The Story
My name is Chase Turnof, and I am the Founder of College Bling Bottles™ LLC. At age 15, I started my company in late 2019 when I was looking for a gift for my sister to celebrate her college acceptance. I had seen blinged-out bottles on social media featuring college "bed parties," but I did not know where to order one. After long research, I discovered that most people were crafting these bottles themselves and for friends, and the retail market was small and fragmented, and primarily through Instagram. Also many people found it difficult to find the supplies to create a bottle. We wanted to offer customers a place to buy beautiful, high quality, custom bottles online. I had always been an artistic and crafty person, which is what drove me to start a business around craftsmanship. I soon uploaded my first product to Etsy, supported by social media, and it blew up; everyone was purchasing these bottles for their milestones.
I started with a college collection of bottles, where the name "College Bling Bottles" originates, although we have expanded into many occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, corporate gifts, and more. We have even done special edition bottles for beverage companies. We have also expanded our product line to many other glassware items. We are so proud to have the opportunity to collaborate with Hampton Water Rose and Martinelli’s, releasing limited edition bottles with hand-drawn designs by a local artist and rolling out candy tackle boxes with our confectionery partner.
Fueled by our social media presence, we have created a trend, and today, a blinged-out bottle is a must-have when celebrating your acceptance or any occasion. In 2023, we launched our e-commerce website on top of our Etsy platform, as we saw people searching for our items everywhere. Our business is continuously growing, and we have some huge milestones we've been proud of, such as being on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and being featured in Yahoo Entertainment & Bravo TV.
Today, I am a student at Tulane University, studying marketing at the Freeman School of Business, and I am still running my business with excitement.
We can't wait to see what CBB does in the future,
Chase Turnof