Alumni tout 'thesis crisis center' for seniors in a bind

In the final days before Richard Allan ’02 had to hand in his molecular biology senior thesis, he was much more concerned with the information within the pages than with getting the pages themselves bound. Still, he had to make a quick decision. Should he go to Smith-Shattuck, Triangle ReproCenter or Pequod?

"It was a stressful time. I blocked out a lot of the experience,” Allan said. “I chose whichever was the most convenient. The location of Pequod was very convenient.”

Aside from its attractive U-Store location, Pequod is the only area copy center that boasts Princeton alumni as its founders. Though it was established in 1989 by nine Princeton students from the classes of 1990, ’91 and ’92, James Robertson ’91 and Andre Liu ’91 are the only two founders still working in the company.

The Pequod website jokes that all but Liu and Robertson “survived to go onto productive, meaningful lives.”

For all nine founders, though, starting Pequod — 30 to 35 percent of whose business comes from University services — was a natural response to their own experiences writing their independent work.

“Some of the students in the group were seniors and were going through the experience at the time,” Liu said. “We thought, ‘Who would know this better than us?’ ”

That thought is what launched their business, which expanded from a small textbook agency into a copy and print center that now services New Brunswick, South Jersey and Philadelphia, in addition to its home base in Princeton. Nearly 20 years later, Liu and Robertson have added peripheral services for seniors in need.

“We see ourselves as almost a thesis crisis center,” Liu said, “... extending the hours so that we’re [open] 24 hours, having drivers lined up to take students to their departments when they come in at the very last minute.”

Liu said that Pequod has bound a thesis in as little as seven minutes. “There’s always excitement and drama on the last day,” he added. “I don’t think that will ever change.”

One thing that has changed over the years is the variety of services the company offers to students.

“We started offering the standard services — copying, binding,” Liu said. “We did everything in house, and it’s grown. Every year that we service seniors we learn something new and we try to modify the business.”

Some significant improvements to thesis binding, such as replacing hand-stamping with digital gold-stamping, have been facilitated by the internet.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“The biggest and most obvious change is the attempt to automate the submission process via web,” Robertson said. “I remember the old days versus the new days, so to speak. It’s amazing the degree to which that has streamlined the process.”

Though Pequod is an outside vendor that pays rent to the University for space in the U-Store, the relationship is mutually beneficial. “[The U-Store is] happy with the traffic we bring in mostly during packet season and ... thesis season,” Liu said.

With the U-Store undergoing renovations and textbooks moving to Labyrinth, Liu predicts that Pequod will move to the second floor of the U-Store “after this thesis-season period and [when] it gets a little quieter before graduation.”

In addition to its focus on seniors, Liu also considers the ages of Pequod staff members an advantage. “We’re younger, and we’re very technology-helpful,” he said.

After a meeting on March 18 during which representatives from Smith-Shattuck, Triangle ReproCenter and Pequod gave presentations, Arthi Ramachandran ’08 said that she appreciates Pequod’s more relatable approach.

“They definitely know how to speak to students in a more effective way [than the other companies],” she said. “They know how to speak in student lingo.”

Seniors with other factors to consider usually opt for a different company. Scott Allan ’07, who got his thesis bound with Smith-Shattuck, said, “I was in L.A. at the time, and they were very helpful walking me through the process.”

For the founders of Pequod, one of the most rewarding aspects of operating the business is the connection it provides to the University. “It’s fun — we connect with the students a lot every spring,” Liu said. “The part of Pequod that deals with the campus business is kind of like a labor of love for us.”

“I don’t think Jim and I will ever want to get out of the business unless someone makes us,” Liu added.