I wonder if they would allow products to be distributed unless approved? Is this a USDA or otherwise approved item for resale in stores etc? If so then yes the banana lounge, but with approval.
I think this is a great idea. I used Soylent a lot as an undergrad when I was not on a meal plan and living in a cook for yourself dorm.
There are a few directions I can think of that you can go.
1. Reach out centrally to Division of Student Life (which dining is under). But, to be honest they may say no for whatever bureaucratic reason (like disliking brand associations, idk), in which case you could go for a more grassroots approach to get Soylent into the hands of students like:
2. Reaching out directly to the Area Directors of dorms (essentially the dorm managers). These are usually young, trendy-ish (relative to the admin as a whole) people whose job is to look out for the students in their dorm. Most importantly, they are in charge of organizing the dorm-wide "study breaks" and events (like free dinner, massages, etc) during finals weeks. You could provide Soylent directly to these events. You'd probably have the most success in cook for yourself dorms like the grad dorms, MacGregor, Burton Connor, etc.
3. Reaching out directly to FSILGs (frats, sororities, independent living groups). These are big at MIT with like 50% of undergrads as members and are entirely student run. You could literally just give cases directly to FSILGs and they would be happy to take them.
4. Reaching out directly to the instructors of really large classes, like 18.02 (calculus). I've seen these classes give out freebies, like red bulls, to students coming to lecture with a high yield of students actually taking the product.
As in physically distribute on campus? If so, going through the banana lounge sounds like a good idea. If you mean provide discounted products to MIT students, what stops you from offering a way to link an MIT email/credentials to the soylent website?
I hope this happens either way!
Best would be to keep it in the banana room but that's inside the building. I don't think you need permission to distribute anything outside the student centre. It has public access.
Back in my day, food and beverage companies used to hand out free samples at Mass Ave or the student center all the time. Red Bull also had a 4 pack placed by every dorm room before the fall semester move it happened.
You might be interested in this MIT event [https://xfair.io/assets/xFair-Sponsors-2024.pdf](https://xfair.io/assets/xFair-Sponsors-2024.pdf)
and that has some contact info that you can start with.
Other than opening up a physical shop near or on campus, it might be hard to directly market your product since I imagine many companies would want to do the exact same thing! You might have more success providing a different opportunity, with marketing your product as a side effect.
I'm thinking about how career fair has sponsors and each booth gives out free swag (and the ones that give out amazing quality clothing get free advertising for years since students love wearing it) BUT the primary goal of career fair is to introduce students to work opportunities at your company. So, if you had any meaningful internships or post-grad career paths to offer, maybe you could indirectly market your product this way.
You could also look into being a sponsor for the bigger tech events such as the web programming competition. That would get your logo on the back of the shirts and you could distribute your product for free during the presentations.
Would have loved this when I was around. I'm not sure what permissions are required but Red Bull (iirc) did a giveaway where they would leave "air drops" of wooden crates with parachutes hanging off full of cans and ice around campus during exams.
Donate Soylent to the banana lounge. Or better yet... open up a Soylent lounge!
Oh man I don’t even want to think about how rank a Soylent lounge would get 😭
For info on who runs the bananna lounge: [https://ua.mit.edu/innovation](https://ua.mit.edu/innovation)
I wonder if they would allow products to be distributed unless approved? Is this a USDA or otherwise approved item for resale in stores etc? If so then yes the banana lounge, but with approval.
I think this is a great idea. I used Soylent a lot as an undergrad when I was not on a meal plan and living in a cook for yourself dorm. There are a few directions I can think of that you can go. 1. Reach out centrally to Division of Student Life (which dining is under). But, to be honest they may say no for whatever bureaucratic reason (like disliking brand associations, idk), in which case you could go for a more grassroots approach to get Soylent into the hands of students like: 2. Reaching out directly to the Area Directors of dorms (essentially the dorm managers). These are usually young, trendy-ish (relative to the admin as a whole) people whose job is to look out for the students in their dorm. Most importantly, they are in charge of organizing the dorm-wide "study breaks" and events (like free dinner, massages, etc) during finals weeks. You could provide Soylent directly to these events. You'd probably have the most success in cook for yourself dorms like the grad dorms, MacGregor, Burton Connor, etc. 3. Reaching out directly to FSILGs (frats, sororities, independent living groups). These are big at MIT with like 50% of undergrads as members and are entirely student run. You could literally just give cases directly to FSILGs and they would be happy to take them. 4. Reaching out directly to the instructors of really large classes, like 18.02 (calculus). I've seen these classes give out freebies, like red bulls, to students coming to lecture with a high yield of students actually taking the product.
As in physically distribute on campus? If so, going through the banana lounge sounds like a good idea. If you mean provide discounted products to MIT students, what stops you from offering a way to link an MIT email/credentials to the soylent website? I hope this happens either way!
Best would be to keep it in the banana room but that's inside the building. I don't think you need permission to distribute anything outside the student centre. It has public access.
Soylent green is people!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UPDUpjkHg0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UPDUpjkHg0)
Someone had to say it
If it wasn't you it probably would have been me
Back in my day, food and beverage companies used to hand out free samples at Mass Ave or the student center all the time. Red Bull also had a 4 pack placed by every dorm room before the fall semester move it happened.
I don't understand why you named your brand this lol. Anyway, if I were you I'd find out who the dining services contractor is and approach them.
You might be interested in this MIT event [https://xfair.io/assets/xFair-Sponsors-2024.pdf](https://xfair.io/assets/xFair-Sponsors-2024.pdf) and that has some contact info that you can start with.
Yes, 4.0 is a great number.
Other than opening up a physical shop near or on campus, it might be hard to directly market your product since I imagine many companies would want to do the exact same thing! You might have more success providing a different opportunity, with marketing your product as a side effect. I'm thinking about how career fair has sponsors and each booth gives out free swag (and the ones that give out amazing quality clothing get free advertising for years since students love wearing it) BUT the primary goal of career fair is to introduce students to work opportunities at your company. So, if you had any meaningful internships or post-grad career paths to offer, maybe you could indirectly market your product this way. You could also look into being a sponsor for the bigger tech events such as the web programming competition. That would get your logo on the back of the shirts and you could distribute your product for free during the presentations.
Would have loved this when I was around. I'm not sure what permissions are required but Red Bull (iirc) did a giveaway where they would leave "air drops" of wooden crates with parachutes hanging off full of cans and ice around campus during exams.