@2/27/2022
Describe your project in one sentence
30 word limit
Campus will gather university students, faculty, staff, alumni, high school students, and businesses targeting university community into one platform and hence information, so they do not need to wander around multiple platforms.
Problem & Market: What problem are you solving, and who experiences this problem?
100 word limit
Old answer
Current online platforms have poor UI/UX, do not verify users, do not manage community quality, and do not have the features students really want, so there is no online platform where all students of the university are successfully gathered.
That is why companies targeting university students cannot effectively advertise their products directly to students although they heavily rely on university community, and universities cannot constantly and easily follow the opinions of the majority of students.
How would you describe this problem if you were talking to a prospective customer?
30 word limit
Aren't you annoying that you have no place or have to download so many apps to ask questions, to find sublets, to get recommendations, or to do something directly to your university students?
Solution: How do you plan to solve this problem?
100 word limit
To gather students, Campus has multiple boards that have better UI/UX than existing services by adding filter, and features such as
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co-op questions
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academic questions
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random posts
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open building door
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sell & buy used
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rate restaurants
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rate courses
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find sublet
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user-created board (e.g. Math club)
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sharing my location on campus
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sharing timetable
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finding remained spots in library
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providing residence menu
Campus will only accept users who have valid school emails and only users from the same university can communicate with each other; each university would have each board. Users who do not have school email would have limited access and authority. Partnering with university will improve credibility and awareness and allow more features. Once it gathered most students, now Campus can provide sufficient place to businesses and university. Businesses and university would have customizable board, gift card, and ads to connect with students.
What is the most tangible evidence you have that customers will pay for your solution
100 word limit
Note that as this is a multisided platform university students are consumers who don’t pay while businesses targeting university community are customers as they pay my service for Ads (CPC or CPM) and gift card commission fee.
In Korea, there is a similar social platform only for university students - www.everytime.kr - partnered with over 400 universities and having over 4.5 M users. It is the most used app by Koreans in their 20s.
According to the research, local restaurants or small businesses in college towns heavily rely on university and hence they mostly advertise to students. Even major corporations want to connect with university students as they could be their first and long-term customers.
Users are already using other platforms: 81K r/uwaterloo Reddit users, 66K Student Housing Facebook Group.
Progress: List what you've done so far to move your idea forward. This can include customers acquired, partnerships formed, prototypes developed, pilot tests conducted, apps/websites built or launched, and any other meaningful progress. If you haven't reached any of those milestones yet, that's okay! Just list the steps you've taken towards achieving them.
100 word limit
Jan 2020
My first MVP: https://github.com/minjaelee0727/college
Oct 2021
Participated first Concept $5K pitch competition and got feedback from Concept Advisor
Working on enhancing MVP: https://github.com/minjaelee0727/college-uw
Jan 2022 ~
Taking BET 300 to establish and to shape my venture idea as follow:
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having a 1-1 session with advisors and alumni every week
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embodying my problem and idea by creating BMC, Lean Canvas, and so on
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participating pitch competitions such as Quantum Vally Investments
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researching my problem space and market with UW librarian
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conduct own original research (survey) through on-my-own and UWaterloo survey research centre
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getting feedback on my problem regularly from multiple advisors and friends in BET 300
