The opportunity that I identified is the need for students to have a place to go to find the best-priced textbooks and even sell their old textbooks.
The Who: UF Students
The What: They are unable to find the most affordable textbooks that they need
The Why: There are so many different websites that sell books and different Facebook pages, it is hard to check all of them
I think this could potentially be used for other schools as well as all college students have this problem so maybe later there would be an option to enter your college so the app could show you only the opportunities at your school.
I do know that some textbooks have to be purchased through the school so we could get specific codes for assignment. So this idea would not work for every single class
I am sure that all of the students might think this problem is because the publishers simply use access codes to make students buy the newest version of the textbooks.
I found that most of the answers I got from the interviews were very similar. They all seemed to like the idea of the app and agreed that finding affordable textbooks is a real problem that they have. Some brought up a good point of students finding free pdfs of the textbooks online. Some thought that another solution might be to reach out to publishers and try to convince them to sell access codes separately so that students can just buy them without the textbook and then they can find cheaper versions of the textbook.
Dear Maria,
ReplyDeleteI think you have a really intriguing opportunity and an interesting hypothesis. I think there is definitely unmet potential that can be eplored. Specifically, helping college students find the most affordable textbooks that they need has a prominent market and real value. And, this is definitely an unmet need that would be the solution to a lot of students' problems when it comes to affording textbooks.
Hey Maria,
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a great idea! There are some things that exist in this nature but I believe that making it even better is what entrepreneurship is all about! I do think, however, that it's hard to create revenue on things like apps. If you were to have the app cost money, a lot of people might not buy it, and with the use of ads, a lot of people might not want to use it. While it's a great idea (really, I'd use it), I think it's important to think about all factors here. What if someone made one dominant facebook page and advertised it on campus? Things to think about! But I really like your idea and I would love to see it happen. Great job!
I feel like this is definitely an opportunity that exists that you could greatly capitalize on. I currently have a lot of textbooks that are just sitting in my closet that I would love to get money for, but the UF bookstore either will not buy them or offers little money for them. I tried eBay but had no luck with it. I feel like a dedicated app for this marketed towards college kids would be very helpful.
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