At the start of each semester, the frenzy to buy and sell textbooks, find the cheapest prices and earn some money back on books is inevitable. And despite the purchases, sometimes textbooks still find a cozy spot in students’ closets, collecting dust until the day before exams. After living through the problem, Mike Shannon, Kasey Gandham and Nick Currier decided to do something about it.

They created Packback, a company that allows students to rent books for 24-hour periods of time. Flash-forward two years, and the company is being featured on ABC’s Emmy-nominated show, “Shark Tank,” on Friday at 8 p.m.

Packback began when the cofounders, who were Illinois State University students, entered the Illinois State University business model competition and created a business plan they wanted to pursue. They had one uniform issue they agreed on and had expertise in: the textbook purchasing cycle.

By searching for a textbook’s ISBN code on the Packback website, a student can see a compilation of 20 to 30 online retailers’ listings to buy and sell. For $5 per day, a student can rent the digital version; however, if the course requires extended daily use, a student can purchase the ebook for the entire semester. When selling, a user can choose to sell his or her books through the listed retailers or through Packback’s guaranteed highest found price.

“What we’re pursuing at the core is to allow students to really hold off on buying anything,” Shannon, cofounder of Packback, said. “Not have to spend all the summer savings in the first week or two of class. Rent for a day at a time, in digital format, and feel out each individual professor’s course.”

Shannon, along with his other cofounders, won the competition with this business model. While they received positive feedback from noteworthy investors, they were also told the model was too capital-intensive. It would take too long to get content from publishing companies and it would be tough to carry out. Nonetheless, they began cold-calling entrepreneurs and financial investors.

One day, the team happened to call the president of McGraw-Hill Education, Brian Kibby. Kibby liked their idea and spent two days on campus, offering the students advice and opening doors for them in the publishing industry.

The team continued to build up their network over the past two years and raised over half a million dollars in seed capital from Chicago-based angel investors. Packback executed a pilot with a few publishers and is now expanding to campuses across the nation, including the university.

“The idea of being able to just rent the book for 24 hours not only saves you money, but I feel like because there is a time restriction on it, it also gives students an incentive to study, rather than procrastinating, like most people do,” Anthony Giannini, lead campus ambassador for Packback at the University and junior in Business, said.

Though Packback reached the campus only about three weeks ago, Giannini is contacting various organizations to spread awareness and introduce groups to Packback’s promotional period. Currently, the company will share revenue for every book an organization sells through Packback to help with fundraisers and philanthropic events.

There is strong representation of Packback on about 30 college campuses, but the company plans to rapidly increase once the “Shark Tank” episode airs nationwide.

“I remember when I got the phone call I was just shaking,” Kim Boehm, campus marketing manager and senior at Illinois State University, said. “It’s going to be amazing for us. Not only will it gain exposure for Packback and get some more publishers on board and get more books, which will then help more students save money, but it’ll also be a great asset for these brand ambassadors on their resume.”

Boehm leaves Bloomington every Friday for Chicago, where the company is currently headquartered, to meet with brand ambassadors, hash out any problems and participate in conference calls with different executives.

Since graduating, Shannon works full-time with Packback. He said student entrepreneurs, however, have a particular advantage over other age groups.

“It’s the fact that you’re a young, gritty, aspiring entrepreneur, and if you call up, say, a president of a company — not necessarily one you’re trying to work with, but just someone you’re looking to get advice from — it’s a good position to be in to say, ‘Hey, I’m a student, I’m trying to do this big thing, will you give me 15 minutes to give me some advice?’” Shannon said. “If we were 30, I don’t think we could’ve opened some of the doors we opened strictly because people thought it was cool a couple college kids were trying to accomplish something and build a real solution.”

This was exactly the viewpoint of one of the producers at “Shark Tank” when Packback applied to be on the show. In a pool of 45,000 applicants, Packback was attractive to the show because a large segment of its viewing audience is college students.

“We actually got a call from a producer and she said, ‘I picked you guys out because I saw your application and your video, and I thought, ‘Man, I needed this in college,’” Shannon said. “We’re providing a solution that I think resonates with a lot of people that have been through college.”

On Friday at 7:30 p.m., Packback will be hosting a viewing party and networking event at 1871, a Chicago entrepreneurial hub for digital start-ups located on the 12th floor of Merchandise Mart. Shannon and Gandham will do a fireside chat after the show airs and talk more about the company and the “Shark Tank” experience.

Alice can be reached at [email protected].