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• Rejected Street Reviews

This Issue 03/18/2004

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• Anthony Cotton
• Standing Ovation
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Seth Berkowitz and Jared Barnett have been best buddies ever since freshman year. Little did these pals know that their friendship would blossom into the thriving and divinely tasty Insomnia Cookies.

What first drew you guys to the cookie industry? Are you both really big fans of the cookie?

Seth: I started it my first semester of junior year, just to take up some extra time. It started off fairly quickly, and Jared and I teamed up last summer because there was no way I could do it alone. It's way too much work.

But why the cookie in particular? Do you both enjoy baking a great deal?

Jared: It's not that we're so into baking, it's that we're really into business. I mean, of course the product is really, really good, but it's the service that we offer that's so successful.

Are you both in Wharton?

Jared: Actually, neither of us is in Wharton. We're both in the College .... He's an Econ major, and I'm a history major.

That's very surprising. I would have assumed that you'd both be in Wharton.

Seth: Wharton is a great business school and all that, but the best way to learn about business is just to do it. Running a delivery business like ours has absolutely nothing to do with finance.

Jared: It's a whole other ball game.

Seth: A whole other ball game.

Are you sure there are no Wharton grad school plans ahead?

Jared: Since our business is such a successful concept, we pretty much are only thinking about expansion as post-grad plans right now. We work 16-hour days, and during the time we're not working, we're probably asleep.

Does anyone help you guys with the work?

Seth: We hired a full-time staff who work for us right now so we don't have to deal with the baking or anything like that. But we're still in there every night focusing on expansion and trying to get support from investors.

So if I woke up tonight at like five in the morning and really wanted a cookie, would I be able to order one from you?

Seth: Not at five. We're open 'til 2 a.m. on weekdays, because people don't generally call later than that, but on weekends we stay open 'til 4 a.m.

Are there any crazy stories from your delivery days?

Seth: When I used to deliver, I would get invited in a lot to hang out. That was pretty standard. There are situations when people just don't show up and our delivery guys can't get into the Quad or the high rises. Since I'm a student and I have an ID card, I'll just go up to their door and demand the money. Once we've prepared the cookies, put them in the oven and sent a delivery guy over, we don't love to set a precedent where you can just skimp out.

Have there ever been any big confrontations or scandals about non-payment for cookies?