business Week was a tremendous validation of everything College Prowler has accomplished in the last three and a half years.

PW: What makes College Prowler different from all the other, more established guides?

LS: There are basically three main differentiators with our product. First and foremost, we do just one book on one school; the book on Harvard is about only Harvard, etc. Each book averages 160 pages in length and is very in-depth, covering the 20 most important topics to both students and parents—everything from academics to dining to diversity to computer departments. The books really tell it like it is. Number two is the fact that it's a by-students-for-students methodology. We hire student authors, students are surveyed, students are editing the books. The entire process is in the hands of students and recent graduates, so it's an extremely authentic product. Number three, it's a "quote-based" product: about 70% of the fuel in the books is quotes from students, both positive and negative.

PW: Given College Prowler's success thus far, are you concerned about copycats?

LS: There's definitely a chance for competition; we realize that. There may well be imitators—there's no patent, there’s nothing that can protect us, from an intellectual perspective. What's in our favor right now is that we have a hell of a lead: we have 210 books; we have built a brand name; students, parents and guidance counselors love what we're doing. If somebody wants to come after us they're going to have to work very hard.