Buy Geek – Teenormous T-shirt Search Engine Celebrates One Year!

Posted by 5x5 on September 8, 2009 under Geek Talk | Be the First to Comment

Teenormous.com

It all started when two guys from Raleigh, NC decided to create a t-shirt search engine to help people locate t-shirts they’d love. On August 28, 2008, Teenormous.com launched, opening its doors to t-shirt vendors and t-shirt connoisseur. One year later, Teenormous celebrated its one year anniversary with over 75,000 t-shirts listed in their directory!

They certainly have accomplished a lot in only one year. We thought we’d “drop in” and ask Tom Davies and Brian Pipa a few questions to find out more about them and their t-shirt search engine.

Crazy Like That: Tell us about where you’re from and where you live now. Any fun stories
along the way to share with our readers?

Brian: I’m from all over. My Dad was in the US Army so we moved a lot. I was born in Frankfurt, Germany even. I even lived on a dairy farm for two years in the Ozarks of Missouri. Right now, I am happily settled near
Raleigh, NC.

Tom: I am originally from sunny Palm Beach County, Florida.  Growing up there, everyone was always surprised that I was a native “Florida Cracker” since most of the population was transplants and snow birds. After my house was hit by several hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 I decided I was ready for a change of venue and made my way to the Raleigh, NC area in the summer of 2006.

Crazy Like That: Why did you decide to open a t-shirt search engine?

Brian: We’ve always loved tees and it seemed like something that if done right, could be super useful.

Tom: Brian and I tossed around a few ideas and t-shirts just seemed like a great choice.  There are a ton of great t-shirt merchants out there and we felt we could really fill a void by making it easy to shop for tees from all the best merchants in one place.

Crazy Like That: We noticed on your corporate website, http://brainyatom.com, you mention
having other Ruby on rails projects in the future. Is there anything in the works that you’re ready to share?

Brian: Not yet, but thanks for asking :)

Tom: Not just yet.  We are always brainstorming on new ideas but our primary focus in the near-term will be on growing and improving Teenormous.

Crazy Like That: How can other geeks support your efforts and help you turn a profit?

Brian: Easy – just drop by http://teenormous.com whenever you’re shopping for tees!

Tom: Just drop on by Teenormous.com and check out some t-shirts.

Crazy Like That: What’s your favorite t-shirt? (If you guys have a photo of yourselves
wearing your favorite ts, I’d love to include it in the post)

Brian: Ah man, no photo of me wearing any tees. I’ve got way too many tees and it’s hard to choose one… my 1993 Pearl Jam Reject tee, my Pac-Man ringer, my Toad The Wet Sprocket tee, etc etc

Tom: I tend to have a few favorites and wear them out and move on to new favorites.  My current rotation includes this Far Out Shirts and a DC Comics superhero tee.

Crazy Like That: When will the next Teenormous celebration take place? Will there be free
t-shirt give-a-ways again?

Brian: We just crossed 75,000 tees and one year of being live, so our next one will probably be at 100K. As for giveaways, yes, we’d love to partner with some tee sites and do giveaways all the time! We’re also going to have some Teenormous tees printed and use those for giveaways too.

Tom: I think Brian pretty much covered this.  We will be giving away lot’s of tees in the future on an ongoing basis.

Crazy Like That: What have you learned about running Teenormous that’s going to guide what
you do next?

Brian: MANY things… I think customer service is very big. I think we’ve done a great job keeping our merchants and our users happy and showing we are not some big corporation but just two guys doing the best we can.

Tom: I’d say one big thing we’ve learned is how to prioritize what’s important to keep a site growing and at the same time focused.  Since we both have day jobs, we’ve really had to be selective on what new features we roll into the site and where we allocate time.  In addition, as Brian said we really put a strong emphasis on customer service.  We try to give every visitor and merchant a personalized first-class experience whenever we interact with them and it has really paid off.

You can follow Teenormous on Twitter at @teenormous. Be sure to check out their Pirate t-shirt list in preparation for Talk Like A Pirate Day, September 19th.